The Sea Witch: Three Novellas

by Stephen Coonts

Stephen Coonts weaves three unforgettable tales of men and women at war, with the sort of dramatic military action and undercover technology for which he is known. Included in this collection The Sea Witch…When young Dauntless dive-bomber pilot is sacked for reckless behavior, he's reassigned to a Black Cat squadron as the co-pilot of a giant Catalina seaplane, The Sea Witch. He's thrown into a whole new world, where a Catalina carries five tons of bombs, a half-dozen machine guns, and a crew that walks a fine line between valor and a death wish.A daring night bombing mission against Rabaul forces the crew of The Sea Witch to band together as never before. Each man will soon find out what he's made of..and not everyone will make it back alive.The 17th Day… Seventeen days…the average life expectancy of a British Aviator during WWI. Last three weeks, and you were practically a veteran. Paul Hyde dropped out of college to join the Royal Flying Corps, looking for a grand adventure. And grand it was, or so he assured himself when planes were crashing all around him. Today is his seventeeth day. Will be he be able to beat the odds? Al Jihad…Charles Dean is retired from the military, determined to be done with that part of his life. But when Julie Girard, the daughter of his old commander, seeks him out, he can't say no to a simple lunch.What she has in mind isn't quite so simple.She wants Dean to help her kill the terrorists who murdered her parents. She offers him three million dollars and the chance to avenge his commander's death. But all is not as it seems, and before long Dean and Girard must use all their skills just to stay alive...This novella collection gathers these three evocative tales from New York Times bestselling author Stephen Coontsinto one cohesive volume. Here is Coonts doing what he does best--writing about men and women at war.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Historical Fiction, Military Fiction, Short Stories, War, Action

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 8, 2012

About the author

Stephen Coonts (born July 19, 1946) is an American thriller and suspense novelist.

Coonts grew up in Buckhannon, West Virginia, a small coal-mining town and earned an B.A. degree in political science at West Virginia University in 1968. He entered the Navy the following year and flew an A-6 Intruder medium attack plane during the Vietnam War, where he served on two combat cruises aboard the USS Enterprise (CVN-65). He accumulated 1600 hours in the A-6 Intruder and earned a number of Navy commendations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross. After the war he served as a flight instructor on A-6 aircraft for two years, then did a tour as an assistant catapult and arresting gear officer aboard USS Nimitz (CVN-68). His navigator-bombardier was LTjg Stanley W. Bryant who later became a Rear Admiral and deputy commander-in-chief of the US naval forces in Europe.

After being honorably discharged from duty as a lieutenant in 1977, Coonts pursued a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree at the University of Colorado, graduating in 1979. He then worked as an oil and gas lawyer for several companies, entertaining his writing interests in his free time.

He published short stories in a number of publications before writing Flight of the Intruder in 1986 (made into a movie in 1991). Intruder, based in part on his experiences as a bomber pilot, spent 28 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists in hardcover and launched his career as a novelist. From there he continued writing adventure-mysteries using the character from his first book, Jake Grafton. He has written several other series and stand-alone novels since then, but is most notable for the Grafton books.

Today Coonts continues to write, having had seventeen New York Times bestsellers (out of 20 books), and lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with his wife and son.

Taken from Wikipedia

Learn more about Stephen Coonts on the Macmillan website.

Reviews

[Chris Sutton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent three novellas from one of my favourite authors. As usual, well written, well researched and you learnt some interesting facts along the way even though they are very clearly fiction. Just the right length with characteristic Coonts unexpected (well for me anyway :-) )twists

[Marc Leroux · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up primarily because one of the three novellas was based on World War 1, a particular interest of mine. The stories were written over a period of 5 years and cover the Great War, the Second World War and the war on terrorism. Overall a good read, particularily The Sea Witch and The 17th Day. One of the strengths of Stephen Coonts is his attention to detail, and that shines through in the first two stories.

