The Kirov Battle Book Series Moves to the Pacific!
Dear Readers,
We had originally hoped to present the Odyssey of the Argos Fire as the next Battle Book Series release this month, but that volume is taking more time than expected due to the addition of new material. To fill the void, we move now to the War in the Pacific, with the first of several Battle Books devoted exclusively to the that campaign, uninterrupted by any of the many other plot lines in the series. This month we present Volume I in the War in the Pacific: Roll of Thunder, available August 1, 2016 for Kindle and also as a trade paperback a few days after that.
About Roll of Thunder
This is the alternate history of the war in the Pacific, extracted from many volumes of the long Kirov Series and re-edited into one continuous narrative. There are already 90 chapters featuring action from the Pacific, far too many to assemble in just one volume, particularly if a print trade paperback version is also being produced, as is the case with this Pacific War Series. Those chapters are scattered throughout five or six volumes in the main series, but here, that history will be presented in a series of Battle Books, this being the first 45 of those 90 chapters.
In this volume, the war begins with the Japanese Pearl Harbor Operation, where the first carrier to carrier battle of the war begins to set the history off on a very different course. Then comes the story of the US “Pensacola Convoy,” and the alternate history US battle with the French Pacific Fleet in the New Hebrides. As the Japanese land on the Philippines and MacArthur is forced to flee to Australia, the war progresses with a detailed presentation of Yamashita’s Malay Campaign and the exciting Battle for Singapore.
Karpov’s initial duels with the Japanese Navy are covered, including his attack on the Kido Butai, and the opening rounds of his Plan 7 operation against Japanese occupied Kamchatka. The Japanese invasion of Timor follows to recount the fate of the Australian Sparrow Force, along with the Battle of Badung Strait, the Battle of the Java Sea, and the British effort to reinforce and hold the strategic island of Java. Even as the Japanese invasion there proceeds, this volume will conclude with the dramatic events off Java that led to the arrival of a most unexpected visitor. The material above will present 45 chapters, 400 pages; about 132,750 words.
In editing this, I have revised certain segments to eliminate information not needed for this narrative, and also included small segments of new material in places to improve the flow. I worked a bit so that a reader who is new to the series can jump right in without having to read all of season 1 and 2. So if you are a Pacific War fan, I hope you will enjoy my spin on this history, though be advised that it will be heavily influenced by the underlying premise of the series as a whole—what if a modern day ship of war suddenly found itself transported into the midst of WWII? How would it, or how could it, influence the course of events and shape the outcome of the war, and by extension, of all the history that follows.
The battlecruiser Kirov was that ship, launching a series that has become much more than I ever expected from the story, and this is but one of the many subplots presented in that series, which has covered wartime action on every key front.
Volume II for the Pacific War will then continue with the story concerning Captain Harada and his crew, the Battle of the Coral Sea, Halsey’s raid on the Marshalls, Japanese Operation FS and the landings on Fiji, the Battle of the Koro Sea, US Marine Landing at Suva Bay, Karpov’s Landings on Sakhalin Island, and finally the battle between Kirov and an unexpected challenger in the Sea of Okhotsk, (another 45 chapters in all). It will then probably take at least one more volume of this same length to cover the remainder of the Pacific War, or possibly two, all chapters I expect to write as the Kirov Series soon moves into 1943. For those many readers who have written and asked me to cover the Pacific in the next release for the Battle Book Series, here it is. Enjoy!
NOTE: And don't miss the next regular series release Thor's Anvil, which is on schedule for release Sept 1st.
- John Schettler
- John Schettler
