The Steel Albatross

As the Soviets rush to activate their secret underwater power plant, hot-shot fighter pilot Rick Tallman is given command of the unproven Steel Albatross, the U.S. underwater glider

In this fast-moving first novel by former astronaut Carpenter, Steel Albatross is the nickname of a top-secret submarine that moves as noiselessly underwater as a glider through air. Undetectable by enemy tracking devices, it becomes more than just another high-priced, high-tech gadget when Soviet military hardliners implement Project Temnota--a nuclear power station on the ocean floor off the California coast capable of generating an electromagnetic pulse that could scramble every computer and electronic link on the West Coast. In their effort to prevent the power station's activation, Navy SEALs Rick Tallman and Kiwi Krause face the best of Russian underwater specialists. The details in this page-turner are so plausible that the far-fetched premise of Project Temnota is readily forgotten. Carpenter calls on his extensive undersea experience with the Navy SEALAB program to describe technical and biological developments enabling men to work and fight at depths once considered impossible. Major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In the September 15 Prepub Alert column LJ asked, "Does an astronaut have the write stuff for a technothriller?" The answer is a qualified "yes." One of the orig inal seven U.S. astronauts, Carpenter was also a fighter pilot and a participant in the Navy's underwater SEALAB pro gram. The technology here is both authentic-sounding and startling: an under water "glider" plane; human beings medically altered to breathe fluid through their necks. The plot is rather standard fare, however. While testing the Steel Albatross, a prototype underwater glider, Rick Tallman, hotshot son of a naval astronaut (surprise), stumbles on a top-secret Soviet installation off the coast of California. It seems that right-wing extremists in the USSR plan to knock out the U.S. defense system and precipitate war between the USSR and the United States. Carpenter's book has the elements of a thriller, but it lacks the edge-of-the-seat tension of books like The Hunt for Red October . Publicity and the author's name will bring demand.
- Francine Fialkoff, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.