Sea of Crises

Marty Steere's Sea of Crises drew me in, held me at the edge, and gave my hand a comforting squeeze when I couldn't stand to see what happened next. This is a thriller with heart that will leave its readers satisfied they followed the Cartwright boys into a dangerous adventure.

On September 1976 Commander Bob Cartwright led a three-man crew on the last of the manned Apollo missions, Apollo 18. Communications with the crew were inexplicably lost during the astronauts' first moonwalk, and despite NASA's efforts could not be re-established. Three days later, Apollo 18's still silent command module splashed down into the South Pacific. The Navy divers who reached the module beheld a gruesome tableau: three bodies burned beyond recognition. Commander Cartwright and his crew were apparently cooked to death by a failed heat shield.

Even after thirty-six years this event was near and dear to Commander Cartwright's sons. But when Peter Cartwright made a frantic call to elder brother Nate, asking for a late airport pickup because he suspected he was being followed, neither sibling realized just how much danger they have called upon themselves. Pursued by a deadly group of hunters working for The Organization, they must gather the surviving families of the other two astronauts and piece together what really happened to Apollo 18's crew.

It's possible that lunar history buffs, military history buffs, and conspiracy theorists will comb the details of Marty Steere's tale for authenticity before they allow themselves to accept the story. I am unable to vouch for logic loopholes regarding any references to the Apollo missions (cancelled or otherwise), to whether The Organization alludes to any existing entity in the US government's employ, or whether Mare Crisium is geographically a feasible landing site for a lunar module. As a reader I feel however that proofs of authenticity are incidental to enjoying this adventure.

Proofs of authenticity aside, Sea of Crises was a delight to read. Its intriguing mystery coupled with a quick pacing drew me in till the final chapters and certainly held my attention, but what made it delightful was the author's portrayal of relationships: the dynamic between Nate and his siblings, between commander Cartwright and his colleagues, even between the brothers and Nate's sweet-ugly dog Buster, who he adopted from a shelter and who got tangled in the mess as well. There was a tangential flashback about a basketball game Nate and his brother Matt were in that established the sense each sibling had of the other's character and abilities: technically just a side story, it not only gave me a sense of how much each brother instinctively supported and understood the other, the story in itself was a gripping tale of how their team became the state high school basketball champions! As a reader I didn't feel any time was lost from reading the tangent, but I certainly appreciated the elaboration on just how much these boys trusted each other. I felt that often for any segues, flashbacks, or parentheticals I encountered in the story: no time lost, no abrupt break in pace, and my understanding of the characters deepened.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Sea of Crises and I highly recommend it to everyone who loves a good story, regardless of their favorite genre - Marty Steere put together a well-balanced tale that would call to a wide variety of readers. There was suspense and intrigue for lovers of conspiracies and spy thrillers; there were nail-biting cliffhangers and exciting fight scenes for those who had a fondness for action and adventure; there was a smattering of speculative fiction for the sci-fi lover curious about the could-have-beens of the cancelled Apollo missions; there was even a tasteful undercurrent of romance for those who want a little more sweetness than a James Bond-like roll in the hay. But what really made the experience wonderful for me was the relationship the author painted between the three sons of Apollo 18 commander Bob Cartwright - throughout the crazy situation they found themselves in, siblings Nate, Peter, and Matt Cartwright kept and held a brotherly bond that humanized this mystery thriller.

I wanted to like this more than I did. I'm an ex-aerospace engineer who grew up during Mercury, Gemini & Apollo and worked on Shuttle. While I like thrillers and sci-fi generally, Sea of Crises has too many plot turns that strain credibility beyond this reader's limit. I will list just a few.
SPOILER WARNING
- A single senator, no matter how powerful or ruthless, could never have restore the hundreds of millions of dollars necessary to fly Apollo 18, once the decision was made to cancel it. And that was made not too long after Apollo 11. The missions were dropped, starting with Apollo 20, then 19, etc. over a period of time in a continuing budget/planning process.
- The Apollo spacecraft had at least two (if not more) communications paths to mission control (high gain and low gain). Without being a com expert, I suggest that it's beyond the capability of even the sinister "Organization" to cut those off. There were many systems streaming telemetry automatically to Houston (e.g. power, environmental, nav) that presumably were cut off as well? Hard to accept.
- It strains credibility that the Organization would be able to employ in essence a parallel mission control for even a short period, certainly long enough to fool the crew into altering their reentry path. They trained with the three mission control teams and knew their Capcoms intimately. If one had to leave for a "family emergency" what about the others? Every Capcom was a fellow astronaut and the crew would not accept a stranger in that role.
- 36 years on some rocky island in the Pacific, periodically supplied by air drops? Are you kidding me? And none of the air crew making the drops wondered what the h--- was going on?
- How did they get to the island in the first place? This wasn't addressed. A raft was dropped by the recovery team, as was the flotation device attached to the CM. Without a recovery team on hand, the crew would have had a very tough time getting out and to shore, even assuming they landed very close to the island. And that was even more risky because landing on the island or a reef would have been fatal.
- Substituting another CM with three bodies from a Houston morgue? No way. A dead Apollo crew would have been autopsied; the CM would have been minutely examined by NASA and their contractors after a failed mission. Detailed reports would have been written (see the Rogers Commission on Challenger). This bit of conspiracy would have failed in more ways than I can count.
Sorry Mr. Steele, Sea of Crises needed more vetting to be plausible.

