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Surprise Battle: A Different Outcome
Navy Captain Walter Richey has been thrust, by some unknown radioactive force, into a strange situation. He is the CO of the USS Joseph Kane, a 2025 Virginia Class, Fast Attack Nuclear Submarine. The strange force has taken the boat and all the crew back to 1942 in the middle of WWII. In fact, the Navy Command at the time, not even knowing what a nuclear submarine is, ordered him into the middle of the battles near Guadalcanal during the amphibious landings. Starting with the Battle of Savo Island which in history was a harsh loss of brave Allied sailors. What will the outcome of the new battles be and will this cause the possible paradox in time? Come with Captain Richey and the crew and travel into an Alternate History.
192 pages, Paperback
Published January 21, 2020
About the author
Thomas Trimble
48 books2 followersMy name is Thomas Trimble, call me Tom. I am a new independent author. I want to tell you about my writing. As an introduction I need to tell you a bit about myself so you can understand the motivation for my books.
First, for my entire career I was an engineer involved in building and programming computers, since back when the idea for them basically first emerged. I worked for what was the Bell System and ended up retiring as a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Bell Labs. That interest and kind of a distrust for computers is the key motivation for some of my books.
They are:
SIMAT
Total Access
Cyber Watchdog
and
Terror by Machine
My first attempt at Alternate History and Time Travel was recently released it is called: Surprise Battle: A Different Outcome. A modern warship is transported to the middle of the Battle at Guadalcanal in 1942.
I wrote an interesting murder mystery type book about a modern killer for hire business. It follows the story sharing a bit of both perspectives between the police and the suppliers (killers). It is called Death Mail; An Order of Murder.
For the fans of ghost stories, I wrote Mystery in the Mine and O'Toole's Treasure a continuing story about two reopened Gold Rush mines with some mysterious help.
The other main influence on my writing is a health issue. I have an illness called Congestive Heart Failure or CHF cause by a heart attack 32 years ago. I have gotten to know a lot of people with this condition and there are more joining that world every day. To try to share the knowledge I have gained from my own experience and talking to others, I wrote four books intended to help those patients who have CHF.
Those books are:
Heart Failure: My Life Journey
Heart Failure: Our Life Journey
Heart Failure: One Day at a Time
Caring Hearts: A Caregiver’s World
I also wrote one book the falls between the engineer and the heart patient in me
It is a sci-fi called From Inside Heart Failure: The Future of a Cure
Maybe you can guess the theme to that one if you like old sci-fi.
I am always trying to improve my writing and I appreciate reviews and feedback as long as they are honest.
Keep reading.
My Thanks Tom
First, for my entire career I was an engineer involved in building and programming computers, since back when the idea for them basically first emerged. I worked for what was the Bell System and ended up retiring as a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Bell Labs. That interest and kind of a distrust for computers is the key motivation for some of my books.
They are:
SIMAT
Total Access
Cyber Watchdog
and
Terror by Machine
My first attempt at Alternate History and Time Travel was recently released it is called: Surprise Battle: A Different Outcome. A modern warship is transported to the middle of the Battle at Guadalcanal in 1942.
I wrote an interesting murder mystery type book about a modern killer for hire business. It follows the story sharing a bit of both perspectives between the police and the suppliers (killers). It is called Death Mail; An Order of Murder.
For the fans of ghost stories, I wrote Mystery in the Mine and O'Toole's Treasure a continuing story about two reopened Gold Rush mines with some mysterious help.
The other main influence on my writing is a health issue. I have an illness called Congestive Heart Failure or CHF cause by a heart attack 32 years ago. I have gotten to know a lot of people with this condition and there are more joining that world every day. To try to share the knowledge I have gained from my own experience and talking to others, I wrote four books intended to help those patients who have CHF.
Those books are:
Heart Failure: My Life Journey
Heart Failure: Our Life Journey
Heart Failure: One Day at a Time
Caring Hearts: A Caregiver’s World
I also wrote one book the falls between the engineer and the heart patient in me
It is a sci-fi called From Inside Heart Failure: The Future of a Cure
Maybe you can guess the theme to that one if you like old sci-fi.
I am always trying to improve my writing and I appreciate reviews and feedback as long as they are honest.
Keep reading.
