Scott Bradley James Series

Scott Bradley James, like the US Navy in which he serves, is uncertain of the course he sails, both in war and love. While the threat of defeat that loomed over the first half of America’s war against Japan is behind him, much danger lies ahead. Disastrous mistakes can still be made—and they will be. For James and his comrades, their cost will be high indeed—both at sea against a fanatic foe, and on the home front in relations of the heart.

Reminiscent of Herman Wouk’s War and Remembrance, The Turning Tide fuses disparate elements into a masterpiece of historical fiction. It is a riveting account of some of the US military’s most iconic battles, from the Leyte Gulf to Iwo Jima, and on to Okinawa and the dropping of the atomic bomb. It is also a meditation on command. But what distinguishes this lyrical novel is its power to capture the forces at work on those caught in the whirlwind of war: their courage, fear, and loyalty to friend and country in contrast to the pettiness of vanity and personal ambition.

Rarely has an understanding of the canvas of war been more happily married to a reckoning with the character of combatants alongside their lovers at home. As in Dante’s Inferno, Scott Bradley James passes through the pain of conflict and confusion navigating an uncaring sea, learning as he sails. Through the power of fiction, the fruits of his hard-won education in the most consequential war of our nation’s history is within reach of every reader.

“The Restless Wave is not only a stirring and gripping story of the sea, but also of love and war and leadership. Admiral Stavridis’s sweeping knowledge of history and life in the Navy shines on every page, imbuing this work with authenticity and power.”
—David Grann, #1 NYT bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon

“In the engaging tradition of Herman Wouk and Patrick O’Brian, Admiral James Stavridis has given us a fascinating novel of one young man’s—and one great nation’s—war at sea. The book is at once entertaining and illuminating, touching on the most fundamental of human themes with deftness and an appreciation of the immense achievements of the United States Navy in the deadliest of eras.” —Jon Meacham

From the New York Times bestselling former NATO commander comes a riveting historical novel that charts the coming-of-age of a gifted but immature young naval officer as he is tested in the crucible of World War II in the Pacific

Scott Bradley James arrives in Annapolis, Maryland, as a plebe in the class of 1941 without a terribly good idea why he wants to be a naval officer, other than that his father was a sailor, and he wants to see the world, whatever that means. Scott and his roommate become fast friends, and, after surviving scrapes of their own making, the two fetch up at Pearl Harbor. War is brewing, and their class has graduated early. They have been sent to battle stations.

Admiral James Stavridis is an acclaimed novelist, a decorated military leader, and a great student of military history. He draws on it all to capture the experience of being storm-tossed by the first bloody years of the Second World War. Scott Bradley James is a talented young officer, but he has a lot to learn. And war will have a lot to teach him.


The Restless Wave offers a gripping account of the U.S. Navy’s astonishing progress through the first three years of the war in the Pacific, from Pearl Harbor through to the Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal. A story of character under pressure in the harshest of proving grounds, it is written with careful fidelity to the truths of war that have made tales of the sea essential to the art of storytelling since Odysseus.