Adm. James Stavridis, USN (Ret), is among the most prolific and popular authors of military fiction and nonfiction working today, with bestselling books on leadership, naval history, and two (soon to be three) co-authored works of speculative fiction that paint a sobering view of our future.

But in his newest book, The Restless Wave, Stavridis looks backward to 1941 and tells the story of Scott Bradley James, a Key West native who attends the U.S. Naval Academy and quickly finds himself “storm-tossed by the first bloody years of the Second World War.”

If it sounds like a downer, it’s not.

“I tried to create something that was historical, but not completely bedded down in the dark tragedy of war,” said Stavridis, a MOAA Life Member and former supreme allied commander of NATO. “I think even in the midst of war, people fall in love.”

It turns out to be a love triangle (naturally), as the book traces the protagonist’s victories but also his defeats. James starts off too ambitious, too concerned with his personal life, Stavridis said, but the character matures along the way.  

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Stavridis loosely based his novel on Dante’s Inferno.

“Dante's Inferno is a story of resilience, and when I looked at the Greatest Generation, they came out of the service academies and they're slowly working through these circles of Hell, which you could argue start with Pearl Harbor and then it's Midway, and then it's Guadalcanal and then it's Leyte Gulf. And then it's Okinawa. And then it's Iwo Jima,” he said. “Then it's the use of an atomic weapon.

“I think it's important that we realize this is a story about this Greatest Generation, but that the Greatest Generation was young. They were trying to find their way. … But in the end, they stood and delivered.”

The young officer’s story includes brushes with historical figures, like Ernest Hemingway and Adm. William Frederick "Bull" Halsey Jr.

And while Stavridis drew inspiration from history, 30 years of firsthand Navy experience, and a 14th-century Italian poet, the novel is breezy and accessible. The added value for the uniformed service community are its many nods to culture and history, including the appearance of a real British brewing ship that kept sailors stocked with draft beer during the war.

“I think it's important that you write a book that anybody can pick up and read and enjoy,” Stavridis said.

He isn’t slowing down. The Restless Wave is part of what Stavridis sees as at least a five-book series that will tackle the rest of World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War, and Vietnam.

And while it sounds like history, Stavridis would kindly point out it’s not exactly looking back.  

“I think there's a lot we can appreciate about the world ahead of us,” he said. “Like, are we going to get into a war with China? What would the new technologies look like? How fast would they arrive on the battlefield? All of that you can learn a great deal about from looking at World War II.”

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