Modern Era Nautical Literature Latest News
Latest news for Modern Era Nautical Literature. New releases, author interviews, etc.
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- By: Rod Scher
Rod Scher has a new book available for pre-order, Ship of Lost Souls: The Tragic Wreck of the Steamship Valencia. It will be released worldwide for kindle on 5 November 2024 with the Hardcover version released the same day in the US. The UK Hardcover will be published 5 January 2025.
Of all the stories of ships lost in what has come to be called the “Graveyard of the Pacific,” that of the steamship Valencia is among the saddest. In January 1906, the Valencia set out from San Francisco, bound for Seattle with 108 passengers and some sixty-five crew members aboard. Owing to bad weather and the captain’s mistakes, the ship struck a reef eleven miles off Cape Beale on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. Rocks gashed open the ship’s hull, and a series of further missteps soon compounded the tragedy a hundredfold. Only thirty-seven people survived, largely because of a lack of lifesaving infrastructure in the rugged area where the Valencia ran aground.
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- By: James Stavridis
James Stavridis has just released the first book in a new series set during WWII, The Restless Wave, It is now available in hardcover worldwide.
Scott Bradley James arrives in Annapolis, Maryland, as a plebe in the class of 1941 without a terribly good idea why he wants to be a naval officer, other than that his father was a sailor, and he wants to see the world, whatever that means. Scott and his roommate become fast friends, and, after surviving scrapes of their own making, the two fetch up at Pearl Harbor. War is brewing, and their class has graduated early. They have been sent to battle stations.
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- By: Michael Aye
In a new departure Michael Aye is releasing a new book set during WWII. Devil Boats, is now available for pre-order and will be released worldwide in paperback on 2 September 2024
The war in Europe is still going on. Japan has bombed Pearl Harbor. Suddenly it's World War II. General Douglas MacArthur, surrounded by the Japanese, is saved from the jaws of death by Lieutenant Bulkley and his small group of PT boats. These small, heavily gunned wooden boats are sent to do battle with the might of the Japanese forces.
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- By: Steve R Dunn
Steve R Dunn's new book, Steam Yachts at War: The Naval Deployment of British & American Yachts, 1898–1918, will be released in hardcover and for Kindle worldwide on 30 September 2024. It is now available for pre-order. If, like me, you have not come accross this author before he has an interesting collection of books on the First World War navies covering lesser known but important areas of the conflict in detail.
This is the story of how the luxurious steam yachts of the Victorian and Edwardian eras were transformed into weapons of war. These beautiful vessels were the ultimate status symbols of British and European royalty, American magnates, the landed aristocracy and the nouveau riche, but when wars came, in 1898 and 1914, they were quickly transformed into warships, and many of their crews became warriors rather than servants.
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- By: Alaric Bond
Alaric Bond has just released the latest book in the Coastal Forces series, Narrow Seas, which is now available in ebook and paperback formats worldwide.
1942, and America has entered the war against Germany yet, for those manning the powerful, but vulnerable, gunboats of Britain’s Coastal Forces, victory remains a long way over the horizon.
Though faster than most conventional warships, the light wooden craft can be destroyed by a single, well-placed shell. Their nighttime mid-Channel meetings with the German Kriegsmarine are brisk and brutal, with success often measured by whoever stays afloat, although daytime brings a more normal life for their volunteer crews.
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- By: Tim Chant
Tim Chant has a new book in his Marcus Baxter Naval Thrillers series available for preorder. The Guns of Zanzibar will be released for kindle on 22 March 2024 worldwide. A date is not yet available for the paperback version.
August, 1914: Lieutenant Marcus Baxter has been sent from cold, grey London to the tropical climes of Zanzibar in East Africa on the pretence of carrying out a survey on the local naval station. In reality, the Royal Navy’s Intelligence Division have sent Baxter to find out if one of their ex-members, Mr Arbuthnott is now working for a potentially hostile foreign power and sharing British secrets. Baxter is under strict orders not to reveal his true mission to anyone in the small naval contingent he’s been sent to, which makes executing his orders complicated.
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- By: Antoine Vanner
Antoine Vanner has just released the next book in The Dawlish Chronicles, Britannia's Interests. It is now available in paperback and for kindle download worldwide.
1866: Four years since France invaded Mexico and set up a new ‘Mexican Empire’ with a puppet emperor imported from Europe, armies loyal to the republican government still resist. In a land devastated by battles, atrocities and reprisals, the tide of war is now turning in favour of the republic’s ‘Juarista’ supporters. France recognises the war is unwinnable and evacuation inevitable, but first there will be bitter rearguard actions and old scores to settle.
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- By: John R. McKay
John R. McKay's new book, Arctic Convoy PQ18: 25 Days That Changed the Course of the War, was recently released in hardcover in the UK. It will be available in the US and worldwide for Kindle on 30 January 2024. It is now available for pre-order.
This superbly researched book tells the story of one of the most significant maritime operations of the Second World War. The importance of the Arctic convoys providing the Soviets with the necessary equipment needed to win the war on the Eastern Front has too often been underestimated. This book puts that right. Following PQ17, the worst Allied maritime disaster of the Second World War, it was imperative that PQ18 got through. So when the convoy left Loch Ewe on 2 September 1942 the stakes could not have been higher. The Battle of Stalingrad was hanging in the balance.