The Sea Witch
This is the story of a single flight undertaken in a Catalina seaplane in the second World War. It takes place in the Pacific theater of operations. The story is written, primarily from the perspective of a very young pilot who is assigned to the seaplane bomber squadron because his superiors thought that he took too many chances flying bombers off of carriers. The story is told, primarily through his perspective, but also with interludes from the other members of the flight crew. The story is realistic, in that there are heroics from the crew, but it also highlights the horrors they endured. The ending surprised me, so look forward to an interesting twist. I didn't know anything about Catalina's before reading this, now I'm adding it to my list to follow up on.

The 17th Day

I've always found it remarkable that twelve years after the Wright brothers flew 200 feet at an altitude of 10 feet there were hundreds of aviators waging war thousands of feet above western Europe. The men that flew had no history of flying, a lot joined the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) for the excitement of doing something new, and a number felt that it was the next step up from riding a horse. The technology was new, and evolving daily. The machining was crude. Engines were unreliable, as was the manufacture of ammunition. The former caused engines to stop, the latter caused guns to jam. Each were equally deadly. The life expectancy of a pilot on the Western Front was 17 days, hence the name of the story. The story centers around an American, Paul Hyde, that follows a very realistic route for many Americans of the time. He leaves school, and wanting excitement he travels to Canada and enlists in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Once he is in England, he transfers to the RFC and trains as a pilot. After training he is assigned to a S.E. 5 (Scout Experimental 5) squadron on the front. Towards the latter part of the war, the SE 5 and the more maneuverable, but less stable, Sopwith Camel were the mainstays for British aviators. The SE 5 was good for novice flyers because it was (relatively) easy to fly, and it had great gliding characteristics. It was also a good gunnery platform with a Vickers .303 gun mounted in front and synchronized to fire through the propeller, and a Lewis gun, the mainstay machine gun of the Commonwealth infantry, mounted on top. Coonts does a great job of detailing how the young men flew these machines; having to stand up in the cockpit and guide the plane with their knees while trying to change the magazines on the Lewis gun, or to clear a jam. He explains how easy it was to get a fuel leak, and how having fuel sloshing around in close proximity to a hot engine could cause problems. And of course, there were no parachutes at that point in the war. The infantry in the Great war was defined as "Long periods of boredom, punctuated by moments of sheer terror". Flyers would often undertake 2-3 missions in a day. Coonts does a good job of bringing this to life. The author says in the introduction that he has long wanted to write a novel based on the Great War aviators. I'd love to see him do so.

Al Jihad

I thought that this was the weakest story in the book, but it is still entertaining. A former Marine sniper is recruited to help eliminate a group of terrorists. They travel to remote oasis in Africa where various terrorist factions are gathering. The task, two people eliminating a large number of terrorists is bound to be challenging, and unlike the other two stories, we have to suspend belief for a large part of the story, but it is non-the-less entertaining. The twist at the end is really interesting and will undoubtedly fuel all manner of speculation among conspiracy theorists.

This book is entertaining, and packed with interesting facts about the various types of aircraft used.

[Colin Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been a while since I've read anything by Stephen Coonts. This collection of three novellas, all centred around flying stories has two first-rate tales, the first set in the South Pacific in WW2 and the second set on the Western Front in WW1; both are well told and have really believable characters, whereas the third story, set in modern-day Libya is a far-fetched piece of fiction which races along at an alarming pace, is full of cliches and has characters who are, at best, two-dimensional.

The Sea Witch of the title is about a long-range bombing mission in a Catalina flying boat and is told in the first-person by members of the crew. The fears and concerns of the fliers are well-observed and totally credible as are the characters in the second novella, The 17th Day where the main character is an American pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. The action sequences in both of these stories are vivid and really put the reader in the thick of things. In the third novella, al Jihad an ex-Marine sniper is persuaded to come out of retirement to aid an attractive young female pilot wreak vengeance on some terrorists. The plot is not only fantastic but quite predictable.

