This was a very good book! Probably the best of the series [and the coolest cover in the series], in my opinion. It had a good flow to it and I did not want to put it down. The author had good character development [overall] in it for new characters to the story. It is the last book in his series; it was somewhat anticlimactic in that you knew the United States would not lose, so the author may have made the stakes 'too high', but at the same time not too many people [i.e. - Americans] enjoy reading books where the United States loses, either. The ending reminded me of the movie 'Crimson Tide' in that the movie was also fairly anticlimactic.In this final story in the series, Jeffrey Fuller and the crew of the Challenger is given one final, top-secret mission which will end the Third World War one way or another. They take one some mysterious passengers outside of Hawaii and Fuller discovers he has been promoted to 'Captain' and designated 'Commodore' as he will be leading a multi-ship task force for this mission. His orders are that he is to rendezvous with another American submarine with seventy-four other elite specialized commandos and take them to Russia where they are to invade a missile silo base, launch three modified nuclear missiles at the United States, and then Fuller is to play the aggrieved party in order to force Russia to denounce its neutrality and join the side of the Allies against the new Axis powers. It is quite a game of subterfuge, deception, and trickery with the fate of the planet in the balance, and Fuller has to be on his toes to survive, especially since he and the Challenger are considered expendable.(view spoiler)[ There are some rather crazy scenes in this book. One scene is encountering a German-controlled Amethyste-class submarine and sinking it under the ice pack. Another scene is the commandos' attack on the Russian missile base and the subsequent carnage up to the point of the nuclear missiles being launched. It was fun reading about Fuller having to be on his toes when the Challenger surfaced and he was taken to Russia as an acting emissary for the United States after the missile launch. It was also interesting to read about some of the various Russian defenses the two crews encountered. The 'best' part was the attack on the missile base. In previous novels most of the action takes place on the submarine or in meetings with various leaders. Very little action on land was described in the other books [that I can remember]. This was the first time where a 'major land battle' was extensively described any of the books and the author did a fine job with the telling. Granted, what happened at the missile base was an important part of the story, but he could have left it out. I am glad he included it, however, as I think it was an important and integral part of the narration; the story would definitely have suffered had he not included it.Even though Ilse had become annoying by the time she was removed from the story line in the previous novel, I was glad to see that she was truly not the mole the for whom investigators were searching. I would have been disappointed had she been, especially considering the way her actions had been written when she was arrested and taken away in the last novel.I think the plan to stop the war was one of the craziest plots I have read in a long time. A nation fakes an attack on itself using a neutral opponents weapons in order to bring about the end of a world war by forcing said nation to renounce its pretend neutrality and declare war against its former customers. The nukes were launched and set up to explode in outer space above Moscow, creating an EMP that would wipe out most of Russia's ability to function. Then Fuller was to go in with the mother of all bluffs and state the missiles were destroyed by a working American space shield, the description of which was borderline fantastic and funny to read. He even encouraged the Russians TO FIRE A THIRD MISSILE to test the shield if they wanted more proof! Crazy! Sheer insanity, had they followed through on this bluff! [obviously, they did not] It was an amazing plot, an incredible plot, and it worked. Despite coming across as anticlimactic like I had said previously, it still worked. Perhaps if I read this book a second time my opinion will change. (hide spoiler)]
