Crusade: Destroyermen, Book 2

Anderson raises the stakes for Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Reddy and the crew of the USS Walker in this dramatic sequel to 2008’s Into the Storm . The sailors and marines become further enmeshed in the politics of the parallel Earth into which their WW2 destroyer has mysteriously been transported. As they deal out rough justice to miscreants in the ranks and prepare their pacifist Lemurian allies to fight the Grand Swarm of the reptilian Grik, they in turn must face their own worst nightmare: the appearance of a Japanese battle cruiser. Anderson throws in tense land battles against overwhelming odds, a massive typhoon and a phenomenal aerial duel, but despite the pyrotechnics, at heart this novel is about how honor and ideals can bend or break under the stressful, life-and-death conditions of total war. (Oct.)