So, two out of three from me for Mr Coonts.

[Eddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three cool short stories which get me as close to air battles as I would like.

[Shorewalker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three "novellas" present a quick read - after one has read something "heavy". One is pretty good, one is fair and one is poor. But that else would would expect from such a prolific author as Coonts?

[Peter Charleston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing World War II flight short story.

[Jerry King · Rating 4 out of 5]

2012

[Warren Cross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three unusual short stories.

[Frank Dodds · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first book from this author. Not a bad read. Good aviation history.

[Elaine Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but packed, version of war.

[Lewis Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three interesting short stories in one book.

[Carol · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started this book but quickly discovered it wasn't for me. Too much military jargon made it hard to follow and it just really felt like a "guys" book.

[Marlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three short novellas with a plane at their core. Three stories of soldiers and the struggles they endure.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very entertaining book! Love the ww2 planes and history!

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just didn't like it.

[Bob Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an exciting read, the final chapters made it hard to put the book down!

[Tom Ackerman · Rating 2 out of 5]

3 pretty good, and action packed, stories involving planes. Probably not worth a read unless you're an aviation dweeb like me.

[Gerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stephen Coonts is masterful in placing the reader in the cockpit of 3 diverse aircraft under radically different sets of circumstances. The book title The Sea Witch is from the first novella, which stars a fascinating workhorse aircraft – the giant PBY Catalina, a do-anything seaplane of World War II. A young dive-bomber pilot is asked to leave his squadron for alleged reckless behavior and ends up assigned as co-pilot in a Catalina squadron. The fact that he has never flown this aircraft apparently is not taken into account. On his first flight in the Sea Witch his piloting skills are tested to the maximum following a raid on a Japanese occupied island.

Coonts explores the aviation during World War I in the second novella –The Seventeenth Day – and the incredible daring and skill required of the pilots of that era. American Paul Hyde dropped out of college to join the “great adventure” of World War I as a pilot for the Royal Flying Corps of England. He soon finds out that it is a very serious business with the biggest challenge to last beyond the 17-day life expectancy of the average pilot. This short novella covers his 17th day and describes in detail the harrowing challenges faces by those daring pilots.

Al-Jihad, the last novella, describes a unique aircraft – the Osprey, which has tilt-rotors permitting it to take off like a helicopter then fly more or less like a conventional fixed-wing aircraft. A young female Osprey pilot locates a long-retired Marine Corps sniper Charles Dean, who was assigned to her father’s command with a story that makes him question her sanity. Her parents were killed on airplane destroyed by Libya-supported terrorists. She has a contact in the CIA who has given her inside information that these same terrorists are gathering at a remote location in the Libyan Desert to plan another such bombing. She wants Charles Dean to assist her in flying to this desert site to assassinate these terrorists. He thinks she is beyond crazy but is lured by the $3,000,000 she is offering to pay him.

Each of the three novellas is exciting in painting very vivid pictures of what is or was involved in piloting the aircraft in question. I found the tales very interesting and do recommend the book to readers who like such action.

[Book 59 of revised 2012 target 70 (Jan-10; Feb-11; Mar-9; Apr-8; May-7; Jun-8; Jul-6)]

[Jerry B · Rating 4 out of 5]

