About the author:
Born:
Canada
Education:
Earth Sciences
Website: https://timothysjohnston.com/
Thriller Sub-genre: Techno-Thriller
Future of the series: The next in the series entitled The Shadow of War has an expected release date 11/30/22.
The Simon Review
On Black Friday, November 23, 2018, the Fourth National Climate Assessment was released that gives a dire warning that if actions to reduce the emissions of green-house gasses goes unchecked, climate change will result in significant consequences to the planet and bring serious hardships to the human population. Yet, our present administration wants to look into the past and feels that burning coal and reducing restrictions on industries that pollute is a better option for the American people. We as a nation must look to the future, not the past, to make this world a good place to live for future generations. Even though our government is not looking into the future there are others that are and one of them is author Timothy S. Johnston and his series ‘The Rise of Oceania’ envisions a future under the sea.
Johnston’s series takes place about hundred years into the future, where the results of climate change have flooded most of the coastal areas of the world. If we can’t control the rising oceans, why not join them? The series begins in the underwater world of Trieste City located off the coast of Florida. In the first book of the series, The War Beneath, Truman McClusky, a former spy that worked with Trieste City Intelligence (TCI), is propositioned by his former boss, George Shanks, to help track down Johnny Chang, a former spy for TCI that turned rogue, who has stolen some revolutionary technology from its inventor Dr. Katherine Wells. McClusky is motivated to hunt down his former colleague and friend who after siding with the Chinese, captured McClusky and tortured him for information. McClusky was eventually released through a prisoner exchange, but his animosity toward Chang meant he was ready for revenge. McClusky boards a small submarine to pursue Chang and is accompanied by Dr. Wells, but McClusky would find that his quest for his former friend would turn his world upside down.
Johnston’s The War Beneath follows in the tradition of Tom Clancy and Larry Bond, except that all of the war machines are futuristic. If you like novels like The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising, you will certainly enjoy The War Beneath. Lots of action, neat technology, and interesting characters pretty much sums it up. My only complaint was that the romantic story between McClusky and Wells seemed forced and the storyline could have been done without it. Truman McClusky will be returning in 2019 in the next addition to the series, The Savage Deeps.
What about the science? Johnston is trained in and teaches Earth Sciences and his narrative on McClusky’s travel through the oceans of the world reflects that expertise. Johnston provides a mixture of real world technology and technology that is, at this point, theoretical.
The Truman McClusky Technical Word in Review: Inert gas- is a gas that is chemically stable under certain conditions. Originally inert gases were considered to be the noble gasses which are the elements found in the first column of the periodic table which includes helium (He), neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), xenon (Xe), and radon (Rn). These gases are chemically very stable mainly because their outer shell of electrons is full which means that these elements do not need to complex with anything in order to make their electronic configuration stable.
But not all inert gases are noble gases. Nitrogen in our atmosphere is considered to be inert mainly because nitrogen, as a gas, exist as N2, two nitrogen atoms that are bond together with a triple bond (N≡N). Breaking a triple bond is very difficult making nitrogen gas very unreactive.
“You know,” I said finally, “it’s weird that we use helium for deep dives.”
She frowned. “Why’s that? It’s common practice. It’s inert and can replace nitrogen in our air supply. It doesn’t have harmful side effects, as long as there is enough oxygen present.”
“It does change our voices.”
“That’s not a problem. People have lived with it for years now. Decades.”
“But why helium? Why not some other inert gas?”
“What else–“ She stopped suddenly and looked at me. “I suppose we could use a substitute. But we just don’t have anything in storage.”
I thought back to the story as I remembered it. In the 1940s, a Swedish inventor named Arne Zetterström invented a hydrogen-oxygen mix he used to dive 162 meters in the Baltic. The mix worked, but during his decompression ascent, his assistant made an error and the Swede died as a result. Following this, people mostly abandoned the use of hydrogen in deep dives, though it was the best of the inert gasses to use. His death was now associated with hydrogen.
