Marty SteereRecensioni

The tragic loss of the crew during re-entry of the Apollo 18 mission hits home as suddenly as an unknown group tries to kill one of the astronaut's sons. On the run from "The Organization, " the protagonists out to preserve a race to the moon secret and their own government that wants to leave their secrets buried, Commander Bob Cartwright's sons can't stop their work to uncover the conspiracy or they will die. This fast-paced tale will leave the reader wondering what else has been covered up.

Interesting story regarding Apollo 18 and a gigantic cover up by the government. The story dragged a little at times, but was interesting enough to keep me reading.

The sons of famed astronaut, Bob Cartwright, have always questioned the circumstances surrounding their fathers death. Leading the Apollo 18 mission, Cartwright noticed something out of the ordinary upon landing on the moon. "That shouldn't be here", were Bob's final words just prior to his connection with NASA being broken. However, when it was discovered the astronauts were returning from their mission, everything was assumed to have gone smoothly. Bobbing in the ocean, the rescue team reached the capsule only to discover the three men burned to a crisp. It appeared the heat shield had failed upon reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere as the crew suffered a gruesome end.

Now, after years of unrest, Cartwright's son Peter began his investigation. Shortly after compiling research, things take a turn for the worse. Peter has made a lot of people very nervous by digging up the past and along with his brothers, Matt and Nate, they're about to come into contact with The Organization.

Marty has a style of prose that's easily digestible. Of course, that's not a knock at the writing style or the author, if anything, that's one of the big reasons why I'm such a fan of Stephen King. Sea of Crises is the kind of book that can cause you to completely lose track of time. When I initially sat down and dove in to the story, when I finally put it down for the evening, I had read the entire first half of the book.

Steere created a pretty bad ass villain in that of Raen. Given the nature of The Organization and the fact that they generally stop at nothing when tasked with a mission, the man chasing the Cartwright boys truly inhabits that stance. There's a few scenes in particular where he shines and leaves the reader anticipating his eventual face off with the brothers.

A good chunk of Sea of Crises takes place on the surface of the moon through flashbacks. Steere could easily fall back into a rhythm of throwing technical jargon and space travel filler, he keeps the style he’s established from the first of the book throughout. The action moves swiftly and the story stays rooted in the realm possibility, which is great.

The only gripe I have with the novel was the romantic/love interest side plot that develops about two thirds of the way in. I'm not sure how much it was needed but in the end, it doesn't really take all that much away. The core story is still strong enough to stand on it's own.

Overall, Sea of Crises is a well written novel which develops an intriguing mystery that only gets better as the story moves along.

****

I received a free copy of the book from the author in exchange for a fair review.

Cross posted on Every Read Thing

I loved this book. Jon moves to Jackson, Indiana after his family is killed to live with his maternal grandmother. He meets Mary at high school and both are very smart. Jon has problems because he is Jewish but this doesn't matter to Mary. He meets Ben while exploring the area and learns to fly. Because of an incident involving the school bully, he joins the Army Air Force to avoid jail. He is sent to England. Mary joins the Army to find Jon and with help of her commanding officer, she finds him. I found this part of the book hard to believe, but the rest of the book was believable and the war scenes were heart racing. Even though the back ground of much of this book is war, its still a book more for women. This would be a great book to read on vacation.

I very much liked this book. There are many levels to this story. Mary - the mayor's daughter who doesn't agree with the way Jon is treated and is attracted to him - is one half of a sweet innocent love story that grows strong and wise beyond the couple's years and is sure to last a life time. The small town basketball coach, who allows and enables hostile treatment of Jon drew my ire. One of my favorite scenes in the book is when Jon is forced to take a stand against him, through conditions set up by the coach, and it backfires on the despicable man who ends up getting his just desserts. I don't want to give away too much of the story, but I assure you that it will make you cheer. The relationship between John and his grandmother most intrigued me as I learned the circumstances behind her seeming indifference to the boy, and watched him earn her approval and gain her love. The things he goes through on a daily basis wrench my heart. He has a spirit than can not be squelched through racism, discrimination, bullying, violence, or even war. It is sure to endear him to every reader, as it did me. There is so much going on in this book, especially behind the scenes, that will keep you entertained and interested until everything is revealed. I strongly recommend it.
I was given a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

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A young man is orphaned at the age of sixteen. He is sent to live with his estranged grandmother who doesn't want anything to do with him. With his life turned upside down, he finds himself ostracized in her new home all because his father was a Jew. Framed for a crime he didn't commit, he finds himself dropping bombs over Germany while his town back home deals with betrayal of their own and the love of his life fighting to get her life back.