We’ve long enjoyed the military thrillers of Stephen Coonts, whose Clancy-esque tales achieve much the same levels of suspense and thrills of that famous author at easily half the page count! “Seawitch” (the book) features specifically shorter works – three novellas about warfare in the early 20th century. In “Seawitch” the novella, a bomber pilot has been demoted to being copilot of an old seaplane, painted black and pressed into service hunting for Japanese navy vessels at night. An overnight raid on a couple of remote islands showed how devastating a technological “advance” as simple as searchlights could be during WWII. All told, this compelling story reminds us of the despair of warfare before the modern era of smart bombs and drones. "The 17th Day" is a longish short story about an American pilot that somehow is flying RAF planes against the Germans in WWI - and will he survive his 17th day on the job, that statistic being the life expectancy of such a pilot?! Lastly, the third entry, "Al Jihad", is another novella -- probably the most compelling and suspenseful of the three tales. An ex-Marine Special Ops-type guy is recruited by a revengeful daughter of parents killed in a terrorist bombing of their airplane by Libyans which Khadafy refuses to give up, to annihilate those responsible. They fly to a remote oasis in Africa in an Osprey, and whether they can achieve their purpose seems doubtful. A twist at the end only adds to the fun and drama.
Summing up, we enjoyed all three accounts, experiencing a variety of emotions as the different yarns unfold; and found the book well-written, entertaining, and worthwhile.

[Kyliankaj · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sea Witch by Stephen Coonts

I read “The Sea witch” by Stephen Coonts.This book takes place at sea, when a rookie WWII pilot is chosen to help locate a missing soldier who went missing during the “Battle of Guadalcanal”, then the soldiers' ship is unexpectedly shot down by Japanese forces, and the rest of the book you will have to read yourself. This book is written in 1st person, which, I find, gives us abetter understanding, of the main character’s perspective of the story; because we can hereby see the way he thinks and sees things.This story is very well written, and very exciting. I would recommend this book to people who like non-fiction, however, this book might not be right for people who don’t like tragic occurrences in a book. Many people die, or get killed in this book;so if you don’t like reading about war, this book is not for you."One of the main themes about the book, is that the young pilot if very scared during every search and rescue mission, because back in that day, the average life expectancy for a “soldier” was seventeen days into a mission. So the seventeenth day was a very tragic, scary day for him, but he kept on fighting, he was scared of dying. This is a very important part of the book.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is actually three seperate stories with the common theme of miitary aviation. The title story is a tale of a Navy PBY (flying boat that was actually obsolete at the start of WW II)crew in the South Pacific. Crews modified these cargo/search aircraft to bomb Japanese shipping. The dangerous long overwater flights at night, along with heavily defended targets, is an overlooked story of tenacity and heroism in naval aviation. The second story is one of a fairly new WW I British scout pilot trying to survive the critical fist missions of a fighter pilot on the western front. The last story centers on a woman Air Force pilot of the modern day C-22 Osprey hybryd aircraft that can take off and land like a helicopter and then swing its engines to fly straight and level like a conventional aircraft. If you enjoy fictional stories of miltary aviation, you'll find something to like. Its been a while since I have seen a collection of short stories by a prominent author, and the format suits today's fast pace of life.

[Christian D. D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three entertaining short stories by Stephen Coonts. The middle story, "The 17th Day," the one abuot the WWI American fighter pilot, is the most engrossing an hair-raising. But the third story, "Al Jihad," wherein the primary action takes place in Libya, has a plotline and characters that strain credibility and credulity, even by "escapist" fiction standards....suspension of disbelief only goes so far.

As for the titular story, "The Sea Witch," the combat sequences are exciting. But the way the story jumps from one first-person narrative to another, i.e. from the first-person POV of the protagonist--a hot-shot young ensign involuntarily transferred from dive bomber (Douglas SBD Dauntless) to Catalina flying boat duty--to multiple other characters' POVs, messes with your head; I say "messes with your head" because (SPOILER ALERT!!!) all these first-person narratives leaves you thinking the characters providing these narratives will live to see the end of the story....yet so many of them end up dying (I won't spoil it by giving away who actually ends up surviving).

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a collection of three short stories, each having to do primarily with aircraft and air combat. The third involves the V-22 Osprey, although, takes place more on the ground then in the air. The first story is about a WWII PBY Catalina, name (obviously) Sea Witch. The second story is about an extremely brave pilot (in my opinion) in a WWI biplane. These pilots were hands down some of the craziest and bravest men ever to take to the air. Not to mention their planes were coated in flammable sealant to keep the canvas wrap taught.

