The war gets bigger. More characters. More technology. More tactics.

Lots MORE blah, blah, blah. One whole page described a plane taking off. Telling me every single boat's name in a fleet. Describing how the gun/bullet combo of THIS gun is different/better/worse than THAT gun/bullet combo. It wore thin.

But those who love mil/sff probably ate it up.

I enjoyed the story. Lots of fighting with new twists to screw things up. At the end lots of things happen that open up this world even more. I do feel that Anderson is moving ahead a little too fast. I just hope he doesn't let the story snowball out of control. Because I am really liking this overall storyline. ( )

A continuation of the "Destroyermen" series. Some characters in the plethora of characters, developed more fully as the story moved on--slowly. At one point three battles raged simultaneously and it was difficult to track progress in all of them or to understand the strategic import as the gore continued. No plot limes concluded and the author might as well have cut out some text and combined a few books. Nevertheless, I read/listened to all of it. ( )

2.5 stars Originally published at Fantasy Literature:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/firestorm/

Firestorm is the sixth book in Taylor Anderson�??s DESTROYERMEN series about the WWII navy warship USS Walker that was hurled into an alternate Earth during an electrical storm. (If you didnƒ??t know that, you should probably stop here and go back to read the first book, Into the Storm, and the subsequent volumes before continuing on.)

In Firestorm, our heroes are spread out across the world trying to stop evil in its several guises. There are the Grik ƒ?? the lizard-like horde that eats people ƒ?? who seem like the most natural enemy. But then there are the ƒ??bad Japsƒ? who also came through the storm and who were enemies back when everyone was on the ƒ??realƒ? Earth. And thereƒ??s also the Dominion, a society of humans who adhere to a warped version of Christianity and who enslave women. The Destroyermen and their Lemurian allies are fighting on all these fronts with Walker and the ships and planes they have salvaged, captured, or built since arriving.

There are a few new twists in Firestorm. The Grik, with the help of the bad Japanese, are beginning to genetically engineer their soldiers so that they now fight smarter ƒ?? not so much with the hive-mind mentality they had before. Theyƒ??ve also created a surprise weapon which, for any sighted reader, turns out not to be a surprise because itƒ??s clearly displayed in all its glory on the cover of the book. There are a couple of other minor twists involving new ships and personnel (along with news from the real world), but mostly the plot continues as it did in the previous book, Rising Tides.

In my previous reviews of the DESTROYERMEN series Iƒ??ve mentioned that itƒ??s a lot like Robert Jordanƒ??s WHEEL OF TIME ƒ?? a slow-moving plot and a huge cast of characters spread out over an entire world. At this point in the series, this description seems even more appropriate and I think I can predict that readers who loved WOT all the way through will probably love DESTROYERMEN and vice versa. The plot does not advance very far in Firestorm (similar to some of those middle WOT books) and I almost feel like it could be skipped. Anything significant that happens will probably be recapped in the next installment, since thatƒ??s been Andersonƒ??s habit from the beginning. However, if you just love spending time with Andersonƒ??s amiable characters (and they are great characters), youƒ??ll probably enjoy Firestorm more than I did.

Iƒ??m reading the DESTROYERMEN series in audio format. Theyƒ??re produced by Tantor Audio and read by William Dufris. Dufris is usually a great narrator, and he is here, too, but his voices for the Lemurians can get annoying, especially in this book, since they do a lot of the talking. I wonder: if Dufris had realized that the Lemurians would be talking so much in future installments, would he have given them those voices in the beginning? Probably not. ( )

http://bactra.org/weblog/algae-2011-10.html#anderson ( )

The lemurians and Americans are fighting a two front battle against the Grik/Japanese and the Dominion. A fun and enjoyable read and an engrossing storyline. ( )