This book caught my interest almost immediately, which I loved. Nate received a call from his brother, Peter, late at night asking to be picked up from the airport. He is positive he is being followed. Nate picks him up, asking why his normally calm and levelheaded brother would be so paranoid. Peter, who is a writer, tells him he is finally writing the book he has always wanted to write...the one about the Apollo 18 space mission. Their father was the commander of the mission and died during re-entry when the modules heat shield failed and the men were basically cooked to death. In doing his research, especially with the help of a Freedom of Information Act inquiry, he obtained documents and photos never seen by the public. In examining one photo (a particularly gruesome one of the inside of the module when it was opened to get the astronauts out) he realizes that the module number is wrong. The one in the photo is the one that was supposed to be used in the cancelled Apollo 19 mission, not the one sent up to the moon with his dad. Of course now he is questioning what is really going on and if the body they buried was in fact his father. His investigating triggered an entire secret government agency to try to contain him and his information. From the moment Nate and Peter got home to find what they THOUGHT was Nate's dog decapitated and hanging from a hook as a warning, it was constant action and intrigue.

I honestly loved reading this book because I love a book that can not only catch your interest, but keep it all the way to the last page. This book managed to do that in spades. The characters were all fantastic and easy to like, even the bad guys, lol. It is a very well written book, and the ending was FANTASTIC. I loved learning the true fate of the men of the Apollo 18 mission in Mr. Steere's story. It would make a great movie! Five stars and I'd definitely read more from this talented author.

I was lucky to receive a reviewer's copy from the author for this book. This book has both a lot of good parts and some not so good. The premise of the book is that there was an additional Apollo mission to the moon in the mid 1970's (Apollo 18). During that mission, NASA lost contact with the moon module and no further contact was made until it splashed down on Earth days later with the inside of the capule "fried" with three burnt bodies inside.

Flashforward to the present and Nate Cartwright, son of one of the Apollo 18 astronuats gets a desperate call from his brother Peter to pick him up at the airport. Peter tells him he is being followed by bad people. When Nate meets Peter he tells him he has been investigating documentation from the Apollo 18 flight and has proof that the capsule that was recovered, was not the capsule that was sent up.

When they get home they are beset on by some bad guys who give them a warning to stop looking into the Apollo 18 mission. Nate and Peter are not deterred and decide to locate their brother Matt for help. Matt is some sort of secret operative living in hiding who had been declared dead several years prior. Matt wants to help his brothers learn what happened to their father and they go in search of answers. Having ignored the bad guys' warnings they are now pursued by the bad guys.

Now what was really good about the book. The author spends roughly a third of the book telling the story of what happened to the Apollo 18 crew on the moon and this part of the book is very compelling and these pages fly by really quickly for the reader. Now for the not so good. The rest of the book is kind of boring and seems to copy from a lot of other stories. Matt turns out to be a type of unstoppable Jason Bourne and he seems to get weaponry and explosives out of thin air. We have seen a lot of this before in Die Hard and Rambo movies.

Had the book been solely been the story on the moon, I could easily have given it five stars. The rest of the book brings down my rating to three stars.

This novel was a good read. The flow was fast paced and kept my interest. As with many novels there are two parallel stories. The main story line in the present with one brother when two brothers realize that one of them is being followed. They believe it has to do with the death of their father, an astronaut on an Apollo mission and last contact with earth earlier on the mission and who died with the other two astronauts on reentry. The second story is of that fatal mission.

The B-story, that is the supporting stories that develop the characters, are interesting and woven by the author skillfully into the main storyline and enrichens that storyline. Particularly interesting is the interaction between the three brothers.

As I stated above, the story kept my interest and I wanted to continue to read it, but there were issues with the storyline for me. First, it deals with a super-secret organization from what the book reveals just kills people within the United States and is controlled solely by a high government official. One of these experienced assassins is so skilled that he can take on whole teams from this organization and wins every time. This assassin goes from normal human being to remorseless killer and back. Lastly, there are some aspects of the Apollo mission stretched belief. BUT, OK it is fiction and these aspects were needed to make the story work. I may have been reacting to the fact that this is the second book in a row that the protagonist was an expert killer but really is a good guy. So, go into this book knowing this in advance.

Even the above problems were not fatal. I did finish the book and enjoyed it. I give Sea of Crises a four-star rating.

I loved this book! The plot was nothing like what I expected. I'm a fan of James Rollins, Clive Cussler, and Steve Berry. I thought this book would be way below their level of writing, but I was impressed with the author. I would read more adventure books of this type by him.

