by Robert VaughanRated: 1 Star and 3 Stars depending on what I looked at to rate this book.
The biggest problem that I had with this book is that it doesn't know what kind of book it wants to be. It was part WWII action novel for 13 year old boys, part romantic fantasy for 13 year girls, part ghost story and Evangelical proselytising for members of the Christian right of all ages..
There are however, a couple of good things about this book so in the interest of fairness I would like to point them out. The author did a pretty good job of describing the interior of a WWII submarine and I didn't notice any misspelled words. Now since I have never been aboard a WWII submarine that wasn't encased in concrete I can't be sure that he did a good job of describing it but it all sounded plausible to me and I wanted to give the author a break here. I will also admit that I finished it instead of giving into the urge to wall bang it as I was sorely tempted to do in a couple of parts. That's got to say something, although I am not exactly sure what.
While I have no objections to books that include people of the Christian faith practicing their religion. I do object when an author clearly has a Christian agenda and clumsily tries to beat the reader over the head with it. There were several times when I had to suspend disbelief to the point where it completely obscured any credibility the story might have had otherwise.
And last but not least was the constant name dropping. It was as if the author was trying to establish legitimacy for his characters by throwing dozens of well know and respected personalities from that era into his character's paths and giving them some luster via personal connection. Actually the author did a pretty good job of drawing his characters. He really didn't need to create all that clutter that had nothing to do with the story.
