DE-173, by J G Bell, is yet another take on the USS Eldridge’s reputation as a test ship for the United States Navy during the Second World War. The many stories (and movies) purport that the ship was used in experiments during 1943 to develop a cloaking device (yes, like the Klingons have) to render the destroyer invisible to the enemy. An interesting concept, expect that the existence of radar at the time would have made an invisible ship pretty much useless. A far better approach would have been to try and make the ship invisible to radar (as is done today), which would have been a potent tool for night battles which the Japanese Navy excelled at during that time.

The real USS Eldridge, DE-173, a Cannon class destroyer escort, was named for Lieutenant Commander John Eldridge Jr., a hero of the battle for the Solomon Islands. Eldridge was laid down on the 22nd of February, 1943, at the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, in Newark, New Jersey. She was launched on the 25th of July 1943, and commissioned on the 27th of August, 1943, with Lieutenant C. R. Hamilton, USNR, in command. Her service record makes it very clear that she was not in the Philadelphia area at the time the ‘experiments’ supposedly took place, and rather than disappearing and re-appearing as she does in the books and movies, her real history is much less exciting. On the 15th of January, 1951, Eldridge was transferred to Greece under the Mutual Defense Assistance Act and renamed Leon, D-54. She was decommissioned on the 5th of November, 1992, and was eventually sold as scrap to V&J Scrap Metal Trading Ltd.

Now, back to the review – sorry; got sidetracked by the ship’s history. J G Bell has taken what was an interesting story and turned it into something even more fascinating. This time, the ship has turned up in the lost city of Atlantis (of course!) and has allowed a group of people to start messing with Earth’s timeline. A team consisting of military members from various nations, working with colleagues from Atlantis, diligently work to restore the timeline and prevent further attempts by the ‘bad guys’ (I don’t want to give anything away so I’ll leave it at that) to change life as we know it.

The story flows smoothly, the character development is good, and I love the premise and ending. So what happened that I only gave it three stars? I’m glad you asked. The book desperately needed another few rounds of editing. I don’t mean for subtle things that only the purists would notice. I mean biggies! I’m looking forward to reading Book II – this one is that good – and I hope and pray that an attempt was made to appear as though someone edited it.

Review by Daniel Lloyd Little - www.daniellittle.com ( )

DE-173 is a story about a time-traveling team that is dedicated to the correction of time events changed by a rogue time-traveling group. There is romance involved as well as characters with superhuman powers. Every time traveling episode is a last-ditch effort to right time anomalies. Just as you determine that the book is about to conclude, a new time anomaly pops up.

The main character is Tanis. Born to a time-traveling family, she has superhuman strength and can time travel without any mechanical aid. Tanis becomes both the focus of scientific replication attempts and of an antagonist group bent on killing her. The team’s refuge is the island of Atlantis that has been transported to a time stable safe-zone by Tanis’ parents.

There are a series of missions in the second half of the book, each one being self-contained adventures. The mission series reminded me of Stargate SG1, the team goes out to correct a change in the timeline, it encounters an adversary, and it then bravely deals with it with one of the team members almost getting killed in the process.

This book is an anomaly to me as it’s definitely a Sci-Fi, and it’s part love story, and there’s plenty of action. I previously called this a thriller but now I’m not so sure that’s accurate. Hopefully, a consensus will be arrived at with other readers expressing their opinions in their reviews. ( )