#BookReview: Riptides (Land & Sea book 2) by Blaine Lee Pardoe

War & Peace, but fun.

In book one, Splashdown, the human race slowly realized that they were not alone. There was an alien race hiding in the oceans. Then they finally attacked. Devastation reigned.

But those were only preliminary attacks.

Now, the war begins in earnest.

The Story

It’s difficult to describe the story more than I already have. The first trilogy of books really do feel like a story arc, introducing our primary characters in book one, and developing them over time.

Since the first book, a few weeks have passed. But while humanity has put together intelligence teams on the aliens they refer to as “the Fish,” they’re not much further along than with the attacks started. The world is divided, each country facing the Fish on their own. The Fish have started dismantling the areas they’ve conquered. The military has based their response team out of Los Alamos.

While everyone is still trying to catch up, the Fish strike in earnest—everywhere, and all at once. And all hell breaks loose. The resulting story ends up exploring the intersection of the military, civilians, journalists, scientists, big business and intelligence.

Albert Einstein said that “The definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple.” What Blaine Lee Pardoe has here is a work of genius. Not only has he managed to balance nine (yes, nine) point of view characters and make them easily trackable, he has a heavily detailed human response, and has an equally well-defined collection of aliens, as well as the technological advances for both sides, and the cultural and societal changes in American culture. It’s like Pardoe decided that Tom Clancy was an amateur and said “Hold my beer.” Pardoe even takes advanced technology and boils it down so that someone as stupid as myself can figure it out.

Imagine if War and Peace was readable, enjoyable military science fiction, and you can track all of the characters without flash cards.

In case I’m not clear: this is an awesome, solid ride from start to finish. This is a thick book, but I finished it in short order. The first third of the book is catching up with our cast of characters before the fun starts. And unlike the first book, the shooting starts around 40% in.

The Characters

Our roster of characters have not changed from the first book. In fact, we have some new point of view characters.

Our first addition is Private Reid Porter. In book one, he was a side character under Marine Corporal Natalia Falto. Since Porter spent most of the invasion of Guam saving civilians and evacuating fellow Marines, he’s being given the media of honor, whether he likes it or not. He’s declared the new Audie Murphy, but his only goal now is to get back to the front line.

Submarine Commander Titus Hill has been promoted to Captain, except his boat is in for months of repairs. Like Porter, he wants to get back to the fighting. But without his sub, he has to figure out how to even get into combat.

Aston Slade is still very much the Jack Ryan of this world. He’s in intelligence, babysitting all of the eggheads analyzing the Fish, and all of the folks developing emerging technologies.

One of these eggheads is Kent Warner, an engineer developing some of the emerging technology.

In our first book, the military vet Anton Colton was selling drugs to make ends meet. Now that the Fish have come to his city, he’s going to take everyone with nowhere else to go, and they’re going to strike back at the Fish by any means necessary, starting a local militia unit.

CC Chen is alone in the street of Los Angeles. Her father is held prisoner by the Fish from the attack on Guam. Her mother is missing in action. But she’s about to make new friends, and they’re armed.

Then there’s Jay Drake, who has all the tech of Elon Musk, the ambitions of Bill Gates, and he seems to be developing a Bond villain complex.

Reporter Dana Blaze is now a front line reporter … and is somehow still a calculating sociopath.

Riptides takes everyone from Splashdown and we see how they all quickly evolve during the war once it begins in earnest. Criminals become soldiers. The fearful find their courage. Everyone develops.

Except for Adam Caine. He’s still an a-hole.

The World

This is a heavily detailed, vivid world, explored with deft, concise writing.

Politics

This is relatively light on politics. You could argue this is an ad for the second amendment, but that’s not pushed or stressed in any way. Every civilian in the war zone is a militia member, if only for survival reasons.

Content Warning

This is a war. I don’t remember cussing, but the Fish do have some experiments on human beings that would probably make Dr Mengele flinch. I skimmed those sections, honestly.

Who is it for?

Military science fiction readers who want a good helping of character development along the way, with a good amount of mech combat.

Why buy it?

Buy this because the book is truly excellent.