Deadly Apparition

De: G. Ernest Smith

Narrado por: Jack Nolan

A modern nuclear submarine crew meets the 16th-century Spanish Armada in this alternate reality thriller.

Commander Donald Castillo is the commander of the Virginia-class fast attack nuclear submarine, Kansas. It is the latest and best that the US Navy has to offer. He is asked to test a new ground-breaking countermeasure that will revolutionize naval warfare. Its code name is Apparition.

He will be working with a civilian test team headed by Dr. Susan Lambert. This is game-changing technology born of the Hadron Collider, and the Navy brass are hungry for it. But something goes wrong during testing, and the Kansas and her crew disappear off the western coast of Scotland. The American and British navies perform an exhaustive search, but find no trace of Kansas.

©2014 Greg Smith (P)2015 Greg Smith

Good story, not so good performance

What did you like best about Deadly Apparition? What did you like least?

I always enjoy alternate history or alternate timeline books. The story was fast paced, fun, and filled with characters that were easy to empathize with. The only thing I didn't like about this book was the reading performance. The narrator was fine, but the audio quality made it sound like he was reading inside a tin can or something. It didn't have a fresh clean sound that I am used too in most other books. It wasn't so bad I couldn't enjoy the story, but it was noticeable the entire time. I think they should try to remaster the recording or something and clean it up a little.

Good one time listen

Reasonable story idea. I'm not giving away much to say time travel is involved.

Not something I'd listen to again.

Very Entertaining though Juvenile Read

Would you listen to Deadly Apparition again? Why?

I was tempted to give the book a 5 star rating because it is entertaining. But, a lot of the plot is just so juvenile (unrealistic), that I just couldn't see it. The main character (Castillo), is a bit of an anti-hero who's poor decisions generally ends up with his people getting killed. Also, old Star-Trek episodes often come to mind through-out the book. The narrator doesn't seem that experienced, but his performance doesn't detract that much. Finally, one can't miss the irony of them setting out for Pitcairn Island (Mutiny of the Bounty), because of all of Castillo's bad decisions.

Science Faction

This is a GREAT read. Yes the story is essentially about a nuclear submarine, but the story is about a trip into the past, with a modern naval vessel. It supports the idea that old records of heroic battles were somewhat or to a great deal exaggerated. Even if the records were read aboard a very new Navy submarine. I was surprised about the creative processing as the story entered into the "old" time frame. You should enjoy reading this story.

Lousy Production, Good Book

The entire narration sounds like as if the engineers were using 2 tin cans on a string! The chapters were separated by annoying cheesy pseudo sonar sounds. Character development doesn't say a lot about the USN's screening program for commanding officers of their nuclear submarines since the fast attack skippers go on to command the boomers!

Castillo should have been on humanitarian shore duty, I've seen both officers and enlisted assigned for less. Having said that, the suspension of belief was still a tad rough ride. The plot just zips along, mostly due to Castillo's gullibility and downright simplicity. Castillo is simply too flawed. The author still manages to overcome his weak protagonist with a decent plot and good action.