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The SOOF
Dr. Samantha Stone, a civilian environmental scientist, is thrust into the middle of the male-dominated nuclear submarine world when the president tasks her to help plan a suicide mission in the Sea of Okhotsk. The objective: to locate and destroy a top-secret Russian command and control facility called the SOOF.
The SOOF has been built out of sight, under the waves and sea-ice canopy of the Okhotsk, to support a Russian military coup that has been in the works for ten years-a coup that is only the first step on the path to world domination. Critical to both sides, the SOOF must be destroyed to prevent catastrophe, and failure is not an option. To accomplish this daunting task, a submarine, a platoon of Navy SEALs, and Samantha are required. Though submarine commander Captain Ira Coen initially doubts her abilities, it soon becomes clear that Samantha is essential to the success of the mission.
The ensuing Okhotsk operation is fraught with surprises and life-threatening situations as Ira's submarine tactical skills and Samantha's environmental knowledge are tested to the fullest against seemingly impossible odds-with the fate of the entire world hanging in the balance.
- GenresMilitary Fiction
250 pages, Hardcover
First published June 12, 2021
13 people are currently reading
8 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 5, 2022
I was in for a surprise. "The SOOF" isn't quite what I expected, but it's an entertaining read with likable characters you'll root for.
It began when Norway notice unusually high military activity and classified communications in the Arctic Ocean's Barents Sea. Lt. Odd Bergstrom who specialized in submarine acoustics detects mysterious submarines. Norway Intelligence Service (NIS) contacts the CIA before heading to Langley. Word is that a military coup is underway in Russia and an underwater/ice facility was built in the Sea of Okhotsk. It's concluded that the SOOF must be destroyed.
I like that the MC in this submarine warfare novel is a woman! Dr. Samantha Stone is a civilian. Stone is an environmental scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory and she's the star of the novel and the only woman in this (possible suicide) mission, lending her expertise and knowledge in the Sea of Okhotsk.
What I didn't expect is that majority of the book is set in Pearl Harbor where the submarines' crew, DEVGRU SEALs, and Dr. Stone spend months in preparation and training. The actual action begins after they leave Hawaii for Japan and onward to the Sea of Okhotsk, in the last third of the novel.
What bugged me a little is that Dr. Stone is super smart and 100% perfect. She's the only person who comes up with ideas, works on problems for SEALs, and anticipates the Russian Navy's tactics. Why only her when everyone tasks for this critical mission is the best? She spots the enemy before the best of the best sonar tech on board. There are a bit too many praises and hugs going around as well even from the POTUS who wants a hug from Dr. Stone. It was rather unbelievable and felt a little cartoonish. I do like her quirky and funny side and a blossoming connection with one of the characters. Overall "The SOOF" is an entertaining, and exciting novel.
Thank you BooksGoSocial and Netgalley for this DRC.
It began when Norway notice unusually high military activity and classified communications in the Arctic Ocean's Barents Sea. Lt. Odd Bergstrom who specialized in submarine acoustics detects mysterious submarines. Norway Intelligence Service (NIS) contacts the CIA before heading to Langley. Word is that a military coup is underway in Russia and an underwater/ice facility was built in the Sea of Okhotsk. It's concluded that the SOOF must be destroyed.
I like that the MC in this submarine warfare novel is a woman! Dr. Samantha Stone is a civilian. Stone is an environmental scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory and she's the star of the novel and the only woman in this (possible suicide) mission, lending her expertise and knowledge in the Sea of Okhotsk.
What I didn't expect is that majority of the book is set in Pearl Harbor where the submarines' crew, DEVGRU SEALs, and Dr. Stone spend months in preparation and training. The actual action begins after they leave Hawaii for Japan and onward to the Sea of Okhotsk, in the last third of the novel.
What bugged me a little is that Dr. Stone is super smart and 100% perfect. She's the only person who comes up with ideas, works on problems for SEALs, and anticipates the Russian Navy's tactics. Why only her when everyone tasks for this critical mission is the best? She spots the enemy before the best of the best sonar tech on board. There are a bit too many praises and hugs going around as well even from the POTUS who wants a hug from Dr. Stone. It was rather unbelievable and felt a little cartoonish. I do like her quirky and funny side and a blossoming connection with one of the characters. Overall "The SOOF" is an entertaining, and exciting novel.
Thank you BooksGoSocial and Netgalley for this DRC.
