Amazon Unheard, Unseen... Category:  Historical Fiction Publisher: iUniverse ISBN-10:  0595415423 Type: Fiction Pages: 192 Copyright: November 2006 ISBN-13: 9780595415427 Unheard, Unseen... by Daniel Little is a riveting adventure thriller involving the Canadian Navy submarine HMCS Corner Brook and US Navy SEALs in a dangerous covert operation that could save the world from future nuclear annihilation.  It is 2009 and North Korea has purchased four outdated submarine launched ballistic missile boosters from a French company tasked with destroying the rockets. Because they  are not a weapon in and of themselves, international law governing the sale of strategic weapons can not prevent the acquisition. Both the US and Canadian governments however, know too well what the unstable North Korean leader intends for the rocket boosters in light of his failure to successfully launch a missile of his own. When a carefully planned covert mission by US Navy SEALs to intercept the rockets unravels due to mechanical problems with the US Navy ultra quiet spy submarine USS Jimmy Carter, a replacement must be found and quickly! The surprising solution comes in the form of a Canadian submarine.   Commander Michael Simpson, nearing the end of his career with the Canadian navy has few doubts concerning the capabilities of HMCS Corner Brook, and he knows that his crew is the best out there. The only answer to his orders is the same one that has echoed throughout the history of one of the world’s best trained navies; ‘ready, aye ready’. In Unheard Unseen, the author takes the reader on a thrilling adventure as the officers and crew of HMCS Corner Brook and a team of US Navy SEALs undertake a mission fraught with danger! Excerpt “Okay Brad, let’s give her a few moments and be sure.” Mike was confident that the noise generated by Salt Lake City’s escape was probably confusing the surface ship’s sonar and he hoped that by going quiet, the escorts might just chase after their own submarine. The thick acoustic tiles covering Corner Brook’s hull would not reflect sound waves from anyone at a distance, and he was hoping they hadn’t lost any of them on the voyage down here. Someone had to come up with a better adhesive for those things. Worse of all, the holes created by any missing tiles created noise at almost any speed as the water flowed over them. “Fredericton has changed course. She’s heading after the other boat sir!” Brad nearly fell out of his chair turning towards the captain. He was excitedly watching the line representing the Canadian frigate start to grow fainter on his scope. Too bad for her sonar team, but they should have known better. Skimmer ears, he thought. Sad bunch. Maybe someday he’d go over and offer to teach them a few things. More likely he’d find himself treading water in Halifax harbour if he did. “Brad, how far to the carrier?” “A bit over twenty-one hundred yards sir. Solution is locked in. He’s ours.” “Weapons, open outer doors on one and two. You have the solution.” This was it, Mike thought. All their hard work and the best engineering minds in the navy had come down to this moment. He listened and watched as Brad made sure his headset was perfectly adjusted over his ears, avoiding the tendency to push them down lest he start hearing his own pulse amongst the sounds coming through the microphones arrayed along the hull and down the ‘tail’. “Nothing sir,” Brad whispered, looking to his right to make sure the CO heard him. They had worked. The outer doors on the bow of the submarine had opened without a sound on their newly designed hinges, while the updated complex plumbing had allowed the tubes to fill with water without a single swish of noise. In the past, the sound of water flooding a submarine’s torpedo tubes or the opening of the tube doors were easily picked up by sonar operators anywhere in the area. The weapons officer was watching the displays in front of him and noted the green lights flashing on the panel just above his head. “Tubes one and two, ready sir. Connect test on both ‘fish’ positive,” he informed the captain. It was crucial that the computer ran a quick test to make sure the tiny wires attached to the torpedoes were connected properly, or a very expensive piece of hardware would be totally useless the moment it left the tube. Down these wires would travel the control signals from the submarine, giving the torpedo its course to target as it tore through the water. “Sonar, one hundred percent power! Hit her!”

Posted by SeaWaves Magazine
I have to admit, this is the first work of fiction I've reviewed and hopefully won't sound like too much of a nitpicker. As moderator of the Canadian Navy History group on the Internent, I was very excited to see someone come out with a modern day novel on the Canadian Navy.
Author, Daniel Little of Yarmouth NS is obviously a keen observer of world military affairs on an amateur level. Herein lies the weakness of the book. Terms such as addressing a submarine crewmember as "seaman" or sailors referring to "stairs" instead of the correct nautical term of "ladder" show this to good effect.
It would've benefited both Mr Little and the finished work to have done more research in this matter. Living within a few hours drive from Canada's largest naval base, he could have easily gone and spent time onboard either a submarine of other navy ship. This would have afforded the opportunity to learn correct attitudes and jargon of a ship at sea.
The flow of the book is akin to one of my guilty pleasures (Clive Cussler novels) but could have benefited from a bit of editing to improve tension and orderly flow to the text. However these are minor points and hopefully the author's technique will improve in the future works.
Kudos to Mr Little for having the ambition and drive to write a novel to this historically underserved market. There is enough potential visible to recommend this book as long as one remembers that this is a first effort. I look forward to seeing marked improvement in his second novel which I look forward to reading.