Suden Käpälä’s Reviews > De Spookonderzeeër > Status Update

Much more fun/better than expected! Thus, desire2adequately archive thoughts&reminders.
However, here ends 1st 'reading journal' (pt.1); y'day, 'finalized' draft review (pt.2)@this title; txt form=now space-challenged! (Limit reached, max.#/characters.) Typed up c'uation (pt.3)@alt. title/cvr edition--Status 1SQ. Will also 'transfer flag' hence. (I.e. resume there, these reading notes/'journal entries'; pt.4.)

Donovan Billings (Gaff's attaché), p103.
BTW: love the (painted) cover art! Sub surfaced through ice; [v] check! Ticking off that bingo box.
Hendrik Phearson, Waldo Kramer (who's not a 'skipper', BTW!); p109.
Joe Crackleberry, p111.
Profanity (p112) by actual skipper, who has a clergical history?

In Adm.Gaff's letter (p104), there's been more innuendo r/ the patrol having a top secret ulterior goal (which is part of 'intrigue #1'), but still no sign of support hardware. Said HW is 1 of the many clichés ("Lorelei", "Phantom", "M:I7") that nevertheless entice me. (Also, back in 1979 [when 1st published as "Status SQ1"] all this may not yet have been a distict genre/trope set, yet? More original than now felt?)

Possibly, though, the latter "only" hinted at 'That Which Started' at p75?
Cliché as parts of it may B, overall, am quite content w/ the execution (p'unintended) of the novel.
Jeff Cushman/Iwo Jima/Vietnam, p96.
Procession through sub (p99) is a bit too melodramatic for my ideas about how military shipboard life is; but perhaps youthful crew had little true inkling of the war Within the Cold. (I.e., naiveté?)

Nothing yet seen of 2 supposed onboard intrigues (as per commercial descriptions gleaned from back/inside cover sleeve, & GR editions): of any additional cargo/weapon(?) aside from cruise miss.; nor of any mystery that XO (whose role/title source often uses, which transl. renders w/ the rather lengthy words for 'commanding off.', i/s/o using correct verb, 'executing') & CO (rendered as word 4 'captain') must unravel.

For all its stylistic+typographic mistakes, & awkward translation (careful, yet possibly rather inxperienced --or desinterested-- in military jargon as well as tech matters). This might B, in part, due 2 nothing unxpected turning up (i.e., quite predictable plot+character mechanics) in the icy waters. Even so, it's an eventful patrol that seems thus far 2B almost able 2 stand up/compare 2 my enjoyment of sub films.

Medic Ted Becker, p69.
Bertram Graham, involved@accident (Kramer, p72.); p70.
p73: Everett Young (bk, opposes Awesome's verdict against 'The 7' incl. EY's acquaintance, Anderson).
It Is Starting, p75.
Choosing this as 'quick' novel, 2 finally get some leisure prose reading done again (after long time of manuals, an epic, & comics to compensate), was good. Actually, going through this faster than reasonably expected.

Remembered, "Goliath" (SF/tech sub action thriller) also read.
Sagi Koranson, CE (red) Charles Riley; p22+54.
Glen Peebles, p28.
Steve Frackmeyer (& Sokorski), VLF; p60.

10 officers, 102 enlisted (p11).
Radio ops: Forbes, Sokorski (p7).
XO Laycook (p12) secretly admires Awesome (p12), although mad b/c missed chance @ captaincy?
Sonar, Raytheon BSQ-8 (p26)/SQA-14 (p29): CJ Morrison; Dr Gene Greerson, p26.
Gidroloc: Kamakota, p24.
Adm. Nic Gaffy: p11.
Don Haddock, p21.
Schroeder, p12.

Boat "Amundsen", nuclear attack, has no vertical launchers (as per Wiki; confusing2me). But carried cruise missiles (Tomahawk, mentioned), according 2 Wiki, can actually B launched horizontally from torp.tubes.
XO was passed up for cmd. New, black CO, Awesome -- who=already hinted at to be, probably, 'unexpectedly' (i.e. by caucasian crew; it's the 70s, still) "awesome", his practical inexperience notwithstanding).