TEMPEST DOWN

Masters and commanders in a crackling tale of two subs.

One sub’s US, experimental variety, very hush-hush; the other’s Chinese, extremely interested in what’s being hushed. Way down deep in the ferociously frigid Antarctic Ocean, the latter stalks the former in an attempt to stick its steely nose into what’s clearly none of its business. The stalking grows over-ambitious. The subs connect—to understate drastically—in a collision that leaves them parked under a volatile icecap—locked in a kind of Siamese-twin symbiosis, to the detriment of all concerned. Sailors are lost at sea, both sides, but there are survivors. Enter the remarkable, resourceful, wonderfully courageous men and women of LASER, the US military’s Land Air Sea Emergency Rescue team. What they accomplish under extreme conditions is the stuff of high drama and nail-biting suspense as Rovin’s way with technological detail (he makes it reader friendly) also plays a key role. More important, however, is his cast—large, varied, and compelling, composed of believable, understandable characters to worry about, even those you don’t always like: Rear Admiral “Stone” Silver, for instance. Recently widowed, emotionally inaccessible, Silver uses his work to keep relationships at bay, while Major Thomas Bryan, LASER’s commander, is driven by an almost obsessive need to redeem a failure no one but he perceives as such. Not unlike the admiral, Dr. Charlotte Davies, a brilliant civilian scientist attached to the mission, is an emotional dropout in workaholic’s clothing. Dr. Mike Carr is another civilian scientist, equally brilliant, though his innate, by-the-book caution proves tragically counter-productive. And so on down an evocative list. Essentially, this is a novel about things like honor and commitment, but running adjacent, in satisfying profusion, are self-serving hidden agendas, including the US’s and China’s.

Rovin (Fatalis, 2000, etc.) gets the people right and produces his best yet.