Jeff Edwards is an award-winning military thriller author best known for the “Sea Warrior Files” series of novels. In addition to his bestselling novels, he has written in many military newspapers, opinion columns, and published several articles on Military.com. Most of his work pertains in nonfiction and fiction is about the military given his military background. Over the years, his novels have won several awards and honors. “The Sword of Shiva” won the Independent Publishers of America Silver Medal for Wartime/Military Fiction. Other awards that he has won include the Readers Choice Award, the Clive Cussler Grandmaster Award for Adventure Writing, the American Author’s Association American Author Medal, and the Military Writers’s Society of America Outstanding Naval Fiction Admiral Nimitz Award. “The Sword of Shiva” won His proficiency in writing about the American military comes from his long years of service, where he was an Anti-Submarine Warfare Specialist and Navy Chief Petty Officer. He did serve for more than two decades in several American war fronts including the Cold War standoff and the Persian Gulf crisis. After serving for the best part of two decades, he retired from the military to become a military consultant and novelist. His first novel that was initially published as “Torpedo” and later renamed “Sea of Shadows” is to be adapted into a film by The Bourne film series producer Paul L. Sandberg. He currently lives in California, consults for the American military, and writes opinion pieces for various military publications.
The Sea Warrior Files Series is Jeff Edwards’s explosive series of novel that distills his experiences serving in the United States Navy. As one that served in the military, Edwards writes about real characters with a story that is full of mass, speed, and intensity. The series of novels is Dale Brown, Griffin, or Tom Clancy type techno thrillers that come with finely honed tales full of military precision weapons and peopled with ordinary military men. What makes these novels different from other techno thrillers is that unlike the typical novel, they have realistic characters. His characters are not the hard muscled and gorgeous supermen of the typical military thriller but rather ordinary women and men who pull together to achieve the extraordinary. They do not have superpowers but they have something stronger; collective heroism, dedication, and hard work. The heroes look like the people next door or the ordinary man in the street. As for the stories, they are about real politik and real life political players and nations whose intrigues and hostilities unfold in very realistic scenarios. What makes the novels so intriguing is that they present an all or nothing international scenario that the heroes and heroines need to deal with if they are to save their world.
The novels do not miss a beat about military technology as Jeff Edwards uses his knowledge of military technology to write punchy believable stories. The author’s has excellent knowledge of naval warfare and aerial combat scenes that are expertly incorporated into the human relationship stories subplots. Edwards who is a former naval officer excellently showcases empathy and humanity for his comrades in the narratives, who are undergoing some of the most difficult situations in combat. The novels that come with intense fast-paced action keep the intensity right up to the end of the story, before they release it in an explosive conclusion. In the novels, the author gives great insights into the women and men that serve in many different arenas around the world. Through the characters, Edwards brings to light the intrigues, the fears, the boldness, and courage of the men and women in uniform who serve their country with valor. However, the Warrior Files series of novels are not only about the American military, but also about the weapons and skills of the enemy that just as well deserve respect if they are to be defeated. From every side of the international intrigues are men and women that have accepted that they may die or live by the very weapons that they wield.
“Sea of Shadows” the first novel in the series is a fantastic military thriller featuring an SWO officer who is enjoying his military service aboard a US Destroyer. The story is set in Germany, a country starved of oil that is forced to trade weapons with an unnamed embargoed terrorist group to get the precious commodity. Britain and the US are determined to ensure that the weapons, which include the latest hi-tech submarines, do not reach the intended target. The weapons are being transported from Med through the Suez Canal, and into the fictional nation of Kiraj in the Middle East. For Britain and the US, allowing the weapons to arrive is sure to start World War III, and they would rather destroy the shipment and face the consequences. The lead in the story is Chief Petty Officer McPherson, a two-decade land warfare veteran recently posted to the USS Towers. The American Destroyer is battered from all sides, but the officers are determined to fulfill his mission. Every time the Captain and the Chief Petty Officer face a challenge, he always has something up his sleeve, coming up with creative strategies and attack maneuvers. As the story progresses, the suspense builds providing some of the most fascinating depiction of Naval strategy, combined with high level political intrigue war aversion strategies.
“The Seventh Angel”, the second novel is an excellent military thriller that pits the Russians versus the United States. A Russian missile submarine is threatening to unleash nuclear destruction on the world and it is only one US destroyer, which has the capacity to neutralize the ship. The rogue Russian ship has been taken over by the leaders of a hard line Soviet rebel group. The leaders of the group have no qualms about unleashing the ships nuclear and ballistic weapons to ensure that their own government is wiped out. The committee of rebels believes that by provoking a war they might recapture the glory of the Soviet Union through reigniting the Communist revolution. The unpredictable band of deranged renegades now holds the United States, Japan, Russia hostage. The threat by the rebels turns out not to be a bluff as the missiles and warheads soon start falling with the earth in real danger of extinction. It is now up to an American warship to pierce the thick Siberian ice and neutralize the nuclear sub before it does more damage. With political intrigue, sophisticated weapons, panicked evacuations, body counts, and radiation fallout footprints, The Seventh Angel is one great read.