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Joe Buff ListingsIf you cannot find what you want on this page, then please use our search feature to search all our listings. Click on Title to view full description
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Joe Buff Crush Depth
HarperTorch 20031101 0060009659 / 9780060009656 MM Very Good
0060009659 0060009659 From Publishers Weekly An unsettling mix of underwater suspense, love story and near-future sci-fi, Buff's latest represents a well-intentioned if plodding effort to update the genre of submarine thriller. Set in 2012, the novel takes as its premise a South Africa and Germany (the Axis) at war with the rest of the world (the Allies). Both sides use nuclear submarines as their primary weapons. After September 11, Buff's geopolitical vision seems unlikely at best. Even less convincing is the romance between South African turncoat Ilse Reebeck, now working for the Allies, and Jeffrey Fuller, U.S. nuclear submarine captain. Although Buff writes in clear and competent prose, the relationship between the two lovers remains lifeless. More interesting are the undersea conflicts between the Allied submarine Challenger and the Axis Voortrekker, commanded by Captain Jan ter Horst and first officer Gunther Van Gelder. Although marred by ter Horst's stiff lectures, the submarine battle scenes are stirring, especially when the Voortrekker attempts to sneak into Allied waters. Buff does a good job of switching between Allied and Axis positions and handling the rising tension as the two sides clash, though a few scenes of graphic violence seem more appropriate to a horror novel. The tongue-in-cheek nod to Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea-an encounter between a giant squid and a sperm whale-provides the only lighthearted moment in this otherwise deadly serious novel. Buff, a Life Member of the Naval Submarine League, clearly knows his stuff, but this entry lacks the impact of other recent submarine thrillers. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Booklist In 2012, the Axis and the Allies are again dueling at sea, but the Axis this time consists of a South Africa under apartheid again and a resurgent imperial Germany. Limited nuclear war has taken place, but key to the outcome is command of the sea. That is disputed primarily between two supersubmarines, the South African Voortrekker and the American Challenger, both ceramic-hulled arsenals of superweapons that can dive three miles deep. Commanding the Voortrekker is megalomaniacal Ter Horst, while his American counterpart is Jeffrey Fuller, whose lover, oceanographer and South African resistance fighter Ilse Reebek, was once Ter Horst's woman! The duel between submarines and captains should keep readers flipping pages, especially if they love undersea action. But the tension created by periodic approaches to the strategic nuclear brink, Buff's frequently successful attempts at making Fuller a fully developed character, and the portrait of the suffering and stress in a U.S. facing a long-duration hot war all raise the yarn rather far above the standard literary tub of military hardware. Roland Green Copyright ? American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Price:
1.69 USD
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