Review of Unbroken Silence
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- Huini Hellen
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Review of Unbroken Silence
When a foreign ship was seen in Danziger Gatt, Ola Lofgren called a meeting of the top Swedish military leaders. The leaders couldn’t figure out who would be so bold as to put a foreign submarine on the surface of Swedish waters. Klas Nylund, the vice admiral and head of the Swedish Navy, was accused of negligence for failing to follow up on the reported sighting. As commander of the military intelligence, Lofgren informed the meeting that they were in possession of the foreign vessel’s sketch, which was drawn by a fisherman who happened to be closer to the vessel. However, Nylund dismissed the sketch on the basis that it barely resembled a submarine. They were all convinced the ship belonged to the Soviet Union.
Captain Lindholm had directed his ship to re-route to their original area following an order when Sandberg announced contact with a vessel that was likely to be foreign. When they attempted to pursue the vessel, it fired and began speeding away, as a torpedo from a suspected second vessel was fired at them. This sent the entire crew on high alert, noting that during peacetime, no one would fire live weapons on a Swedish submarine. After Lindholm’s vessel failed to report its position and Nylund’s order to delay the submarine missing protocol, Rolf Eriksson decided he had to initiate the protocol, just in case the crew were still alive and needed to be rescued. This incident marked the beginning of a nightmare for the Swedish military, coupled with the fact that the Soviet Union was the alleged aggressor.
When I first began reading Unbroken Silence by Henrik Ekstrom, I thought I’d be treated to military operations and discourse, especially after likening the storyline to the U-137, where a Soviet submarine was found after hitting a rock in the Swedish archipelago, outside Karlskrona. Much to my surprise, I found the storyline to be a masterpiece—a creation of how various military operations often go wrong and the truth never sees the light of day. Ekstrom revealed how much military personnel may be gullible and vulnerable to being compromised, thus jeopardizing their countries’ security. He attributes this to the financial kickbacks such personnel often get in exchange for cooperation.
My favorite aspect of this novel is the inclusion of titles in each chapter. This element foregrounded the content of each subsequent scene. This shed light on the plot shift and marked sudden and frequent advancements in the storyline. This resulted in my emotions being profoundly involved and me reading with increased tension, for instance, in the scene where Eriksson committed an act of insubordination in favor of a moral and professional obligation. I also loved that each chapter was dated, making it easy for me to trace the period in which the events occurred. The author’s use of vivid descriptions enabled me to create mental images of the tension soldiers face when they face an enemy whose military prowess is superior to theirs.
I found a lot of grammatical errors in this text. This is what I liked least about this novel, as it informs my assertion that it was not professionally edited. I rate this book four out of five stars and recommend another round of editing to fix the mistakes. Additionally, I recommend it to readers that enjoy thrilling storylines inspired by military operations, especially navy operations.
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Unbroken Silence
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- Laney K
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- Huini Hellen
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Thank you for taking time to pass by.
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- Huini Hellen
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I completely agree. Thanks for your comment.
- Elina Tshabalala
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