Breakthrough

What an absolutely great book! I find it hard to believe that this is one of Mr. Grumley's first books! I have provided very few reviews of books, as I am not very good at it, but I must say that this one is quite a gem. The story goes along at a great pace and like a roller coaster, it comes with with surprises all the way through. There is no sex and no swearing (that I can recall).The romance is low-key and appropriately platonic. The characters are superb, in my opinion, with good guys, bad guys, and supporting characters in between. The two or three main military characters are even-headed and work well with the scientists, which in real world isn't that common. Sorry, I am a retired U.S. Marine with 30 years service, so I am fairly knowledgeable in that respect. As a thought, the Naval officer grade of Commanders (O5) for both Clay and Caesare is a bit high for Seals doing their job, in my opinion. Clay should be Lt. Commander (O4) and Caesare might be better as a Lt. (O3) or even as a Chief Petty Officer (E7,or E8). While dealing with an Admiral (as they often do in the story), military bearing should be a bit tightened up with a few "sir"s when appropriate. Luckily, most of the readers may not catch the military inconsistencies that former Naval personnel may. I would be surprised if there weren't other former military members grabbing this book after seeing that sub!Now, I could go on and on about specifics, but I would like to offer my opinion on one of the negative reviews (**) as I recall by Tod a. First, Tod's review is pretty critical of much of the book with his specific comments as "WTF" (Spoiler) moments. Tod has put together a very precise and well-thought out set of WTF moments, most would think back and very possibly agree.However, I would recommend that anyone considering getting this book, read his and others' negative comments AFTER reading the book! If read before, the odds of looking for a different book may be greater, thereby missing a wonderful opportunity for entertainment, and a great read! Gotta keep in mind...this is FICTION and may not match reality (including military), as some of us may want.Lastly, the artist who did the cover graphics did a wonderful job! Absolutely beautiful, and gives the book browser no doubt as to the concept of the story expected inside!So, thank you Michael Grumley for a wonderful few hours spent with your novel! You done did good! Now on to the next one!

I really enjoyed this thriller. Fast paced plot, engaging characters and unique storyline. Totally a fun read. I enjoyed both the human side and the sci-fi aspects.

This is a remarkably well-written, self-published book. It occupies the borderland between the political thriller and science fiction, somewhat like Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons." But Grumley is a better wordsmith than Brown, and the plot of this book is both denser and more creative than most political thrillers. Basically, it involves three interconnected stories: (1) scientists learning to speak to their dolphins; (2) naval submarine personnel confronted with an alien artifact in the Atlantic; and (3) geophysicists confronted with a collapsing ice shelf in Antarctica. It is hard to describe this plot without spoiler alerts, so someone wanting to be totally surprised should probably stop reading here. A nuclear submarine in the Atlantic is displaced about 15 miles from its intended coordinates, and a subsequent investigation reveals a large alien object which is sucking water out of the ocean and piping it to a distant planet. Several aliens are captured, and the government makes plans to destroy the offending artifact. A rogue government official develops a backup plan involving strapping a nuclear device to the talking dolphins and blowing up the artifact in the event the primary plan to destroy it fails. Meanwhile, the artifact has sucked enough water out of the ocean to undermine the Antarctic ice shelf, which, if it crashes into the ocean will cause a devastating tsunami and will kill millions. The scientists who have been communicating with the dolphins and rebel naval personnel, with the help of one of the aliens, devise a plan to stop the rogue government agents before they set off the bomb.The first 80% of the book is about as good a political thriller as I have read. Grumley juggles and integrates his three plots seamlessly, and his characters and pacing are about as good as one is likely to find in this rather artificial genre. The resolution is also fascinating and rather ingenious, although it suffers from plausibility problems. Of course, of plausibility were a central issue in this genre, no one would read books like this in the first place. That said, internal consistency is a virtue, and it is here where a good editor would have been of value. At least three plausibility problems that could have been rather easily fixed should be noted.1. The aliens are physically indistinguishable from the crew of the submarine because of convergent evolution. Come on! While I do not doubt that aliens might produce basic features common to intelligent species, human differences between, e.g., Scandinavians and Australian aborigines are readily noticeable, and surely aliens would differ from ordinary American types more than one human ethnic group differs from another. Much better to explain indistinguishability by genetic engineering or alien technology cloaking the alien's true form.2. If the Antarctic ice shelf was being undermined by the low water level caused by the alien pumping device, then surely the water level along the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines would be visibly dropping as well. Water seeks its own level in the oceans was well as in a glass. Perhaps the alien device needed to be placed directly under the icecap and isolated from the reason of the world's oceans.3. Most glaringly, the book needs to discuss why the aliens did not simply indicate that their project was about completed when the U.S. government uncovered it. Instead, they prepared for a government attack by planning to destroy a submarine fleet and risked a tsunami which would have killed millions. Of course, the government might not have believed them; but then, why not simply shut the project down? While the rogue government agent is made out to be the villain of the piece, the aliens' actions are insensitive, sneaky, and remarkably short-sighted, and the government agent has every reason to distrust them. If aliens were stealing enough water to destroy the Antarctic ice shelf, any government agent worth his salt would give serious consideration to blowing these people up. Grumley should have either explained why the aliens did not take measures to avoid the worst consequences of their behavior. To be sure, this might have gotten him into some deeper moral territory about intellectual blindness and unintended consequences, and this sort of introspection is rare in the political thriller genre. But this book is so good in so many other ways that it would have been worth it to try to stretch the envelope.