My Thanks Tom
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 18, 2020
Interesting Scenario
The concept of a modern day war machine going back in time is interesting. Two comments: the transition from modern to WWII time frame was accepted far too easily by the submarine crew and the concept was almost the same as the movie “The Final Countdown” in the 1970’s except with an aircraft carrier. Still a good read with submarine operational details.
The concept of a modern day war machine going back in time is interesting. Two comments: the transition from modern to WWII time frame was accepted far too easily by the submarine crew and the concept was almost the same as the movie “The Final Countdown” in the 1970’s except with an aircraft carrier. Still a good read with submarine operational details.
April 20, 2020
Alternate history
Too simplistic and inconsistent. Interesting idea though but the story failed badly in execution of the idea Would not read again anything by this author
Too simplistic and inconsistent. Interesting idea though but the story failed badly in execution of the idea Would not read again anything by this author
May 27, 2020
Fast read
Okay first the good part. The book is a very fast read, I finished if in about two hours start to finish as a page a minute reader. The concept is fine as my own short story Lost Submariners Log https://smile.amazon.com/Lost-Submari... will attest I like the basic concept.
On the other side of the scales there are some technical problems that just nag, like the Captain and crew first accepting they have moved through time so easily, then jumping right into a fleet action requiring them to travel at high speed for days, fight, then retreat while still having useable weapons. If I bite the bullet and accept the crew are all predisposed to believe they have been sent through time I can cross the first hurdle, but eagerly seeking battle with the Japanese who have been American allies for at least 75 years when this novel opens which is longer than the lifespan of any officer or crewman on the sub is a big jump. These are Americans who grew up with cars from Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, and electronics from Sony and Toshiba. Blithely sailing half way across the Pacific without orders to attack a Japanese fleet is not the natural first reaction people with this life history would reflexively have. Now if the submarine in the story was the USS Nautilus from 1955 that would be a reasonable reaction as most of the officers and petty officers would have fought in WW II or Korea. By using a submarine from 2025 the generation who would reflexively fight Japanese navy ships without considerable time to get used to the idea and explicit orders to do so is just a step too far for me. You could certainly get them to take the war seriously and fight the Japanese, but you need time to build up to the war.
On the technical side, modern attack subs, heck even WW II subs carried more torpedoes than the sub portrayed. In addition to more torpedoes modern subs also carry Harpoon anti-ship missiles that would be death on a destroyer size warship of the era which were tiny by modern standards and easily sunk. Also the Tomahawk VLS missiles have both land attack and anti-ship modes. No matter how good your aim a single 1000lbs explosion is going to do very limited damage to a military base. The radius of damage unless you hit the ammo dump or a 10,000 barrel fuel oil tank is only enough to take out one or two buildings. Yes it can cause damage, but not a lot of damage and certainly not enough to close down a harbor shut down operations for more than a handful of days.
I don't want the author to feel overly picked on here, but I think a much expanded novel where things develop at a more realistic pace would make a fine third edition. I was taught that when writing Sci-Fi you should choose one fantastic technology or event, like getting dropped through time or inventing a camera that takes pictures of tomorrows newspaper headlines or whatever you fancy. Then from that point on you try and make solid seeming characters that react to whatever premise you are using the same way your brother or next door neighbor might react in that situation. If your characters react the same way your neighbor or cousin or local mayor would possibly react then your story has a realism about it that makes the fantastic difference seem more believable.
Okay first the good part. The book is a very fast read, I finished if in about two hours start to finish as a page a minute reader. The concept is fine as my own short story Lost Submariners Log https://smile.amazon.com/Lost-Submari... will attest I like the basic concept.
On the other side of the scales there are some technical problems that just nag, like the Captain and crew first accepting they have moved through time so easily, then jumping right into a fleet action requiring them to travel at high speed for days, fight, then retreat while still having useable weapons. If I bite the bullet and accept the crew are all predisposed to believe they have been sent through time I can cross the first hurdle, but eagerly seeking battle with the Japanese who have been American allies for at least 75 years when this novel opens which is longer than the lifespan of any officer or crewman on the sub is a big jump. These are Americans who grew up with cars from Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, and electronics from Sony and Toshiba. Blithely sailing half way across the Pacific without orders to attack a Japanese fleet is not the natural first reaction people with this life history would reflexively have. Now if the submarine in the story was the USS Nautilus from 1955 that would be a reasonable reaction as most of the officers and petty officers would have fought in WW II or Korea. By using a submarine from 2025 the generation who would reflexively fight Japanese navy ships without considerable time to get used to the idea and explicit orders to do so is just a step too far for me. You could certainly get them to take the war seriously and fight the Japanese, but you need time to build up to the war.
