"Thunder Below" by Eugene Fluckey is a much better read. "The War Below" has some great moments, but the timeline between the 3 subs and their ever-shifting crews is very confusing. Also, the writing isn't fluid and that adds to the agonizing read. A lot of sentences should have been rewritten by the editor. Maps, too, would have helped a lot since these subs are all over the place and I had to read with an Atlas at my side. I know that this book got a lot of awards, but it's hard to understand why. I'd give it a C+ based on confusing timeline and poor (military-ese, backwards sentence structure, etc.) writing.