Katherine was looking at me. “You’re thinking of using hydrogen, aren’t you?”– The War Beneath
Normally hydrogen gas would never be considered to be inert. The destruction of the Hindenburg in 1937 gives a good case as to why hydrogen is not considered inert. Though there are many conspiracy theories has to why the Hindenburg went up in flames, the consensus is that it was simple static electricity and exposure to some oxygen that caused the explosion. But under certain conditions, hydrogen can be considered inert. As mentioned in the quote above, hydrogen mixed with a certain amount of oxygen can form a stable mixture. Hydrogen can exist in a noncombustible form if there is less than 4% of hydrogen in a composition of air. Our atmosphere contains only 0.000053% of hydrogen, so it obviously would be stable in this situation. It is also stable when mixed with oxygen if the percentage of hydrogen is equal or greater than 94%. Any less it would become highly reactive.
In the case of deep sea diving, a hydrogen/oxygen mixture known as hydrox, which has an oxygen percentage of 4%, is more desirable than other gaseous mixtures. When diving deep the pressure exerted on the air in our lungs, which is primarily nitrogen, will increase in density and will make breathing more difficult if not impossible. Replacing nitrogen with another lighter gas such as helium will make the air composition in the lungs less dense thus making it easier to breathe. But in very deep diving situations, even a helium gas mixture will become too dense which is why hydrogen, which is lighter than helium, is the best choice for diving in very deep waters.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
Books in the Series by Order:
#1-The War Beneath – 2019
First Line:
It only took two seconds to realize someone was following me.
Characters
Truman McClusky: A spy that works for the Trieste City Intelligence (TCI)
Katherine Wells: A scientist and engineer that works with McClusky to get back some stolen that she invented
George Shanks: Director of the TCI
Johnny Chang: Former TCI operative that now works for the Chinese
Meagan McClusky: Truman’s twin sister
The Setting
The underwater city of Trieste and other parts of the ocean
Living and working underwater can be a dangerous thing. First the bulkheads sweat, then there’s a trickle of water . . .
. . . and then in an instant you’re gone. The only thing left is a bloody pulp in the dark water and crushed bone fragments on the seafloor.
And you can’t bolt to the surface in an emergency. . . . The bends will get you.
But that’s not the worst. When you’re living underwater and also working as a spy for your city, that’s when things get really dangerous.
Truman McClusky has been out of the intelligence business for years, working the kelp farms and helping his city Trieste flourish on the shallow continental shelf just off the coast of Florida. Until his former partner shows up, that is, steals a piece of valuable new technology and makes a mad dash into the Atlantic. Before he knows it, Mac ends up back in the game, chasing the spy to not only recapture the tech, but to kill his former friend.
But when he learns the grim truth behind the theft, it sends his stable life into turmoil and plunges him into an even deadlier mission: evade the submarines of hostile foreign powers, escape assassins, and forge through the world’s oceans at breakneck pace on a daring quest to survive, with more lethal secrets than he thought possible in his pocket.
The future of the city depends on McClusky . . . if he can make it back home
Amazon Rating: 5.00 out of 5 stars based on 4 ratings
Rakuten Kobo: not rated
GoodReads Rating: 3.96 out of 5 stars based on 25 ratings
Library Thing Rating: not rated
Total Score 4.10 (updated 10/16/20)
#2-The Savage Deeps- 2019
First Line:
The massive warsub hovered silently near the seafloor.
Characters
Truman McClusky: A spy that works for the Trieste City Intelligence (TCI)
Katherine Wells: A scientist and engineer that works with McClusky to get back some stolen that she invented
Johnny Chang: Former TCI operative that now works for the Chinese
Meagan McClusky: Truman’s twin sister
The Setting
The underwater city of Trieste and other parts of the ocean
War has come to the darkest depths of the deepest oceans.
Mayor Truman McClusky of Trieste City is at war with the world’s superpowers. Laying claim to the resources of the ocean and its floor is the only way to survive in a world where Global Warming and rising sea levels ravage the surface. But when a Trieste City spy ends up dead―his body beaten beyond recognition―Mac realizes that his city is in mortal danger. The occupying force in Trieste knows more about his plans for independence than he thought, and they will stop at nothing to control Trieste and her people.
