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This is a book I happened on by chance. I picked it out of the new book section of the library by the title and checked it out after reading the inside cover. I’m glad that I did. While I only rate it 4 out of 5, it was an interesting book and worth reading.

The book is centered on telling the story of a Royal Navy officer and his trials to survive against impossible odds. The main story is set during the Second World War on the continent of Antarctica. The British Royal Navy sends a small force to establish a weather station while also carrying out a top-secret mission. A German U-Boat intercepts the periodic weather forecasts and is able to triangulate the stations position. The station is attacked when the protagonist and a junior man are off taking core samples. Upon returning, they find the station totally destroyed and the commander barely clinging onto life. As they race for the northern peninsula, the adventure begins. If they don’t make it in time, the ice will make rescue impossible. And a winter without a proper shelter is impossible to survive in this harsh continent. In the end, only one man survives. He claims to have lost his memory of the events before his rescue and he longs to return. Then we are able to learn why.
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This is the second book by Patrick Robinson I could get my hands on. I really enjoyed reading Kilo Class and I enjoyed this book as well. It is set a couple years into the future, so Patrick gets to play with some technology that isn’t around quite yet.

The novel is an interesting story about a seriously skilled agent from Iraq. He infiltrated Israel’s navy and was trained as a submariner. His employer decides that he is too large of a risk and attempts to eliminate him. After walking across the desert to escape Iraq, he makes a deal with Iran to help commit acts of terrorism using his submarine skills.

A satisfying book to a Clancy fan.

HMS Unseen ISBN: 0099269058 at Amazon

This book was an accident. I needed a new book to read, because I was going to be waiting for something. The cover looked like a decent military technological drama. Since Tom Clancy cannot write books as fast as I can read them, I thought I would give it a try. It was a decent choice.

The premise is that Russia wants to sell Kilo class submarines to China. At $300 million a boat, it is much needed income for Russia. However, if China does get a fleet of Kilos, they can shut the US out of the region with this quite electric/diesel boat and possibly eventually retake Taiwan. The book contains some interesting black ops submarine work, some ground based special ops action and a cool under ice crossing of the north pole that I didn’t know was possible.

I you like Clancy, you will enjoy this book. If you don’t like Clancy, what is wrong with you? (Just Kidding.) It wasn’t a great book, but a good read. Also see H.M.S Unseen by the same author.

Kilo Class ISBN: 0061096857 at Amazon

The Da Vinci Code was the first book of Dan Brown’s I read. It seemed like your only choice was to read the book, due to popularity. I really enjoy Brown’s style of writing, but didn’t like the far stretches required to make The Da Vinci Code a suspenseful novel and much of the false history. I guess it didn’t really bug me when reading the book. The thing that bugged me was people thinking it was the truth after reading a fictional novel. Despite this, when seeing Deception Point for sale at our United Way book sale at work, I decided to give it a try.

Deception Point involves the discovery of an astonishingly rare object buried deep in arctic ice in the far North. NASA, in dire need of a success to halt a funding cut or complete elimination of the organization, are careful to pull in civilian scientists to validate their discovery beyond a shadow of doubt. In addition, NSA analyst Rachel Sexton is brought in as a professional skeptic.
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