Theater of Spies

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By S. M. Stirling

Publisher Description

The second novel in an alternate history series where Teddy Roosevelt is president once more right before WWI breaks out, and on his side is the Black Chamber, a secret spy network watching America's back.

After foiling a German plot to devastate America's coastal cities from Boston to Galveston, crack Black Chamber agent Luz O'Malley and budding technical genius Ciara Whelan go to California to recuperate. But their well-deserved rest is cut short by the discovery of a diabolical new weapon that could give the German Imperial Navy command of the North Sea.

Luz and Ciara must go deep undercover and travel across a world at war, and live under false identities in Berlin itself to ferret out the project's secrets. Close on their trail is the dangerous German agent codenamed Imperial Sword, who is determined to get his revenge, and a band of assault-rifle equipped stormtroopers, led by the murderously efficient killer Ernst Röhm. From knife-and-pistol duels on airships to the horrors of the poison-gas factories to harrowing marine battles in the North Sea, the fight continues--with a world as the prize.

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Theater of Spies Reviews

3.0

book_anear

Created over 5 years ago

Mark Benjamin

Created about 6 years ago

Randal White

Created over 6 years ago

“I enjoyed the first book of this series. Unfortunately, I had to give up on this one. I forced myself to keep going, but halfway through I had to bail. The entire first half of the book is spent in just setting up for the actual story. It drags on and on. Even worse was Stirling’s propensity to constantly switch from English, to Spanish and even German dialogue. Which he never did translate. And, like in the previous book, he again gets lost in minutiae, such as reciting recipes. All in all, what could have been a great story, with two very interesting main characters, was squandered away. How sad!”

line34agi

Created over 6 years ago

“I got this ARC from at Emerald City Comic Con from the Penguin Random House booth and I was pretty excited because I had read the first one and enjoyed it quite a bit. The writing style is very tech heavy and full of digressions into the world the characters are living in, the history, the culture, the motivations, the various events that led to where they are and the technology they have access to. I find all of this fascinating and thinks it adds to the story, but some people might find the digressions distracting. Personally I think it's great. Like Tom Clancy but in WWI and with female characters who are engaging and capable and not just background characters for ten seconds before disappearing. Luz is like a female James Bond minus the misogyny and it's interesting to watch how she deals with the world with unerring confidence in herself and the rightness of her cause. Since it's all from her POV, she presents the (sometimes questionable) wartime policies of the Teddy Roosevelt administration (intimidating the press into publishing what the government wants, for example) as Not Bad (or at least pragmatically acceptable). In fact, she's pragmatic about everything, but is an engaging character and not a bad person to spend 400 pages with. The plot is different enough from the first book not to seem like a repeat, and the action scenes are just as well done as the first book (and also just as viscerally detailed, so if that's not your thing be warned). It's critical in a book like this that nothing seems too much like a deus ex machina, that everything flows naturally when it comes to how things play out when the endgame comes around, and the author does a good job of this. Anything could go wrong at any moment, and he depicts that tension and the characters' actions in a realistic, plausible way. I especially enjoyed the relationship between Ciara and Luz. I liked how neither of them had any torment over the fact that they were in love and together, and that the book provided just enough to let you know how much they cared about one another and how committed Luz is to the whole relationship without it taking over the entire book or overwhelming the action or plot. Horst remains an engaging antagonist, and while he's obviously not a good guy, I appreciate that he respects Luz as a worthy opponent even as he hates her for what she did in the last book. I also like that misogynists and those who underestimate Luz or any other woman for that matter get what's coming to them. A good spy thriller and pretty plausible alternate history book that moves you right along and gives you plenty of good historical, linguistic and technical details (if you're into that sort of thing, which I most certainly am). There are also some cameos from and offhand mentions of various historical figures which you may find amusing if you're a history buff. The end leaves the door open for a third book, which I hope is out in time for next year's Comic Con. (One note of disappointment: nothing to do with the book itself, but the audiobook, which is narrated by a man. I'm sure he does a fine job, but considering that 99% of the book is from Luz's POV, it seems like it'd make more sense to have a woman narrate the thing...)”

About S. M. Stirling

S. M. Stirling is the author of many science fiction and fantasy novels including Black Chamber, Dies the Fire, The Sky-Blue Wolves, and Islands in the Sea of Time. A former lawyer and an amateur historian, he lives with his wife, Jan.