The jacket on Taylor Anderson’s new book, Destroyermen: Into the Storm might fool you into thinking that it’s just another castaways in time story. There’s nothing wrong with writing in this sub-genre of science fiction, but to dismiss the first of what promises to be an epic series as “merely” anything would be a terrible mistake. Anderson writes under influences as diverse as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, David Drake, Bernard Cornwell, and Patrick O’Brian, weaving them into a story that is as engrossing as it is fun to read.
The novel opens with an old destroyer in the Asiastic fleet running from a superior Japanese force. The destroyer, USS Walker, is poorly suited for the realities of naval combat in WWII. It is steam driven, undergunned, and outmanned. Nevertheless her captain and crew made a valiant effort to stem the tide of Japanese aggression in Indonesia, buying time for the Pacific fleet to arm and reconfigure after Pearl Harbor. In a battle that seems lost, Walker steams into a squall to hide from her enemies and ends up…somewhere else.
That somewhere else is a world where nature is more savage than our own. Two intelligent races are locked in a battle–one for supremacy and one for survival. Walker, fresh from one war, finds itself immediately in another one that is no less terrifying than the one they left. This time, though, they aren’t the undergunned ship that they were in 1942. There, they are the pinnacle of technology with the ability to tip the scales in favor of one people.
The characters draw heavily from military archetypes. The ship’s captain is conscientious, dutiful, and weary from the position of ultimate responsibility. His true battle isn’t with the enemy. He fights it everyday within himself as he struggles to come to grips with not only his position, but the future of his ship and his crew. Anderson avoids cliché in his characterization by humanizing Lt. Commander Reddy through several interactions with his officers and crew. The crew also make colorful appearances, including a gunner’s mate, the bosun, and two engineering hands who have a background in wildcatting. The suspense of disbelief needed for having that expertise in the engineering department of a steamer isn’t that difficult. Anderson also treats the conflict between the humans themselves realistically, providing a nice subtext to the overall plot.
Anderson’s work defies easy categorization. It is marketed and sold as science fiction, but it has elements of fantasy and military fiction as well. His novel is anchored by a strong ensemble cast of characters, a diverse world that is beautifully sketched, and a firm grasp of the function and use of a WWI-era four stacker destroyer. You can get a glimpse of Anderson’s passion for the subject in every detailed description that he writes.
This is one of the must-read books of the year. Filled with technical details that will make most grognards swoon, it will also appeal to the obsessive compulsive nature in the pickiest science fiction reader. Destroyermen: Into the Storm does not fail to satisfy.
Don’t forget to stop by on Friday of this week (August 1st) to see part one of our interview with Taylor Anderson!
I got Destroyermen: Into The Storm back in March before I went to Chicago on business. It’s a good book
and it’s similar to John Birningham’s Axis of Time trilogy. Unlike the Axis of Time trilogy, there aren’t any up-
timers from the future to change history. It’s about the crew of the USS Walker, a World War I four-stacker
destroyer, which made up the backbone of the Asiatic Fleet, who are pursued by the crew of the Japanese
battlecruiser IJN Amagi. The Walker’s captain, Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy, heads the Walker toward what he thinks is an ordinary storm. It isn’t. It’s a time storm. The Walker, Mahan, and Amagi cross into
another world where they have to choose sides. This new world they’re in is also at war. Walker has to decide
which side it’s on. There are two sides in this new war: The Lemurians, refugees from the island of Madagascar,
and the Grik, a warlike race that brings new meaning to the phrases “war of annihilation” and “ethnic cleansing.” The Grik don’t believe in taking prisoners. For them, war’s a hunt. The Lemurians are known as “the
prey.” Why? Because whomever Walker sides with, is the winner, and Walker’s guns just might be the key to
victory.