It's ok, not great.There are recent books that are well written and capture you right away -- Red Rising, The Name of the Wind, Dust, a couple of others. This book is ok but not on that level (despite the high number of glowing reviews). The author combines various agencies and recent technical concepts, which are interesting, but the dialog is a bit cliche and certain major advances handled a bit too blithely in service to the overall story.There are books that draw me in because I want to live in that universe (i.e., Red Rising, etc.) and there are books that have an interesting premise that I want to get to the end of, so I start skimming the first sentence in every paragraph to read faster ... this is one of those. Not enough to stop reading but just that I want to see if something ever comes of it.Also note that you'll find dialogue like, "with these democrats cutting our budgets, we just can't justify spending..." which was said by a military officer for whom no character development had been done and that felt completely out of place. It was such an odd thing to include I almost stopped reading the book entirely right there (and I am entirely clear that certain segments of the population believe this -- it was just so out of place in the flow of dialogue and character development that it felt juvenile).So, overall -- decent concepts, ok dialogue -- not deserving of all the high reviews I've seen on Amazon, though.

I was looking for an action adventure like the books of Clive Cussler, Andy McDermott and Paul McGowan and bought this book partly as a gamble, and partly because I liked the story line about communication with dolphins woven into an action adventure.This book is a real pleasure to read: I read it during our holiday and couldn't put it down! It's very wel written, entertaining, a story line with some original and unexpected twists and the characters are interesting. The combination of an adventure, Science Fiction, political intrigue and environmental issues works very well in this book!An excellent book. Self-published by the author, more original and better written than many books written by some well established and known names!

Just one word terrific, just couldn't stop reading, the way the author took the story and the characters was spellbinding. While reading i got a feeling that I was part of the storyline. Best story I have read in a long time.

You will be hooked! I got the second book in this series, Leap, on 'bookbub' and it was free or maybe $0.99 at the most. So I thought given the great reviews tht it wouldn't be much of a risk to buy this first one and read it in the correct order. Oh boy am I pleased I did!!!Great sci-if AND great characters and lots of emotions. I found myself really invested in the story. All three of them actually. I've just finished book three and can't WAIT for book four to come out. It's 98% completed!! YEAH!!Great author. Writes a very fast paced, action packed,very intriguing story with great detail when it's required. I'm really loving the characters!! I just want more books!!! I love the way the author is questioning our humanity and our science.Easy fast read that you won't want to put down!

Good ideas. Could flesh the characters out a bit more.Otherwise, not a compelling read, but not bad all the same.

J'ai découvert ce livre grâce à son auteur qui m'a contacté apres que j'ai posté un commentaire sur le dernier livre de Clive Cussler que je venais de terminer.Le premier livre de Michael Grumley est une vrai réussite et je vais me précipiter pour lire le second.