As I began Sea of Crisis, I struggled to figure out where the story was taking me but remained cautiously optimistic through the opening chapters. My optimism was rewarded with a very satisfying read, including a thrilling climactic conclusion. The author offers a creative novel that adroitly takes readers from a present action-packed series of events to the context of an Apollo mission to the moon in the 1970's. There are smooth transitions between to the two contexts. The characters are well-developed and dynamic. Amidst the events of the story, relationships are built and explored by the author enough to draw readers in emotionally to the story and characters.

This is one of the better novels I have read recently and applaud the author on his product.

What would you do if you found out that almost everything you knew about your father's death was wrong? Would you go in search for the truth, even when it might place your own life in great danger? These are some of the questions that face Nate and Peter Cartwright, the two now adult sons of the astronaut Commander Bob Cartwright who they have believed since 1976 died with two others, burnt beyond recognition inside their reentry capsule. But, is that truly what happened? Did their father and the other two crewmen die during reentry, or at some other time, by some other cause? If so, who exactly was it that the two brothers saw inside the capsule, and why would anyone try to cover up the real truth about the tragedy? Read Marty Steere's fascinating, page-turning novel Sea of Crises to find out!

At the start of Sea of Crises (named after an area of the moon, the Mare Crisium or Sea of Crises), we learn about Nate, his background working for a law firm and then beginning a consulting firm of his own. He is a no-nonsense kind of guy, working long hours at the expense of a personal life and personal relationships. Though he has a dog he really loves who greets him at he door, Nate's relationships with most women don't last for very long. That's because everything and everyone is secondary to his work and clients.
Then out of the blue, he gets a call from his older brother, Peter. Peter has done research and has uncovered information he believes is explosive. Peter thinks that there was a cover-up, and that for some unknown reason, the real story about what happened, the real fate of the crew of Apollo 18 has been covered up for thirty-six years.

What was the actual fate of the three astronauts? When the crew were on their first moonwalk, communications were lost with them. The last words spoken and recorded that Bob Cartwright said was the mysterious enigmatic phrase: "That shouldn't be here."There was much speculation at the time about what the "that" was, but whatever he was referring to seems to have been lost to the sands of time. But, if a person is very persistent and very lucky, there is almost always a way to get "lost" information, and Peter Cartwright learns enough about the truth to drag his brother, Nate, into helping him survive and learn what really happened.

Marty Steere has written a pulse-pounding, exciting novel based on what happened to the crew of Apollo 18, the last manned spaceflight to the moon. His characters are portrayed very realistically and are three-dimensional, and you want to root for them to succeed and to thwart the attempts of some people in the government to still keep the truth behind the real fate of the crew of Apollo 18 secret to this day.

Were Commander Bob Cartwright and his other two crewmen cooked to death by a failed heat shield? Since communications had been lost with the capsule, no one knew until three days later when the silent command module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean anything about the crew's fate. It had seemed to Nate and Peter that their father had died in a horrible accident, but as a hero. But, when Peter files for further information about the tragedy through the Freedom of Information Act and notices the serial number on the capsule is from a planned but canceled Apollo 19 mission, he realizes there is much more to the story than he and Nate have so far been told.

Sea of Crises by Marty Steere is a novel that will get your heart beating faster and the adrenalin rushing through your veins. Anyone who is into the history of manned space flight and the Apollo missions to the moon will be entranced by this highly entertaining read. What is The Organization, and why do they want the truth covered up? After so many years, what is so earthshattering that lives are still threatened in order to keep the real events of the past a secret? If you like edge-of-your-seat thrillers, I highly recommend you check out Marty Steere's novel Sea of Crises!

I was caught up in the plot right away. And thought I had figured out the storyline by page forty or so. Wrong. The author threw a curve that sent me off in another direction. He succeeded in doing that several times, actually. Loved the twists!

As a former USAF pilot with space experience, I enjoyed the technical parts in space...the quality of research showed. Marty is an excellent writer and clever with his word choice. I read the book over a three day stretch and stayed up well past midnight last night in order to finish it.

I thought the characters were well developed and believable. The plot moved right along. Normally I do not like flashbacks but Marty used them to develop and demonstrate the characters' character-- what made them tick.

I highly recommend this book. If you like action, you will like Sea of Crises.

I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.

Formalities out of the way, I will say, while I had a few head scratching moments, I did enjoy this book. From the first chapter to the last page, I had trouble putting the book down. I completely agree with other reviewers, that the story on the moon, alone, could have been the book, but I also enjoyed the set-up and present day adventures. I did need to suspend belief a few times (when Nate so easily figured what had actually occurred on the moon), but it's hard for me to deduct "stars" from a book rating, after I became so easily engrossed.

If you're after mystery, I think you might be disappointed, but if you're up for a quick action read, Sea of Crises might just be right up your alley.