How We Stopped The Destroyers

The Destroyers used to be the stuff of legends, of myths, of bedtime stories told to alien children to scare them into living well. They... used to be. The galaxy is still reeling from the recent incursion of the Destroyers, an all-too-real enemy that more than lives up to their name. With another strike looming on the horizon, humanity leads the charge to uncover the secrets of subspace—a technology in widepread use across the galaxy but truly understoon by no one. The race is on for the scientific breakthrough that will save the Milky Way. Oh, and there's also some pirates having an adventure. But one thing at a time...

An Esquire Best Book of the Year A Paste Best Novel of the Year Recommended by the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, TIME, Vogue, Paste, New York Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Seattle Times, Yahoo!, Refinery29, BBC, PopSugar, Boston Herald, New York Social Diary, Library Journal, Bookstr, Kirkus “A seductive and richly atmospheric literary thriller with a sleek Patricia Highsmith surface." —New York Times Book Review "Equal parts Graham Greene, Patricia Highsmith, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Destroyers is at once lyrical and suspenseful, thoughtful and riveting." —Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You “The Destroyers is one superb novel, a tightly woven and fast-moving narrative set in beautifully crafted prose. A read-all-night of a book.” —Alan Furst, author of A Hero of France Arriving on the stunning Greek island of Patmos, Ian Bledsoe is broke, humiliated, and fleeing the fallout from his father’s death. His childhood friend Charlie—rich, exuberant, and basking in the success of his new venture on the island—could be his last hope. At first Patmos appears to be a dream—long, sun-soaked days on Charlie’s yacht and the reappearance of a girlfriend from Ian’s past—and Charlie readily offers Ian the lifeline he so desperately needs. But, like Charlie himself, this beautiful island conceals a darkness beneath, and it isn’t long before the dream begins to fragment. When Charlie suddenly vanishes, Ian finds himself caught up in deception after deception. As he grapples with the turmoil left in his friend’s wake, he is reminded of an imaginary game called Destroyers they invented as children—a game, he now realizes, they may have never stopped playing.

The author of Beneath the Waves provides a thorough history of the sinkings of Britain’s destroyer warships during World War II. His Majesty’s destroyers had a long and costly war. Some eight thousand destroyer men did not survive. At the height of the war the Royal navy was commissioning four new vessels a month, which was only sufficient to replace those which had been sunk or severely damaged. This outstanding book contains the details of the majority of the sinkings that occurred throughout World War II and includes many firsthand accounts from the officers and crew involved.

This is an account of what it was like to command a destroyer during World War II. Spanning 1942 to 1945, Hill commanded HMS Ledbury during the tragedy of Arctic convoy PQ17 and played an outstanding role in Operation Pedestal. The pressures of command and the strain of years of continual fighting are conveyed here.

Using eye-witness accounts of those who participated, Destroyer Actions focuses on the human side of naval operations during the first eight months of the Second World War. Lucid treatment of the political, strategic and tactical background to naval operations allows the reader to understand the pivotal role played by the destroyer during the so called ‘Phoney War’ period.

The year is 2111, nine years after an intergalactic war has erupted throughout the Milky Way. In a galaxy filled with interstellar species, the Alliance of Republic Worlds continues to step in the way of the rising Wersillian Legion, a theocratic alliance determined to colonize other worlds. James Stone, a soldier with extraordinary gifts, and his unit of five other members must overcome terrible tragedy and near insurmountable odds to combat the superior forces of the Wersillian Legion. In the midst of battle, James comes across one of the deadliest, most feared individuals the Wersillian Legion has at their disposal: one of the eight Warlords of Virtue. After struggling with hard personal choices, James takes it upon himself to rid the galaxy of this warlord - a monster that will push James harder than he's ever been pushed.

'The deck and the bridge were pointing to the sky at an alarming angle and our thoughts were to get the devil out of it and into the water. Almost in unison we shouted "for God's sake jump boys".' Citizen Sailors is a groundbreaking people's history of the Royal Navy in the Second World War. Drawing on hundreds of contemporary diaries and letters, along with memoirs, oral history and official documents, Glyn Prysor tells the human story of Britain's war at sea. The sailors of the Royal Navy fought from the very first day of the war until the very last. They played a vital part in a truly global war, from America to Australia and from the Arctic to South Africa. They fought in every conceivable vessel: vast aircraft carriers and cramped corvettes, fast motor boats and rickety minesweepers, Swordfish biplanes and ageing submarines. Seen through the eyes of sailors themselves, this is a compelling account of life in the wartime Royal Navy: humanity and horror, triumphs and tragedies, nerve-wracking convoys and epic gun battles, devastating aerial bombardment and swashbuckling amphibious landings. Citizen Sailors puts the Royal Navy and its sailors back at the heart of the story of Britain's Second World War.