August 7, 2022
Okay, I was expecting a submarine based action story, which this….isn’t. It’s an odd book as a sub commander and a female subject matter expert seek to work together to sort a Russian facility that could prove dangerous to the entire world. Obviously they start off at loggerheads before falling madly in love.
I found it very slow going with clichéd dialogue (designed to tell the reader what is going on) and little of the action I was hoping for. A more pedestrian style than this sort of book deserves too. Just didn’t work for me but that might be that I was expecting something very different.
I found it very slow going with clichéd dialogue (designed to tell the reader what is going on) and little of the action I was hoping for. A more pedestrian style than this sort of book deserves too. Just didn’t work for me but that might be that I was expecting something very different.
September 28, 2021
***Review may contain mild spoilers.
The SOOF presents us with a Russian military plot to seize control of their nation, destroy America, and overrun most of Europe. At the heart of their plan is a super-secret military base, The SOOF, located on the bottom of the Sea of Okhotsk. Thanks to an assist from its allies, America learns of the plot early enough to devise a response. Their plan is three-pronged and requires the best of the best to carry it out. The Russian missile subs that will bomb America must be destroyed. The conventional attacks planned in Europe must be thwarted. And The SOOF must be destroyed.
The last of these provides the focus for this novel. America’s best submarine commander, Ira Coen, is put in charge of its most advanced attack boat and its finest crew of officers and enlisted personnel. The best SEAL team comes along for the ride, and so does a civilian oceanographer, Samantha Stone. Their mission: Destroy The SOOF and thus collapse the Russian plot and save the world.
From the outset, the first thing that one wonders is “why build a base on the bottom of the sea?” This is closely followed by, “why is this one base the lynch-pin for the entire Russian operation?” While we never do get answers to these questions, the reader is free to suspend disbelief on these matters.
This novel offers an interesting premise but fails to live up to it in its execution. If you are a fan of submarine thrillers you probably have read The Hunt for Red October. Assuming you have, I ask you to imagine that two thirds of that novel was spent with the titular submarine tied up in port while Ramius painstakingly plotted his defection and anticipated everything that might go wrong. Interesting, perhaps, but not particularly compelling. In The SOOF, we are treated to precisely that. Until they finally leave port and embark upon their mission, they are never in one shred of danger. Once they do get out to the Sea of Okhotsk, they are still in no danger because everything goes according to plan.
The author ignores obvious avenues for subplots, intrigue and suspense and instead drives us along a straight, level road from beginning to end. There are no bumps, no twists, no turns. There isn’t even an antagonist to make the lives of our heroes difficult.
The cast of characters is mostly there because “they were needed” and we receive very little insight into their lives, their backgrounds, or their motivations. They are the way they are because the author needs them to be. The exceptions are the two main characters, Dr. Samantha Stone and Captain Ira Coen. In these we get a bit more “behind the scenes” information but even then, not much. Coen begins the story firmly opposed to Samantha’s involvement in the mission and her presence on his submarine. He bemoans the problems of having a woman on a sub with a bunch of “horny young men” and is prepared to refuse her until his superior tells him, essentially, “You have no choice, she’s going, and you need her.”
Now, that might be a great opportunity for tension between characters. The sub captain doesn’t want the brilliant young woman on his boat but gradually comes around as the brilliant young woman proves herself and her ability to him. Instead, Coen does a complete 180 in approximately fifteen pages and sings her praises so loudly as to defy believability.
Samantha herself is the “genius” of the story and again it’s just because the author says she is. Yes, she is portrayed as a skilled oceanographer and an expert on the Sea of Okhotsk. That’s all fine and wonderful and her characterization benefits from the author’ extensive, real-world experience, but she ends up being the smartest at everything. No one else has any good ideas, it is always Samantha. We are told that Coen’s boat the Hawkbill has a hand-picked crew aboard. All of them are the best at what they do. Despite this, in the final act of the novel, Samantha “devises” a means of detecting enemy submarines that no one else has thought of. This might be okay if she hadn’t spent the entire novel doing this every three pages. Worse, her “idea” was so obvious that any reader of submarine fact and fiction already thought of it. The notion that the finest submariners in the fleet didn’t come up with this even before the left dock is ridiculous.
As mentioned, there is no antagonist in this story. Bad old Russia is back and she’s going to blow you up is all the reader gets for a “bad guy.” The author finally lets us into the head of someone other than his heroes, but only towards the end of the book and even then, he spends most of that time describing how the character detests but respects the ability of Captain Ira Coen. If this meet-up had been suggested in any way earlier in the novel, that might have played a bit better and—again—offered a vehicle for tension between characters, but instead the author just dumps it on us. We are asked to believe that amongst all the submarine captains in the American and Russian navies, these two just guessed their opponents out the blue.
