#BookReview: Storm Surge, by Blaine Lee Pardoe (Land & Sea #3)

Time for a Fish Fry

In Splashdown, the aliens arrived.

In Riptides, the war began in earnest.

In Storm Surge, the humans strike back.

The alien horde that have been dubbed “the Fish” are still swarming from the world’s oceans. Every city on a shoreline is under siege. The water itself are the siege lines.

But humans are creative, persistence predators. And these aliens aren’t the only ones who know how to adapt.

It’s time for a Fish Fry.

The Story

If you’ve been reading the previous volumes, you know the story. But the short version is that aliens have been hiding in Earth’s oceans for at least five years, building an army under the sea. Without any warning, the aliens have struck, everywhere all at once. They seem to be on an extermination campaign—kill all humans, take their cities, and dismantle the cities. Without a name, they have been simply dubbed “the Fish.”

Meanwhile, in the background, the world’s biggest businessman, Jay Drake, is making moves of his own. Everyone else is fighting for humanity. He’s working on world domination.

Unfortunately, the aliens are always developing more tricks to throw at humanity. And the next trick is going to be a big one.

Again, Blaine Pardoe has managed to balance a collection of characters in such a way that it’s not confusing or disorienting. And it’s fun when several main characters finally intersect, with some interesting results.

The Characters

One of the reasons to read Splashdown, Riptides and Storm Surge back-to-back is for the character arcs of practically everyone.

Major Ashton Slade, once just a lowly DIA analyst, is now the brains behind the war, and he most of the nerds in his own personal fishbowl in the desert, developing the emerging technologies for the war. And you know there are nerds involved when there are multiple applications for chainsaw bayonets.

Reid Porter, side character in book one, became a medal of honor winner in book two. He doesn’t think he’s earned his medal, but he’s going to—preferably, without the accompanying postmortem AAR. The army wanted him to be Audie Murphy, and he’s going to live up to standards.

Captain Titus Hill, our submarine commander from book one, is about to get a new boat, and he’s looking forward to ramming it down the Fish’s throats.

Jay Drake is evil Tony Stark, only he can’t be bothered with getting his hands dirty. He’s a manipulative SOB who prefers to lurk in the shadows. He makes Lex Luthor look positively civil.

Anton Colton, who had started this series as a drug dealer and veteran, has emerged as a leader of his own militia against the Fish incursion. His ragtag band of warriors are a collection of those who simply had nowhere else to go—the homeless, the destitute, the prostitute, the criminal, and those who simple just don’t want to leave their homes.

Cassidy Chen is newly orphaned in the Fish attack on Los Angeles. On her own, she has reached Colton’s militia. And this teenager is quickly getting the hang of “payback.” She’s gone from little girl lost to rigging claymore mines.

Dana Blaze, of course, just drives me crazy. Especially because she’s doing the job of an actual war correspondent, but is concerned that if she doesn’t look the part, no one will believe she’s doing it. Things like that. There are even moments where it looks like she may even become a real human being.

The World

This world is heavily detailed and sketched out. And it continues to have evolved, as humanity has a learning curve against the Fish. The Fish have their own learning curve, and it is going to be a doozy.

While this is a military science fiction novel (because, well, aliens) this is still very heavy on the technothriller aspects as new Fish frying technologies emerge. There is a surprising amount of tech dropped on the audience, but it’s never a data dump. It’s all presented to the reader as it is presented to the other characters.

Every block of chapters is broken up with “cycles” that give readers snapshots of other parts of the world. And it’s nice to see that no matter what happens, no matter what alien horrors come from beyond the stars … you still Do Not F*** With The Gurkas.

The Politics.

None, really. I’m sure you can find them if you wanted. And if you think that having the military as the heroes leans immediately to one side. Sure, if you’re an environmental psychopath who thinks that Gaia demands that humanity must be exterminated, this is not the book for you. Otherwise, have at it.

Content warning.

It’s War. POWs are tortured and experimented on. There isn’t much in the way of a language warning. The violence usually isn’t graphic. There is nothing on par with the opening of Saving Private Ryan. Overall, it tends to be PG-13.

Who is it for?

Take the complex technothriller of Tom Clancy, the solid writing of an early David Weber, with the genius of Timothy Zahn, and the scope of a John Ringo war, you have this book. If you like any of those folks, you should be reading this series.

Why Buy It?

It’s an epic military science fiction that’s on par with the best of anything else in the genre, sci-fi or military sci-fi.