The Steel Albatross

In this fast-moving first novel by former astronaut Carpenter, Steel Albatross is the nickname of a top-secret submarine that moves as noiselessly underwater as a glider through air. Undetectable by enemy tracking devices, it becomes more than just another high-priced, high-tech gadget when Soviet military hardliners implement Project Temnota--a nuclear power station on the ocean floor off the California coast capable of generating an electromagnetic pulse that could scramble every computer and electronic link on the West Coast. In their effort to prevent the power station's activation, Navy SEALs Rick Tallman and Kiwi Krause face the best of Russian underwater specialists. The details in this page-turner are so plausible that the far-fetched premise of Project Temnota is readily forgotten. Carpenter calls on his extensive undersea experience with the Navy SEALAB program to describe technical and biological developments enabling men to work and fight at depths once considered impossible. Major ad/promo; author tour. (Jan.)