Overall, this novel presents a fascinating premise but fails to deliver. Good enough to finish reading, but that's about it. Mr. Tooma possesses a gift for fluid, easy-to-read writing but this gift is not enough to save The SOOF from its obvious flaws.
The SOOF presents us with a Russian military plot to seize control of their nation, destroy America, and overrun most of Europe. At the heart of their plan is a super-secret military base, The SOOF, located on the bottom of the Sea of Okhotsk. Thanks to an assist from its allies, America learns of the plot early enough to devise a response. Their plan is three-pronged and requires the best of the best to carry it out. The Russian missile subs that will bomb America must be destroyed. The conventional attacks planned in Europe must be thwarted. And The SOOF must be destroyed.
The last of these provides the focus for this novel. America’s best submarine commander, Ira Coen, is put in charge of its most advanced attack boat and its finest crew of officers and enlisted personnel. The best SEAL team comes along for the ride, and so does a civilian oceanographer, Samantha Stone. Their mission: Destroy The SOOF and thus collapse the Russian plot and save the world.
From the outset, the first thing that one wonders is “why build a base on the bottom of the sea?” This is closely followed by, “why is this one base the lynch-pin for the entire Russian operation?” While we never do get answers to these questions, the reader is free to suspend disbelief on these matters.
This novel offers an interesting premise but fails to live up to it in its execution. If you are a fan of submarine thrillers you probably have read The Hunt for Red October. Assuming you have, I ask you to imagine that two thirds of that novel was spent with the titular submarine tied up in port while Ramius painstakingly plotted his defection and anticipated everything that might go wrong. Interesting, perhaps, but not particularly compelling. In The SOOF, we are treated to precisely that. Until they finally leave port and embark upon their mission, they are never in one shred of danger. Once they do get out to the Sea of Okhotsk, they are still in no danger because everything goes according to plan.
The author ignores obvious avenues for subplots, intrigue and suspense and instead drives us along a straight, level road from beginning to end. There are no bumps, no twists, no turns. There isn’t even an antagonist to make the lives of our heroes difficult.
The cast of characters is mostly there because “they were needed” and we receive very little insight into their lives, their backgrounds, or their motivations. They are the way they are because the author needs them to be. The exceptions are the two main characters, Dr. Samantha Stone and Captain Ira Coen. In these we get a bit more “behind the scenes” information but even then, not much. Coen begins the story firmly opposed to Samantha’s involvement in the mission and her presence on his submarine. He bemoans the problems of having a woman on a sub with a bunch of “horny young men” and is prepared to refuse her until his superior tells him, essentially, “You have no choice, she’s going, and you need her.”
Now, that might be a great opportunity for tension between characters. The sub captain doesn’t want the brilliant young woman on his boat but gradually comes around as the brilliant young woman proves herself and her ability to him. Instead, Coen does a complete 180 in approximately fifteen pages and sings her praises so loudly as to defy believability.
Samantha herself is the “genius” of the story and again it’s just because the author says she is. Yes, she is portrayed as a skilled oceanographer and an expert on the Sea of Okhotsk. That’s all fine and wonderful and her characterization benefits from the author’ extensive, real-world experience, but she ends up being the smartest at everything. No one else has any good ideas, it is always Samantha. We are told that Coen’s boat the Hawkbill has a hand-picked crew aboard. All of them are the best at what they do. Despite this, in the final act of the novel, Samantha “devises” a means of detecting enemy submarines that no one else has thought of. This might be okay if she hadn’t spent the entire novel doing this every three pages. Worse, her “idea” was so obvious that any reader of submarine fact and fiction already thought of it. The notion that the finest submariners in the fleet didn’t come up with this even before the left dock is ridiculous.
As mentioned, there is no antagonist in this story. Bad old Russia is back and she’s going to blow you up is all the reader gets for a “bad guy.” The author finally lets us into the head of someone other than his heroes, but only towards the end of the book and even then, he spends most of that time describing how the character detests but respects the ability of Captain Ira Coen. If this meet-up had been suggested in any way earlier in the novel, that might have played a bit better and—again—offered a vehicle for tension between characters, but instead the author just dumps it on us. We are asked to believe that amongst all the submarine captains in the American and Russian navies, these two just guessed their opponents out the blue.
Overall, this novel presents a fascinating premise but fails to deliver. Good enough to finish reading, but that's about it. Mr. Tooma possesses a gift for fluid, easy-to-read writing but this gift is not enough to save The SOOF from its obvious flaws.
