Crusade

Destroyermen, Book 2

By: Taylor Anderson

Narrated by: William Dufris

Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy, along with the men and women of the USS Walker, have chosen sides in a war not of their making. They have allied with the Lemurians - a mammalian race whose peaceful existence is under attack from the warlike, reptilian Grik.

The Lemurians are vastly outnumbered and ignorant of warfare, and even the guns and technology of Walker cannot turn the tide of battle. Luckily, they are not alone. Reddy finally finds Mahan, the other destroyer that passed through the rift. Together, the two American ships will teach the Lemurians to fight and stand against the bloodthirsty Grik - or so they think.

For there is another vessel that does not belong on these strange seas - the massive Japanese battle cruiser Amagi, the very ship that Walker was fleeing from when the rift took them. Like Mahan, it followed them through. And now Amagi is in the hands of the Grik.

Battle stations! Listen to more in the Destroyermen series.

©2008 Taylor Anderson (P)2008 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Dramatic.... At heart this novel is about how honor and ideals can bend or break under the stressful, life-and-death conditions of total war." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Even better than the excellent Into the Storm." --( Booklist Starred Review)

Exciting and well written

A fitting sequel to the already energetic plot of the first "Destroyermen" series, 'Into the Storm'.

I love this entire series!

Alternate history and military SCI-FI fans will love these books! I have listened to the first four and I enjoyed them all.

Despite

The story is very good, but I want to introduce the author to a new word. Despite. He needs to delete the phrase, "in spite of" from his vocabulary. He uses it so much that it is distracting.

An old enemy returns

This second book ramps up the tension with the certain knowledge that the Grik are almost innumerable. In addition to this it seems the Japanese cruiser that hunted them has crossed to their world as well and has allied themselves to the Grik. It is a solid second book in the series.

This sequel stands up to my expectations

What made the experience of listening to Crusade the most enjoyable?

Character development continues as we get to know the crew and locals better. Relationships grow and allegiences and trust between species mature as we get to know more of the locals.

What did you like best about this story?

At the risk of spoilers, bringing other survivors of the 'temporal event' into the plot line increases the possibilities of challenges and plot intrigue. Moving of from this second installment, the arc of the plot is truly unpredictable

Have you listened to any of William Dufris’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Dufris' narration is spotless and unencumbered by trying to go into too many character voices.

Great series

Just a great Pleasure and hard to shit off. I am excited to continue the story. 5 stars all the way.

Woman's Perspective

When I looked at reviews of this book 95% were from guys and rated very high, so I got them for my husband and he loved them as well. When I got around to giving these a try I was not dissappointed. Initially (while in our dimension) they were a little heavy on the military jargon, but once I got past that and they got through the squall, it was great. There is a lot of fighting, but this book wasn't just "guns ablazin'" over MY head military mumbo jumbo I didn't get. I could not wait to find out what happened next. I'm on #3 now and still into it.

excellent

Can't put it down. On to book 3

Excellent Book

I love these books, cannot wait to listen to the next one. This whole series is fantastic.

Going Forward

The second book in the series continues on as if it were one giant book. I posted a review of the first book that noted many fine points. I like this concept for a story, but was concerned it would get tedious. I don't know if tedious is the right word, but the story is getting pretty involved. The author puts a lot of time in describing things that add some imagery, but really don't further the storyline. I suppose it does get the reader more into this alternate world, but sometimes I wish the author would just get going. The other point that should be addressed is the place names, ship names, character names, etc. This is a weak point in any very involved audio book. I would hope that Audible will someday allow customers of their books to download a printable guide that has a glossary, maps, illustrations and the like to make up for this inherent shortcoming of an audio book. This particular novel series uses a "made up" language for fantasy creatures and the names of characters and other names becomes very confusing.

If you like a very detailed accounting of a fantasy world with many characters, settings, and even historical periods, you should like this book. If you are not willing to invest many, many hours in a series of books that tell a pretty simple story, look some place else.