On the technical side, modern attack subs, heck even WW II subs carried more torpedoes than the sub portrayed. In addition to more torpedoes modern subs also carry Harpoon anti-ship missiles that would be death on a destroyer size warship of the era which were tiny by modern standards and easily sunk. Also the Tomahawk VLS missiles have both land attack and anti-ship modes. No matter how good your aim a single 1000lbs explosion is going to do very limited damage to a military base. The radius of damage unless you hit the ammo dump or a 10,000 barrel fuel oil tank is only enough to take out one or two buildings. Yes it can cause damage, but not a lot of damage and certainly not enough to close down a harbor shut down operations for more than a handful of days.
I don't want the author to feel overly picked on here, but I think a much expanded novel where things develop at a more realistic pace would make a fine third edition. I was taught that when writing Sci-Fi you should choose one fantastic technology or event, like getting dropped through time or inventing a camera that takes pictures of tomorrows newspaper headlines or whatever you fancy. Then from that point on you try and make solid seeming characters that react to whatever premise you are using the same way your brother or next door neighbor might react in that situation. If your characters react the same way your neighbor or cousin or local mayor would possibly react then your story has a realism about it that makes the fantastic difference seem more believable.
March 23, 2020
Good Plot and Topic, but cartoonish simple writing.
Nice intro, some of the talk in a sub sounded correct, but the immediate acceptance that they were in 1942 seemed a bit off. Also the admiral of the invasion fleet just accepting him at face value didn’t seem likely either. Would have read better to go to different locations, ie, the Japanese ships, than to stay with one location and viewpoint. I enjoyed it, but it was more of an adventure cartoon than convincingly credible.
Nice intro, some of the talk in a sub sounded correct, but the immediate acceptance that they were in 1942 seemed a bit off. Also the admiral of the invasion fleet just accepting him at face value didn’t seem likely either. Would have read better to go to different locations, ie, the Japanese ships, than to stay with one location and viewpoint. I enjoyed it, but it was more of an adventure cartoon than convincingly credible.
July 26, 2023
Very fast read, loved it. Very Navy sub believable
I read in 2 days. It was Like being alongside crew watching as story unfolds. Fans who were dissatisfied that we didn't attack Japanese
Fleet in movie Final Countdown, will like how this one reads.
Everyone has wished at some point they could go back when they were young change one thing see how it would turn out.
If you liked Fighting Tomcats, by Maki and Maki you will like this book. Checkout this series too.
I read in 2 days. It was Like being alongside crew watching as story unfolds. Fans who were dissatisfied that we didn't attack Japanese
Fleet in movie Final Countdown, will like how this one reads.
Everyone has wished at some point they could go back when they were young change one thing see how it would turn out.
If you liked Fighting Tomcats, by Maki and Maki you will like this book. Checkout this series too.
April 12, 2020
A Trip Back In Time
Not a new idea but one that continues to tease the imagination. Read books about surface ships traveling back in time but not sub. A fairly quick and entertaining read. Everyone's quick realization and acceptance of what had happened was a little difficult to believe. I would recommend this book if you're into alternate history.
Not a new idea but one that continues to tease the imagination. Read books about surface ships traveling back in time but not sub. A fairly quick and entertaining read. Everyone's quick realization and acceptance of what had happened was a little difficult to believe. I would recommend this book if you're into alternate history.
April 25, 2020
Excellent read.
Outstanding. Will be reading more of you works! I really enjoy good alternative history. Let me know if and when you publish more.
Outstanding. Will be reading more of you works! I really enjoy good alternative history. Let me know if and when you publish more.
October 3, 2020
Good alt-History
This was a quick and enjoyable read. If I have any complaint, it is that the book reads more like a prequel. Still enjoy it
This was a quick and enjoyable read. If I have any complaint, it is that the book reads more like a prequel. Still enjoy it
February 28, 2021
Fun read
Short and easy to read time travel is an interesting subject but if it ever happens it will be very interesting.
Short and easy to read time travel is an interesting subject but if it ever happens it will be very interesting.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews