Note: this review does contain some spoilers.
Blood in the Water, which is the latest paperback edition in the now ten-book series, manages to check both of those columns quite well. That balance of the new and the familiar is exactly what you get with this book and this series. The first book, Into the Storm, saw the elderly "four-stacker" destroyer USS Walker and its Second World War crew commanded by Captain Matthew Reddy thrust through an unearthly maelstrom into a parallel world where the reptilian Grik are waging a war of extermination against the Lemurians.
In the process, Reddy and his crew found themselves defending their new-found Lemurian friends but also fighting the Japanese. From that point, Anderson has been gradually teasing out the broad elements of his universe: the first three books centered around the initial battle against the insane Japanese captain Kurokawa and the crew of his battlecruiser Amagi, who has allied himself with the Grik, after following them through from their own world.
The USS Walker, DD-163 |
The Provence, a Bretagne-class battleship, which the Savoie was modelled after. |
However, with that being said, it’s a testimony to Anderson’s craftsmanship as a storyteller and as a world-builder that he continues to be able to hold the interest of the reader over this length of time. This series continues to be highly recommended.
What’s Next?
I’ve just picked up the paperback copy of the second book of Harry Turtledove’s, The Hot War Trilogy, Fallout. I’ll have a review for you next month.
Meanwhile, you can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and now The Key to My Heart, also $2.99 (all are free to preview). All books -- which are already on Smashword's premium distribution list -- are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Sony, Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store. Thanks.