High Octane Action

I enjoyed the first book in the series so much I decided to read book two. Christine O’Conner is the president’s national security advisor. She advises against signing the Maer Accord about the mutual access to environmental resources between the U.S. and her allies. The Accord severely limits China’s access to natural resources. O’Conner said this will lead to war with China; the Chief or Staff says it will not lead to war. O’Conner flies to China to attempt to offset a war but she is arrested and confined to a cell; as China goes to war. She escapes and eventually end up on the U.S. Michigan, a trident submarine.

Three American submarines are immediately destroyed as China launches war. China’s missiles and ships are more sophisticated than expected and she has many many more than does the Pacific Fleet. When China gets the Pacific Fleet exactly where they want it, they also launch cyberwarfare.
The book is well written and is non-stop action. The battle scenes are real nail biters. The book seems quite realistic. I could hardly put the book down. This is a great military action novel.

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is about thirteen and a half hours long. Fred Berman does a great job narrating the book. Berman is an actor and award winning audiobook narrator.

9 people found this helpful

Great Book!!!!

I'm a retired Submarine Chief (Nuclear Electronics Technician). I'm a Plank owner on the Kentucky and the Annapolis was my second submarine. This was one of the most interesting books that I've listened to and I've listened to quite a few. I've read many more from a bunk on a submarine and I would say that this ranks very high on my list of great reads. For those that are concerned about the accuracy of the novel, I would say chill out its fiction and the author as a retired Navy man is limited on the actual facts and capabilities that he can divulge. Looking forward to the next book which comes out in a couple weeks.

6 people found this helpful

Decent storyline but narrator is unbearable

The story line is decent but the narration is a big distraction to me. I should have listened to the audio sample but I didn't. He sounds like Joe Pesci screaming when he tries to read the dramatic parts. Imagine nails to a chalkboard. His normal reading voice, I can bear but beyond that; it's like a tenor trying to reach beyond his range. The different characters all sound the same same.
The author definitely knows his submarines and weaves a good enough story to keep you engaged. I totally enjoyed Rick Campbell's first book, The Trident Deception and narrator was good. This one; not so much. Please listen to the sample before you purchase.

4 people found this helpful

Author know subs

This is a book that matches bearings and shoots. A real page turner and I am looking forward to future books.

2 people found this helpful

A fun thriller but spoiled by technical errors

Would you try another book from Rick Campbell and/or Fred Berman?

I might if he does better research on the technical details especially when he relies on them to get out of bad situations. I read his earlier book which was far better written than this one.

What could Rick Campbell have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Not use rediculous and far fetched solutions to resolve bad situations. For example, sucessfully landing an entire airwing on a carrier that has a 40 foot hole in the flight deck that takes out all the Cross Deck Pendants (wires that the an aircraft tail hook catches on landing) and shortens the useable landing distance. Then asserting that every aircraft could stop using only their brakes before running out of landing space. Plus all pilots being blinded by the dense smoke of the Carrier on fire, and relying on automatic landing system alone. Not withstanding landing an entire airwing in less than 20 minutes. No modern jet combat aircraft could land and come to a full stop using only its brakes even if a full length flight deck were available. Landing an entire Airwing worth of aircraft in 20 minutes could not happen during a normal operation as each aircraft also has to clear the deack for the next aircraft that is already on final approach. Each aircraft further has to be moved to a parking spot to allow recovery of all aircraft. His scenario of this is ludicrously laughable, pattently rediculous and detracts from what could be a great book. This is only one of several glaring techical details that ruined my full enjoyment of the story.

Did Fred Berman do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Yes I liked his portrayal of the main chracters but as some one else remarked the yelling of various watch standers reporting to operational commanders got to be too much.

Could you see Empire Rising being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Never its too stupid on some of its technical details and the heronine too much of a Super Woman to be accepted as genuine. Maybe a. Graphic novel character but not otherwise

Any additional comments?

