For more than forty years the Yonaga – once Imperial Japan’s finest battleship – lay trapped beneath a glacier. Now, they have been freed from their icy prison.The crew are determined to complete their mission and soon set sail for Pearl Harbor, decades after the Second World War ended.Unaware of this ghostly mission from the past, Ted “Trigger” Ross travels aboard the steamer Sparta, through the … aboard the steamer Sparta, through the Bering Sea. When the two ships cross each other’s paths, a baffling but deadly conflict erupts as the Japanese soldiers continue their mission which, to them, has never been revoked.
Over three fascinating novels, Peter Albano explores the questions posed by this conflict: ones of loyalty, patriotism, war and alternative history. The three books in this box set are continued in the acclaimed eleven-part series.
Peter Albano was a writer who served in the US Navy from 1942-1946. He is best known for the Seventh Carrier sequence of military adventures starring the World War Two Japanese aircraft carrier, Yonaga.
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These 3 books were truly amazing, nonstop action, riveting plots, great characters that never stopped. All were well crafted and extremely believable. Brent is a great character that continues to evolve as the storyline develops.
In the later books, there are substantial rehashes of character and ship backgrounds. The further you go, the longer the backgrounds seem to get.
A very interesting and original concept spot a 1940s Japanese carrier being trapped in Arctic ice for 40 plus years, and finally free to continue its mission to attack Pearl Harbor in the early 1980s. They do, and then the books expand to all kinds of other engagements against other enemies, primarily he mad dictator, Colonel Kadaffi of Libya. Another interesting twist that a string of Chinese satellites have killer beams that focus on jet engines, blowing them up, so every nation has to scramble to find old, WWII-era weapons, including airplanes and ships.
But — the books go on endlessly, over and over again, in detail, about the Japanese religions (Shinto and Buddhism) and how it affects their outlook on life — and death — and how the true believers long for death in battle. And how they think a really good thing to do is to commit suicide by what we used to call hard kiri, disemboweling themselves with an audience, before having their heads cut off. The author spends way, way too much space in minutely describing their religions and how it affects their thinking. Once or twice would have been plenty. And I wish I had a dollar for each time I read the word “Banzai” as yelled by the various Japanese characterIn this for
Many scenes are way over-the-top grisly, depicting torture and beheadings in great detail. Also, minute details of guns, ammunition, planes, weapons of all kinds takes up way too much space. And the “American Samurai”, Brent Ross character, just does NOT read true — he is depicted as a young hothead officer, lusting over women and war, and becoming more Japanese-like with each passing chapter, going so far as to behead Japanese and other foreign nationals.
In this formula, Ross gets to lust for exactly one new woman in each book, and enjoys detailed mad, frenzied sex with each one, before each affair ends badly, as in shooting one woman at pointblank range in the face, and beheading another one. Oh, that fun, crazy guy.
I have read the first seven, and think I will leave it at that. Actually, I really read about the first two, maybe three, and then started skimming more and more in books four, five, six and seven. Each time the Japanese Admiral would start spouting his religious views, (again, and again, and again) was a signal I could skim several paragraphs or even pages. Same with minutiae about weapons systems, planes, etc. And in each book, the author felt he had to once again explain the whole basic history of how the Japanese military came to think the way they do. BUT — if you are buying a box set of 1-3, and then 4-7, wouldn’t you think that the reader would already have read this?
Another example of unnecessary and endless padding.
If you are a big fan of World War II novels, or just war, and you don’t mind wading through a lot of unnecessary, and repetitive verbiage, then you may enjoy this — or not.
I was transpoted to a former era. Being a USN retiree and serving on a referbished WWII Carrier sdded to my interest.
A wonderful alternative world story line.
Ridiculous premise and plot where did the holdout Japanese sailors refuel and take on food water? This book also had icky elements of a romance novel. Not for WW2 historical novel fans.