All-in-all, it is a very good collection of stories from a very good author. I am a huge fan of Coonts' Deep Black series, so I've always been curious to read some of his other work. I've never been really big into planes and air combat, I find it interesting, I just always seemed to stay with land and sea. This was a great intro into that world, and has made me both more respectful and curious about the goings on in the dangerous skies above.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

“ The Sea Witch” by Stephen Coonts is a collection of three different stories:
“The Sea Witch” – Is a really nice story about WW II bomber pilot.
“The 17th Day”- chilling story about WW I pilots , who flew “paper plains” with so many mechanical issues, that it is scary to think about getting them into the air and flying let alone flying them into the battle.
“Al Jihad”- somewhat unrealistic story of an Air Force pilot, who stole a plane and flew in to Middle East to kill a terrorist group as revenge for killing her parents.
This is first book by Coonts I read, wasn't bad. I love good war stories, I even enjoyed his (maybe too long) technical description of planes. He has a little bit of a strange style of writing, that I cannot quite figure out if I like it or not yet, but plan to read more of his books.
Here is link to my website: http://adamvb67.wordpress.com/

[Charles Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Sea Witch by Stephen Coonts. I remember reading one of Stephen Coonts' first novels. It was set in Vietnam and it was a pretty good book. I've since moved to other works but I saw this (the cover is great) and I was interested in reading some of his shorter efforts. This book is collection of three "novellas" but who cares about labels. I liked "The 17th Day" the best, and "Al-Jihad," the least. But, he stretched his wings, so to speak, and I like that always.

As Coonts says in the intro, "Airplanes, adventures, life and death in the skies...Come on, strap in and we'll go flying." Sign me up!

[Bob Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finally read the last of the three unrelated stories that comprise this book. The first story is "The Sea Witch" which is about the crew of a WWII sea attack plane. It was a bit depressing but had good action. The second story, 'The 17th Day' is about a WWI pilot and his very very bad day. It was great with lots of nail-biting air warfare. The third story, "Al-Jihad" was about a gal who wants revenge on a bunch of terrorists that killed her parents, so she recruits an ex-Marine to help her kill them at their meeting place in the remote desert of Libya. It was sort of a Rambo type of story. This one was OK, with one good hand-to-hand fight scene.

[Steve Rzasa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read Stephen Coonts before, even after years spent shelving him at the library where I work. Picked up this paperback on a day trip and thoroughly enjoyed it. Out of the three tales, the first two -- both historic fiction -- were great fun. The third and last, a modern day adventure, wasn't as exciting and I found the main character excessively whiny. But it was good, too. Bottom line, if you like tales of aerial combat from World War I and II, with a dash of modern ground combat thrown in, this is for you.

[Phillis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a 3 novella book. All written by Stephen Coonts at different times, from 1999 "The 17th Day", 2001 "Al Jihad", and 2003 "The Sea Witch". Each is unrelated and very good. Each has an airplane involved and a different time in history. I liked that they were a short read and brought the action up almost immediately with little writings on building up background. I've enjoyed Coonts' other books and had no concern I wouldn't like this one.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up just before a trip because I love the PBY and there was one on the cover. I bought it for the trip, but never cracked the cover while I was away. A couple of weeks ago, I saw it sitting forlornly in my bag, and I picked it back up. I was not disappointed. The first story (about the Catalina) was read in one sitting. The second story was equally good as I could almost feel myself in the place of the pilot. The third story also captivated me.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 wonderful novellas of men at war...WWII PBY action...WWI Allied aviators and a Post 9/11 "sub rosa" operations against Libyan terrorists...all with the requisite tech insider info...all great reads...Coonts is one of the best of the men-at-war genre...these 3 are of the quality of the "Flight of the Intruder"...Loved Them!!!