An Ocean of Courage and Fear

Borrowman (Dark Seas) bases his latest novel on true accounts of the USS Salt Lake City’s activities during World War II. Interweaving fictional characters with real-life sailors, the novel follows Justin Collier (a lieutenant commander on the Salt Lake City), Lieutenant Riley Bracken (Collier’s cousin and a talented naval pilot), and sailor Al Jowdy (a 15-year-old who lied about his age to enlist, as they defend the United States in the Pacific following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor). Collier’s coolheadedness allows him to order strategic maneuvers that outwit and overpower the Japanese forces, while Bracken’s aviation expertise keeps the Salt Lake City abreast of their no-holds-barred opponent. While there is a lot of action that takes place at sea, the novel’s most compelling scenes come during Collier’s hand-to-hand combat in the Aleutian Islands. With so many characters filling out the story, it can be difficult to keep up with who’s who, and the fictionalized account of Jowdy’s doings (he is one of two real-life sailors depicted in the novel) doesn’t particularly move the novel forward.