Book Review: Into the Storm
Into the Storm by Taylor Anderson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
INTO THE STORM is in some way pretty much exactly what I expected, and in other ways not at all what I expected. It’s a quick read that doesn’t go too far in to the explanation as to how a WWII US Navy destroyer ended up in a parallel and prehistoric universe — which I like — but deals with the actions of the characters and how they deal with their new reality.
The things I expected and did find in the book are the stock characters that make up the crew. All from varying backgrounds, they all have the typical hard-assed or meek or jokester personalities, that you expect in a book about the crew of a warship. While these generalizations are typical of military books and seem cliche at times, much of is actually on-track with what my own experience in the Navy.
In the “I expected more of this” area, I did expect more action in this book. Of course as this is the first of the series, the world building needs to be done, and here it takes up a bit more of the story than I expected or wanted. While the parts onboard the USS Walker with her crew really flowed well, when the POV shifted to the Lemurians — one of the native races of the new universe — I was pulled out of the story for quite a while. More of that world building that’s of course necessary, but still a bit jarring here.
One thing that I did not expect but was pleasantly surprised by was the description of life onboard a WWII destroyer. Equipment names are correct, jargon reads true, and the rank structures feel right. Research was done and it pays off.
Overall I enjoyed INTO THE STORM, but not as much as I wanted to. For a fun read it was sluggish at times (again, hopefully just because of “first book world building” reasons) and some of the plot points have been seen too many times before (the sexy but feisty nurse that becomes the Captain’s love interest for… some reason). That being said, when the battle scenes really work and while more of that action would have been welcome for such a book, what little there was pulled me through the read. I’ll read more in the series in the future.
