It bogged down a bit near end, but over all a good final to the trilogy .. leading into the next trilogy in series..

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as this series continu, it gets more and more ponderous... lots more exposition with less and less action or charactization... salvagable

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I enjoyed this book, with it's very large battle at the end, but it wasn't as riveting as the previous book nor did I feel the excitement.

[a:Taylor Anderson|1077166|Taylor Anderson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1290029263p2/1077166.jpg] opens up enough extra cans that we know this could be a lengthy series[thankfully book 6!!! came out just as I was getting into this. Better not be as long as the Wheel of Time series though!]

I am not a big fan of alt/whatever, but this is keeping my interest. I do wish Anderson wouldn't speechify so much though. Sometimes I feel like I'm re-reading the previous book as characters remember" scads of info." ( )

I had some problems with this the third novel of the Destroyermen Series. It was not as good as the first two books, though having said that it was still a decent book.

The first difficulty had was the constant flashbacks in the first half of the book, rehashing previous information from the preceding books that the diligent readers of the series have already known. At times there was some new information but to me it seems the author was preparing the book for a reader that was reading the series out of order. As a result, the first part of the book dragged for me, it lacked that cannot-put-it down feeling of the first two books.

The second difficulty was the Grik enemy. They attack the same way with overwhelming numbers and the mindless slaughter of this enemy is becoming boring. The battle between the Japanese and USA war ships was well done but the rest of that assault was not credible at all.

On the positive side there are new characters introduced in the form of finding the of the submarine crew as well as the West India Company. One can see where future conflicts will shift in the future.

I have the fourth novel in the series and will read it in the next month. I just hope it returns to its gripping read of the previous novels ( )

Maelstrom concludes a trilogy that ranks up as one of the best fantasy series I’ve ever read. Trapped in an alternate dimension, Captain Reddy is now the Supreme Commander of the allied forces made up of American Destroyer Men and various Lemurian nations against the reptilian Grik and the Japanese in their unholy alliance. Reddy and his team recruit more Lemurians to their alliance, and in the process come across human descendants of another ship that landed in this world a couple hundred years ago, along with Grik that aren’t as evil as their enemies. All of this leads up to an epic battle to settle the score as they have to deal with the overwhelming numbers among the Grik, who now have armed their ships with cannons, and the more modern and powerful Japanese battle ship.

I always hesitate when I read the final chapter of a series that I really enjoy. I’m always wary that it’s not going to live up to the legacy created by the previous books in the series. Maelstrom, although not quite as good as the first two novels, certainly finishes the trilogy strong. I liked the introduction of the human descendants of the ship that crashed into this world, even though they didn’t play much of a role in the conflict. I liked the buildup to the final battle, and the epic final battle itself, which was well-conceived and well-plotted. The book was a little overly long for my liking, and I thought that it was a little slow in spots, but otherwise I thought it was a fitting conclusion that readers of the series will enjoy.

Carl Alves - author of Two For Eternity ( )