Splashdown

Land & Sea, Book 1

By: Blaine L. Pardoe

Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine

Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

An unknown enemy waits for war.

From the bottom of the oceans of the world a hidden threat stalks mankind—probing, testing our weapons and defenses, biding time to strike. In the summer of 2039, this aquatic foe unleashes surprise attacks against coastal cities around the globe. Mankind faces a sophisticated new enemy, arrived from the depths of space and lurking in the dark blackness of the seas.

The United States and the rest of the world are ill prepared for such an attack.

Humanity’s only hope are ASHURs, powerful armored combat suits named after the Assyrian god of war. The fight for survival will require ingenuity, cunning, and a furious application of destructive violence against the most unrelenting enemy mankind has ever known!

Tom Clancy and the Expanse meets Mecha-charged combat in this thrilling series that pits humanity, world governments, and deadly alien invaders against each other.

The fight for tomorrow begins with the initial splashdown....

©2022 Creative Juggernaut (P)2023 WarGate Books

Blaine Lee Pardoe onleashes another hit!

While the novel may be slow to set up the world and all the individual pieces (this is a brand new IP, after all), he delivers a world immense with detail and relatability. His hallmark styles are on full display, marking him a superior writer with incredible vision. You won't want to miss how this novel and series unfolds!

Excellent

I don’t know if your on the fence on buying this book but get it. It’s a solid read and a great series.

great start and set up

liked it looking forward the reading riptide on my business trip to Hornady r&d

Fantastic start cant wait for more!

Great work as usual from Blaine and can’t wait to see what happens next in this universe of sea monsters and mech suits.

Solid writing with multiple points of view fleshing out the coming storm from a threat that encompasses the existential dread of the deep ocean.

Great start to a new ip

It is a great setup. Character development is solid. Exciting new threat to humanity. Looking forward to the next book.

Set condition 1 throughout the ship

This is the single most thrilling listen I've had in years. Blaine has done an amazing job bringing near future world into our lives. Will and have recommended it.

A New World to Dive into

I recommend this book amd cant wait to see where it goes. This book is a good start in creating a new sci-fi world. Earth feels lived in and I was able to immerse myself into it. The characters behave the way I think they would. The elements I think could have been improved on is less characters and world building. I like the characters introduced so far but had a little difficulty keeping track of them. The world building felt like it had some priority over the story. That being said, this new setting makes me ask questions and I can't wait to discuss the future of this world.

Also, good job to Noah. you did a great job voice acting the characters. I thoroughly enjoyed the accents you did and want to hear more from you.

That’s how you build a story arc

I was pleasantly surprised. The author explained both enemy and heroes with giving up the plot or series arc. I will get the next one
5 stars, all three categories

Looking forward to more.

A well done military sci-fi. Plenty of future tech that seems plausible and a interesting alien invader. While not the first to have aliens began their attack from the water it's a small enough niche for this series to stand out from others.

I'm a big Battletech fan, and followed the author over to this series. Though I love Battletech, the nonsensical tech in that universe was always a hurdle to immersion. The more practical tech and use of smaller mechs made this very enjoyable, and keeps it form becoming a Btech rip off. I like how the "mechs" are closer to battle armor and protomechs (at least size wise) in the Btech universe as they always seemed the more realistic useful military evolution.

The author Blaine maintains his ability to write interesting and different characters in the same story. While being a military sci-fi not all the focus characters are military men and women. The reporter and tech tycoon are objectively bad people, yet amongst the most interesting ones.

My biggest problem with with book is that it's too much of a cliff hanger ending. While it didn't end right in the middle of the action, it didn't feel like the end of a trilogy story arc.

Wonderful start to a series

A lot of people will say it has a slow opening but I see it as a great example of world building and helping the reader understand the characters that I imagine we’ll see in the rest of the series and the choices they will make, can’t wait for the next one, however on god, please stop saying La phonetically, no one ever calls Los Angeles “la” as far as I’m aware, please say L.A. It bugged the crap outta me