by Steven L. Kent and Nicholas Kaufmann
In 1983 the US nuclear submarine USS Roanoke (and yes that is a nice little reference to the doomed English colony) embarks upon a classified mission. Unknown to everyone onboard except the captain and later his executive officer (XO), the Roanoke's mission is to enter Soviet territorial waters and obtain proof of an upgraded stealth Soviet submarine. This is very aggressive espionage and could be considered an act of war. The Roanoke is on its own. If detected the crewmen could be killed. If captured the men will likely be tortured or at best spend a few decades in Soviet prison camps.
The Soviets could decide to start WW3 over the violation of their territorial waters. No one knows. As far the Roanoke's captain is concerned, the results of his mission aren't as important as completing the mission.
Jefferson doesn't intend to let that happen to him. He's not part of the old boys' network. He must be twice as good to get noticed. Weber keeps himself apart from his sailors a bit while Jefferson is more hands-on but both men care deeply about the Navy and their submarine.
Although the sailors don't know their mission's true purpose they do know that it will be at least ninety days. That's three months or more without fresh air, room to walk and stretch, sunlight, individual beds, luxurious showers, or basic privacy. Submarine life is not for people with claustrophobia. There is no wasted space on a submarine. Whatever can be is recycled or shared. Every man's job is critical. No one likes being underwater for a long time. But what is most intolerable to one Warren Stubic is three months without the company of women. Not looking forward to this enforced abstinence, Petty Officer Stubic decides that if nothing else he's going to have some good memories of his final night before the three month voyage.
Stubic winds up sick, with a headache, fever and no memory of what happened at the brothel. But orders are orders. He'll be in trouble if he can't serve or must admit his brothel visit. So Stubic reports for duty even though he's noticeably ill. Well something evil is on the submarine now, something that intends to spread itself. There are some subplots concerning another sailor forced to choose between following orders and doing the right thing, the aforementioned XO's battles against bigotry, and two Cajun brothers who are among the first to accept the impossible. The authors apparently did their research about the rigors of submarine life and the physics of underwater pressure. Some of this I knew, much of it I didn't.
There is a skillful ratcheting up of tension as the men confront something inconceivable while attempting to avoid Soviet sonar and complete their mission. As pointed out many times during the story, there's no jumping overboard or other means of escape from a submerged submarine. One weak link and everybody drowns or is crushed to death in an imploding can.
This book has some gore but I didn't find it excessive for action/horror stories. The violence is mostly off page, until the very end. This is a good comfort read, something that you can finish quickly. I put down another book to finish this. My only major critique was that the book's binding was not that great. I don't think I have any other books from this publisher for comparison. Maybe I just got a bad copy.
