Destroyermen: Into the Storm by Taylor Anderson

During the Second Battle of the Java Sea, Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy and the crew of the destroyer USS Walker have been ordered to pull out of the Philippines. As they attempt to flee with several other Allied Navy ships, they’re attacked by the Japanese. The Allied ships are sunk, one by one, until only USS Walker and the crippled USS Mahan are left. When the huge Japanese battlecruiser Amagi s... Read More

Crusade by Taylor Anderson

The men and two women of the USS Walker are worn out and homesick. They’re resigned to being stuck on a parallel world, but they at least hope to find some more humans. There’s a severe “dame shortage” so, though Commander Matthew Reddy and Nurse Sandra Tucker are in love with each other, they know they must not indulge their feelings because it might lower the morale of the rest of the destroyermen.

There’s plenty to keep them occupied meanwhile — they’ve recovered Mahan and a reconnaissance airplane, and both need a lot of work. They’ve also discovered that the threat from the reptilian Grik is much worse than they had imagined. The Grik have hundreds of sailing ships and are intent on wiping out the Lemurians and their new American allies. The worst news of all is that the Japanese battlecruiser Amagi is with them, but the destroyermen don’t know if “the ... Read More

Maelstrom by Taylor Anderson

There’s just no rest for the weary. The destroyermen have had no time to search for other humans or to try to build their own community in their new parallel world because they’re still busy fighting for their lives. First there’s the Grik — the ugly reptilian species who keep attacking and trying to eat them. Then there’s the captain of the Japanese battlecruiser Amagi, who wants revenge on the destroyermen for damaging his ship. Even though they’re clearly no longer in their own world, the Japanese captain is still fighting for his emperor and he also has hopes that he someday might rule this new world in the emperor’s name. To this end, he has allied with the Grik, hoping to use them as a means to his end. His crew doesn’t share his enthusiasm for working with the loathsome Grik, but they’ve been trained to follow the leader. There is one Japanese man, however, who may be willing to risk... Read More

Distant Thunders by Taylor Anderson

The 100 remaining American destroyermen have now been in their strange new world for 16 months. They’ve just had a major victory against the evil Grik, but they know their respite will be short, for the Grik seem to have an unending supply of soldiers.

There’s a lot to get done before they face their enemies again, so the destroyermen are spread out thin. They’re building ships, planes, weapons (but not gas weapons), and a dry dock. They’re refining fuel and recycling metal scrap. They’re training their Lemurian allies to do all these jobs and to be sailors, pilots, and infantry men. The Americans have started an industrial revolution — the old ways of specialized craft guilds and apprenticeships are giving way to cold precise machinery. Captain Matthew Reddy feels guilty about the cultural changes they’ve caused, but he knows it’s the only way to win the war against the evil Gr... Read More

Rising Tides by Taylor Anderson

“You have quite a crew, Captain Reddy.”
“Yes, I do.”

If you’ve been enjoying Taylor Anderson’s DESTROYERMEN series, there’s no reason to stop now. Rising Tides (2011) is another quality installment in which we do a lot of sailing, have some fun and laughs, and barely survive some frightening events — exactly what we were expecting.

Captain Reddy and his original crew of Destroyermen, of which less than 100 survive, are different men than those who entered the storm so many months ago. They’ve been tried and tested in many ways, and it’s brought out the best in most of them, though some make deadly mistakes due to inexperience. Right now the Destroyermen are rather spread out across the unpredictable south Pacific ocean. One group is trying to free an old submarine from a volcanic island. Another i... Read More

Firestorm by Taylor Anderson

Firestorm (2011) is the sixth book in Taylor Anderson’s DESTROYERMEN series about the WWII navy warship USS Walker that was hurled into an alternate Earth during an electrical storm. (If you didn’t know that, you should probably stop here and go back to read the first book, Into the Storm, and the subsequent volumes before continuing on.)

In Firestorm, our heroes are spread out across the world trying to stop evil in its several guises. There are the Grik — the lizard-like horde that eats people — who seem like the most natural enemy. But then there are the “bad Japs” who also came through the storm and who were enemies back when everyone was on the “real” Earth. And there’s also the Dominion, a society of humans who adhere to a warped version of Christianity and who enslave women. The Dest... Read More

Iron Gray Sea by Taylor Anderson

Iron Gray Sea (2012), the seventh book in Taylor Anderson’s DESTROYERMEN series, begins with the sinking of a battleship and then a wedding. The remaining Destroyermen are all together to witness the marriage of Captain Matthew Reddy to Lt. Sandra Tucker, but soon they must disperse again because they and their allies are still fighting all over the world on several fronts, and they are spread thin.

Their own technology is advancing rapidly but, with the help of the Japanese, so is the Griks’. Not only are the bad guys making better weapons and using better military strategy than they did before, but they are also using genetic engineering to create better soldiers. The allies must stay ahead of the Grik and get control of the sea and the air and, maybe eventually, the land.

The political situation is changing, too, especially in the country where Princess Rebecca’s p... Read More

Storm Surge by Taylor Anderson

Storm Surge (2013), the eighth book in Taylor Anderson’s DESTROYERMEN series, is exactly what I was expecting, which means that while I enjoyed checking in on Captain Reddy and his crew and alliances in the alternate earth they found themselves in during WWII, I continued to wonder how long Anderson can draw out this war. Sure, world wars take years, so it’s not that I find the plot unrealistic (excepting the part about the parallel universe), but it’s just that I don’t really want to read about the same war for 154 hours (which is how long the series, so far, takes when reading it in audio format).

Well, it’s not all war, of course. Storm Surge starts at a baseball game in Manila — the Americans have taught their national sport to the Lemurians, the cat-like creatures they’ve allied with against the dinosaur... Read More

Deadly Shores by Taylor Anderson

I love Taylor Anderson’s characters and the world he has built in his DESTROYERMEN series, and the audio editions of these books are wonderfully performed by William Dufris.

But Deadly Shores (2014) is the ninth book in the series and the war, which is pretty much the focus of the entire plot, seems like it’s still winding up. There’s just no end in sight.

There are a couple of personal changes for Captain Reddy’s crew and alliances, including the death of an important character, alliances are starting to shift, a possible new enemy is discovered, we meet a few strange new creatures (including flying saber-toothed squids), Courtenay makes a suggestion about how the world works, Silva plays a few pranks, and there are a couple of exciting battles.


But mostly Deadly Shores is more of th... Read More

Straits of Hell by Taylor Anderson

My reviews for Taylor Anderson’s DESTROYERMEN series are getting shorter and shorter. That’s because, with each book, I have less to say.

Here’s the bottom line: Taylor Anderson has created a wonderful world full of loveable characters. It’s fun just to hang out with them. However, at this point, it feels like that’s all what we’re doing: just hanging out.

Sure, there are battles and a bit of personal drama, but it’s all stuff we’ve seen before. In Straits of Hell (2015), book 10, Matthew Reddy and his crew and their allies are once again fighting Don Hernan’s Dominion on one side while they fight the second battle for Grik City on the other.

Meanwhile, enemies — including the Japanese — continue to plot and shift alliances. Also, a mysterious new power enters the field. We got a glimpse of th... Read More