The Barnes & Noble Review


When Tom Clancy penned his now classic popular novel, The Hunt For Red October, did he know the floodgates he would open up? The military technothriller was born on a grand scale, and has gone through various incarnations over the past several years. One of the up-and-comers of this genre is James H. Cobb, whose first novel, Choosers Of The Slain, was a critical hit. In it, Cobb introduced Commander Amanda Lee Garrett. This was considered a bold move on Cobb's part, since the military technothriller was usually centered around a guy and his ship or fighter plane. Amanda, though, like the many women currently in the Navy, held her own on board her command boat. Now, with the second entry in his Amanda Garrett series, Cobb slides the balance away from her to some extent. Sea Strike is as much about a global threat as it is about the female commander of the U.S.S. Cunningham.

Not that Amanda Garrett isn't a strong and believable character, nor does she slack off any in her pursuit of the enemies of the United States in Sea Strike. It's the nature of this novel. Garrett is not just going to any war or any battle.

This one looks like World War III.

Set in the near future of 2006, when a Colin Powell-type is President of the United States, Sea Strike opens with a bloody civil war in China. The Reds and the Rebs are at each other's throats, killing more of their countrymen than the death toll of World War II. A larger threat than even their own infighting, however, emerges on the horizon.

Battleships begin firing on the Chinese troops. Thenewaggressors are from Taiwan. The Taiwanese Nationalists have finally taken action to take back their homeland. They've targeted strategic locations in the Red Chinese camp, and as this conflict escalates, it looks as if a nuclear threat will become reality.

Into this action, Commander Amanda Garrett arrives on her hypertech stealth destroyer, the U.S.S. "Duke" Cunningham. While her entry into the threatened area is fascinating, it is the larger threat of nuclear war in China that is the most compelling aspect of Cobb's novel. As the battles, strikes, and torpedoes are launched, Sea Strike soars with tension and some of the best moments of combat I've ever read. The suspense builds as the world's leaders gather to determine the fate of China, and as Garrett launches her plan of attack, code name Stormdragon.

Cobb is one of the newer commandos of the military thriller, and Sea Strike proves he is a welcome addition to the genre. Despite the fact that he is not a Navy officer, he certainly seems familiar enough with the terrain. He knows how to write war. He writes women well. His handling of a complex multicharacter plot at times jump-starts and then slows before taking off like a fighter-bomber from an aircraft carrier. The story takes a while to strike fire, but when it does, the tension seldom lags until the final page. His envisioned future seems entirely plausible, and with the fall of the Soviet Union, his leap to a fissure within the Chinese government feels right on the money.

Don't miss Cobb's previous novel, Choosers Of the Slain, if you haven't yet read it. Sea Strike is a bigger book, and though his main character, Amanda Garrett, often vanishes in the larger context of Cobb's imagined war, it is a story of epic proportions and constant action. James H. Cobb has written a speculative novel of what just might be the next war to engage the U.S. Navy. In it, he has brought to life a unique commander and her way of handling the threat of nuclear attack.

Douglas Clegg is the author of numerous horror and suspense novels, including Dark Eye and The Children's Hour. His most recent short story, "O, Rare and Most Exquisite," can be found in the anthology The Year's Best Fantasy And Horror: Volume 10.