Northern Fury: H-Hour

By: Bart Gauvin, Joel Radunzel

Narrated by: Arthur Morton

August 1991. Soviet hardliner Pavel Medvedev knows that only bloodshed can save the USSR from complete collapse. With violence breaking out in the streets of Moscow, few realize that he is piloting the Soviet Union on a collision course with its deadliest enemy yet: NATO.

US Marine Colonel Robert Buckner, passed over for a coveted command, takes a post working for Vice Admiral Falkner on his way to retirement. As the world is lurching towards World War Ill, he finds his way towards a panoramic view of the unfolding crisis with a pivotal role to play. War breaks out across the globe, but the pin falls in the far north, where soldiers and civilians alike must battle not just the enemy, but the unforgiving elements. With arsenals of high-tech weapons loosed in both directions, the ultimate reward may not be victory, but survival.

H-Hour is the first book of the Northern Fury series, which tells the alternate history of World War Ill's northern front through the eyes of those who lived it.

©2019 Ursus Rising Books (P)2020 Ursus Rising Books

Mediocre WW3

The story is interesting, but the pacing is horrendous. Half the book is spent before getting to any conflict (in a WW3 book), and then the pace slows to almost real time in a painful slog through every detail which characters we know little about or have little to care about experience every little thing. The narration is truly awful, the accents and voice characterization are distracting at best and laughable at worst, and there are some glaring mispronunciations or misspeaks (ever heard of a Light Colonel?).

Good Listen

I hope there’s a sequel. I need to know how WW3 ends. I love fictional military books.

Decent Cold War Gone Hot story. Awful narration.

The story is decently written but doesn't take any real risks. It follows the same blueprint as Red Storm Rising, Team Yankee, Red Metal and a half dozen other books covering the topic of WWIII in breaking out in Europe. The Soviets come up with a devious plan and catch NATO off guard and disparate groups of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and intelligence analysts fight in delaying actions until reinforcements arrive. Sacrifices are made and while NATO loses the opening engagements, they somehow always manage to knock out the one vital piece of equipment the Soviets needed to see their plans succeed. H-Hour is no different in this regard. The story, although familiar, is better written than most and a bit more encompassing in that it features characters from NATO countries other than the US.

Unfortunately, the narrator for this book does a very poor job. His attempts at Russian and Norwegian accents are painful and he badly and repeatedly mispronounces several words. Some standouts are saying "clothes bags" for "cloth bags"; "Kway" or "Kwayside" for "quay" or "quayside"; and "sithing propellors" for "scything propellors".

Hopefully they'll switch narrators should the series continue.

Slow

Long and slow book gets better about half way threw can be boring at times

Passable story, odd ending, HORRIBLE narration

I wasn’t disappointed by the writing. Overall, not as well crafted as a Clancy novel - the areas where the authors choose to spend time on nitty gritty details seems odd at times. I feel like I know the characters, but more like a work relationship- not at the personal level like Clancy was able to evoke.

However, the big stinky elephant in the room is the horrible narration. This guy seems to think Russian and German accents are interchangeable. His attempts to inject differentiation for characters is laughable. It almost made me not want to finish listening… Very distracting at times. Often sounds like he doesn’t want to be reading the story. Pronunciation of military acronyms and jargon is not at all accurate. It is off putting to say the least.