Mac flees with a small team that includes scientist and newcomer to the underwater city, Dr. Manesh Lazlow. Together they head for a secret base in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where they plan to create new technologies to fight the superpowers for dominance over the oceans. But the French have picked up Mac’s scent and will stop at nothing to kill him. Mac must elude the French, protect his citizens against sabotage and spycraft, and discover the identity of a spy in his midst if he is going to save his city and compete with the superpowers. But he’s just a tiny player in the grand scheme of ocean politics. . . .
. . . unless he can get his new deep-sea engine working. With it he’ll be able to forge deeper than any other sub in the oceans. And if that happens, then all hell is about to break loose.
At six kilometers down.
Amazon Rating: 5.00 out of 5 stars based on 3 ratings
Rakuten Kobo: not rated
GoodReads Rating: 4.90 out of 5 stars based on 10 ratings
Library Thing Rating: not rated
Total Score 4.92 (updated 10/16/20)
#3-Fatal Depth- 2021
THE MISSION: Sink an unsinkable warsub.
It seems futile.
It’s a vessel created to start ? and end ? wars: a dreadnought.
At over four hundred meters long with a crew of six hundred, it’s the largest submarine in the world.
Sixty—eight torpedo tubes. Twenty nuclear ballistic missiles with one hundred and sixty warheads. Mines. Grapples. A revolutionary propulsion system.
And a brand new weapon: The Tsunami Plow.
The warsub has just devastated the United States Submarine Fleet HQ on both the Atlantic and the Pacific Coasts. Thousands are dead and the subsequent environmental disaster has pushed the US economy to the breaking point.
Now Truman McClusky, Mayor of Trieste City on the shallow continental shelf just off the coast of Florida, has given his team an impossible task: infiltrate the enemy warsub, blend in with a hostile crew, damage the vessel from within, and hope to hell they can escape before it takes them all down.
But they have no choice. They have to sink the warsub, or die trying.
Because its next target is the one that would spell doom to The Rise of Oceania: Trieste City.
#4-An Island of Light- 2021
MURDER AT TRIESTE CITY!
The problem isn’t hiding the body and cleaning the blood — that part’s easy. The real problem is the identity of the Admiral’s killer: Meg McClusky, Truman “Mac” McClusky’s twin sister. She stabbed USSF Admiral Taurus T. Benning in the chest and neck, murdering the man who killed their father all those years ago.
Soon the USSF sends a tenacious investigator to the underwater city of Trieste, and what started as an unplanned act of revenge quickly snowballs into a deadly game of cat and mouse in the underwater colonies. Mac, the city’s mayor, has been waging war against the world’s underwater superpowers, and the last thing he and his team needs is the United States Submarine Fleet at Trieste and yet another vicious occupation.
But within days, despite Mac’s best efforts to protect Meg, the investigator takes her away for torture and interrogation. To further complicate things, the USSF has occupied the nearby underwater colony of Seascape, and is quickly relocating the bulk of their warsub fleet there to keep watch over the anxious Gulf population who are increasingly calling for independence.
Mac must pull the trigger on his greatest feat ever if he’s going to achieve peace and independence for his city. He must launch a desperate rescue mission to bring back his sister, pull more underwater cities into his alliance, remove the USSF from Seascape, and work with a brilliant addition to his team to create an impossible new bomb. And the clock is ticking.
#4-The Shadow of War- (Expected release date 11/30/22)
In the world’s undersea realms, the superpowers are pressing. Climate change is ravaging the surface nations, and their militaries are surging into the oceans to seek out new resources to sustain their exploding populations. Now Truman McClusky, mayor of the underwater city, Trieste, must gather a team of operatives and travel the world to steal the most unique and deadly weapon ever invented for use underwater. War is looming, and to win a war, one must do whatever it takes, even if it means embracing your darker side.
A-Thrill-A-Week 