Into the Storm (Destroyermen)
Anderson’s outstanding first novel combines alternate history and seafaring in a way that recalls S. M. Stirling’s splendid Island in the Sea of Time trilogy. Two U.S. four-stacker destroyers on the run from the Japanese in the spring of 1942 sail into a mysterious squall. The USS Walker emerges upon an alternate earth, where the dinosaurs were never wiped out. One savage sapient race, the Grik, has evolved from the raptors; another, from lemurs. The latter becomes the allies of the castaways in parallel time, and together they prepare to fight the Grik, solve some of the mysteries of this world, and find the missing second destroyer. There may be points, probably few, at which naval buffs will raise their eyebrows, but the nonstop action will speed nearly all readers past them. That action works out in the context of extremely high-level achievement at both world building and characterization. It’s safe to say that the series this book launches is going to go places—for starters, into the hands of all seafaring-sf fans. --Roland Green