This historical fiction novel is an excellent story that will have you cheering one minute, angry the next, and then fighting back the tears. The storyline was exceptionally well-written, pulling in a variety of characters there were themselves very deep. I loved the depths the author took them. I had tears in my eyes as I watched the relationship between Jon and his grandmother move all over the spectrum. Even the despicable ones were not flat. They had many facets though not enough to have you generating sympathy for them.

I found myself unable to put the book down after I got into it. I have to admit that I struggled in the beginning. Not for want of a great story or excellent writing. It was the subject matter. The hatred shown against the young boy for being Jewish angered me. I wanted to reach into the story and take care of a few characters.

With that note, there is quite a bit of hate acts in the book as well as an attempted rape and other violent scenes. You are taken from small-town Indiana to the skies over France where death could occur easily with the rip of a bullet. Though the book is not graphic, there is no doubt what is happening and it is not quite sugar-coated.

This is one book you'll think on long after you finish reading it and will recommend to others.

Note: This book was received as part of a virtual book tour with no expectations of a positive review.

Sea of Crises is giving me a problem. See, I want to tell you all about the novel so you’ll rush out and buy it and enjoy it as much as I did, BUT, I don’t want to give anything away! Usually I enjoy pointing out errors, slow spots, maybe the odd character development that...well, doesn’t, but I couldn't find any. Nada. I looked – believe me! Okay, I’ll say this; for a brief second, I thought I was reading a re-make of Capricorn One – you know; the movie where they didn’t really go off into space after all and there’s this cover up going on?

Well, Marty Steere gets you past that in a hurry, and what follows is a spellbinding adventure with an ending you will not believe. Believe me.

The writing is great - spelling and punctuation is wonderful – the prose is... oh just go buy the book! You will NOT regret it. Now to go find something to review that I can actually pick on :).

www.daniellittle.com

I just finished reading this last night. When I first got the book (Thanks Marty, for the signed copy!) I didn't know what to expect. I started it a few days ago. The first few pages were a bit wordy in their descriptions and I wasn't sure. I kept going tho, and am glad I did. The descriptions helped a lot. Once I got going, i didn't want to put it down. I read until 5 this morning because it was so good and I wanted to get see what happened in the end.
This book is about Apollo 18 and what happened - in Marty's view. What a great story. Lots of info on things. and it flowed perfectly!
If you haven't read this yet, go buy a copy now! You will be glad you did.

This review was written for LibraryThing Member Giveaway

Apollo 18’s mission in 1976 was to land on the moon. However something went terribly wrong and the astronauts died when their capsule returned to earth. Years later, the son of one of the astronauts discovers that something is not quite right and the details are part of a cover-up. He enlists the help of his other brothers and relatives of the other two astronauts. So begins Sea of Crises by Marty Steere, a new author. The book is divided into 3 sections, parts one and three taking place today and part two revealing the events of 1976. Steere takes a cancelled mission in Apollo space history and uses it as the basis for his story.

The plot is tight, believable and well written with the requisite heroes and villains and a bit of romance thrown in. I cannot attest to the technical details presented in part two; however, they seemed to be accurate. However there could have been some editing for better story flow. For instance, there is an eight page section describing a basketball game when the brothers were in school. I get the reason for the episode but the credibility of the Cartwright brother was touched on at other places in the novel. At another point, the reason why a secondary character named his plane was given. Totally irrelevant to the plot and it broke the focus of the story.

I enjoyed the story and can recommend it to readers of political thrillers.

I received this through LT’s Member Giveaway Program.
Whew, what a ride. This book has just about anything a reader can want in a book. You want political intrigue? It’s got it. You want government conspiracy, that too. You want a thrilling trip into space, it’s there as well. Top it all off with family reconciliation of all types. This is one roller coaster of a story that you must read. You will not be sorry.

This is the story of three brothers trying to find out what happened to their dad. It's loaded with action, honor, duty, friendship, and perseverance. Espionage, intrigue, chase scenes, mystery. Death, destruction, mayhem, and explosions. Danger, power plays, and corruption at very high levels. The lunar exploration from the astronaut's POV was incredibly cool. I was on the edge of my seat through most of this amazing book and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys mysteries, thrillers, or science fiction.