As a retired Navy officer I found the premise of China out manuevering America on the cyber level is a definite and realistic possibility maybe even a probability. The U.S. Thinks itself as superior in the cyber world and Thinks of China as inferior. It simply is not so. Most of our fighting machines are highly dependant on software programming. We have aquired superior aircraft that are incapable of doing the job they were designed for because the software is not ready and in some cases are years away from being ready. We are cutting corners and reducing and eliminating funding across the board injudiciously - impeading the availability and functionality of weapons systems we are already committed to and form an integral part of our readiness and defense. This novel at least does a good job of highliting that we may losing future conflicts on the basis of software performance and/or vulnerability of being sabotaged. If you doubt this is a real threat you only have to look at all the recent major companies that have been hacked, some of whom were defense contractors. Some of this hacking has been traced to China. Who do you think writes the vast majority of the programs for our weapons systems? What is the likely hood of coders being bribed or coerced into sabotage? Civliian Defense Contractors are the answer to these questions. All of this is made clear in this novel, even if it has glaring errors in other ways. For that reason I did enjoy the story.

6 people found this helpful

Interesting premise, but not carried off well

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Needs a good editor and someone to check technical details. It actually starts out fairly well, but as it goes on it gets more and more like a cartoon or comic book. I assume the technical details on the submarine are accurate since the author has direct knowledge. Nonetheless, this could have been pared down some without losing the significance. If the book had been 100 pages longer I would have expected Christina to sprout wings, or show her brain-reading ability. About 2/3 of the way through I began to hope that one of the Chinese would put a few slugs right into Christine's brain cavity, or perhaps through her apparently gigantic boobs. There are a few typos that should have been caught such as "below crush depth" when he clearly meant well above crush depth, in describing how so many of the subs and skimmers could be salvaged. Also - There is NO safety catch/lever on a Glock pistol. Chrtistine works the safety at several spots. If you are going to use specifics, then do the research or just use generic. Can't imagine putting a suppressor on a G26. It would be very nose-heavy and very prone to limp-wristing malfunction due to the tiny handgrip.
Characters, even the main ones, if there are any, very 2D at best.

Would you be willing to try another book from Rick Campbell? Why or why not?

Probably not. Trident deception was okay, but now appears to be his best work. If there is to be another in this series, either retire Christine or explain her super-powers up front.

How could the performance have been better?

With pretty much anyone else reading it. Every time the situation got excited, the reader slipped into a shrill higher pitch that reminded me a lot of Joe Pesci on speed. The reader just never calmed down. Apparently he is an alto at best, so it just got higher and sillier with any effort to impart tension or danger.

Did Empire Rising inspire you to do anything?

Read more reviews at other sites, and especially try to find more audio reviews.

Any additional comments?

The basic storyline premise was not bad, and has been worked by some other authors as well, though without the cyber element. It's really just an action/adventure tale with some extra details in sub operations. Apparently USN has ceased antisubmarine air operations as they play no part in these battles than nearly rival Leyte in scope, and Savo Island in results.

3 people found this helpful

Too redundant!

The author needs a better editor. It was too long and too redundant. As to the recording, I got very tired of the performer calling out torpedo distances (which is. Another thing that could have been edited out).

2 people found this helpful

Way too out there to be believable.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I would make the U.S. less completely helpless; the Chinese destroyed strategic assets (that's what Nukes are for). I understand the Chinese mentality in the beginning the treaty sucked for them. But they took a controllable situation and made it to where only one side could win. I would make China more aggressive why stop at destroying the pacific fleet why not the entire US Navy fleet. They are basically making themselves unforgivable and they seem to be unstoppable. Why take the risk of allowing us to eventually retaliate. I imagine our Subs could be a lot quieter that he makes them out to be. The Chinese basically jumped from 20 years behind us to 20 years ahead of us and Infiltrated our entire military infrastructure. Peoples heads should roll

If you’ve listened to books by Rick Campbell before, how does this one compare?

Way less believable and more annoying

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I got tired of the narrator screaming in my ear.

Could you see Empire Rising being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Not unless its a training film on not how portray the US Military to American readers. Its not about us loosing its about how we lost.

Any additional comments?

Fred Berman needs to stop screaming when hes talking. I think i failed my workplace hearing test after listening to this book. I asked where the listening to audiobooks section in noisy hobbies was and they just laughed its really not funny though it was not a fun experience.

2 people found this helpful

Pronounce

Narrator needs to spend a day on a submarine, to pronounce terms right. Aloha

outstanding

all around a very thrilling war story and a must for all you battle heads