March 2, 2022
Geopolitical Thriller
WOW!!! What a timely read! Non-stop action with an incredible build-up to a nail-biting ending. Although fiction, the actions in THE SOOF speak to current events. A world power unafraid of unleashing a catastrophic environmental action. A must read! I received an ARC from NetGalley, and the opinions expressed are my own.
WOW!!! What a timely read! Non-stop action with an incredible build-up to a nail-biting ending. Although fiction, the actions in THE SOOF speak to current events. A world power unafraid of unleashing a catastrophic environmental action. A must read! I received an ARC from NetGalley, and the opinions expressed are my own.
May 19, 2023
This is a salty one, sorry! 🧂
TL;DR: Mission doesn't start until the 70% mark. Slow. Cringey dialogue and characters. Unable to suspend my disbelief. Unlikeable, annoying, know-it-all, attraaactive female character. Did I mention she's attractive?
Very slow to start. The opening scene is repeated around 6 times, as the "we're in trouble and why" message makes its way up the chain, mercifully, eventually reaching the president.
Military dialogue and behaviours that are very difficult to believe. During the very first briefing for the mission (there are a lot) it is said that two admirals are invited on stage (so everyone knows who they are) and they proceed to wave to everyone.
Lots of "Hi" and "hey". It all feels far too casual and informal. The team of 6 goes around the table to introduce themselves, then are told to go around the table a second time to say what name they wish to be called.
The master chief says he would be "honoured" to let the lone female crew member use his private shower facilities once a day. Honoured!
Samantha, golly is she annoying, but she is sooo attractive. They can't have that onboard, what about the mission!.. This is about where I started skipping forward, only to find out that they start sleeping together before it even begins.
Then skipping further forward to find where the mission finally starts - 70%. 70% of the book is spent on preparation before the sub even departs.
I left it there.
*Free e-copy received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
TL;DR: Mission doesn't start until the 70% mark. Slow. Cringey dialogue and characters. Unable to suspend my disbelief. Unlikeable, annoying, know-it-all, attraaactive female character. Did I mention she's attractive?
Very slow to start. The opening scene is repeated around 6 times, as the "we're in trouble and why" message makes its way up the chain, mercifully, eventually reaching the president.
Military dialogue and behaviours that are very difficult to believe. During the very first briefing for the mission (there are a lot) it is said that two admirals are invited on stage (so everyone knows who they are) and they proceed to wave to everyone.
Lots of "Hi" and "hey". It all feels far too casual and informal. The team of 6 goes around the table to introduce themselves, then are told to go around the table a second time to say what name they wish to be called.
The master chief says he would be "honoured" to let the lone female crew member use his private shower facilities once a day. Honoured!
Samantha, golly is she annoying, but she is sooo attractive. They can't have that onboard, what about the mission!.. This is about where I started skipping forward, only to find out that they start sleeping together before it even begins.
Then skipping further forward to find where the mission finally starts - 70%. 70% of the book is spent on preparation before the sub even departs.
I left it there.
*Free e-copy received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
March 15, 2025
Having no experience with either the Navy or the field of oceanography I found the technical aspects of the story enlightening and adding to the reality of the tale. The introduction of characters was a bit lengthy but once into the story it moved a long quite well and the ending I found riveting. Overall an enjoyable, entertaining read.
December 21, 2021
Could have been better
It was to perfect! It got boring and tiresome. This book have every element to be amazing, but reading it was like reading the outline for the book. Not a finished fleshed out completed story. Don’t bother unless you have nothing else to read….
It was to perfect! It got boring and tiresome. This book have every element to be amazing, but reading it was like reading the outline for the book. Not a finished fleshed out completed story. Don’t bother unless you have nothing else to read….
October 1, 2022
SOOF was a great read. Liked the short concise chapters, plot was excellent and scary at the same time. The characters were well played throughout the book, a must read. Looking forward to Sam’s next book.
August 19, 2021
Great read
A really great novel with a bright lady PhD on board the boat. Cannot wait for the next one soon.
A really great novel with a bright lady PhD on board the boat. Cannot wait for the next one soon.
January 10, 2022
Samuel G. Tooma clearly writes from a rare and specialized knowledge set, allowing for a good tale with a frightening plausibility.
Read
March 5, 2022The SOOF is a fast paced thriller with a plot contemporary to today's current events. Reminiscent of Tom Clancy's HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. Fascinating characters and intricate plot development.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews