Oceanview Publishing and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Goliath. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Moments away from bankruptcy, salvage operator Captain Sonny Wade hears the distress call of the Russian supertanker Bennkah, which suffered a catastrophic malfunction made worse by a belly full of crude oil. Will Sonny be able to get there before his main competition, Sharpe-Shooter? When seconds count between claiming the biggest salvage of his life or losing out to the man who wants to destroy his business, will his crew be able to pull it together? With fire burning despite the Coast Guard's best efforts, will there be anything left to save?

Goliath is an action packed adventure on the high seas, but the plot and character development are severely lacking. All of the elements were there, but the passion and the drive behind the words was not. I could see Goliath as a blockbuster movie, as Sonny battles the elements and his nemesis, Dan Sharpe, but I am less sure of its success as a book. Overall, I found the premise to be interesting and I enjoyed the high stakes and dramatic suspense. Readers who like suspense with a quick pace may find Goliath to their liking.

Captain Nicholas Borodin and his crew embark upon their first voyage at the helm of the new, revolutionary and very massive oil tanker called the Bennkah, which means Goliath. The Russian tanker is a ship to end all ships, the largest one ever built. The Bennkah will hold so much oil that it’s predicted to influence the price of oil around the world. But early into its voyage on the Bering Sea a fire erupts onboard and Captain Borodin is forced to call for help.
Aboard his salvage boat, Captain Sonny Wade hears the Mayday and rallies his crew to head out and save what they can. Sonny is not the only one headed towards the ship. He has some stiff competition from his old boss, the very ambitious Dan Sharpe, who owns the largest and most successful salvage company around. Dan is also the one who fired Sonny after a disastrous incident that left his reputation and marriage in ruins. The race is on to see which salvage team can reach the Bennkah first, but both teams are heading into danger. For as the Bennkah begins to succumb to the fire, the tanker’s captain is the only person aware that there is much more at risk than the oil spilling into the sea.
The characters and storyline are a bit “cookie-cutter” here but if that sounds like a bad thing, it’s not! I like to read these kinds of adventure thrillers as fluff, meaning that I fly through them without a care in the world and I don’t have to think too much. That’s good right? I think so or I wouldn’t continue to read them. I am also rather fond of stories at sea. I can’t think of anything more horrifying than being out there with nowhere to go but down! Always a bit chilling! Kudos to the authors for what struck me as exceptional descriptions throughout the book. Clive Cussler and Lincoln & Child fans come to mind when recommending this book.
I want to thank the publisher (Oceanview Publishing) for providing me with the ARC through NetGalley for an honest review.

An ecological thriller is not a genre I normally read, but I enjoy a good thriller in general and I liked the idea, besides many reviewers praised this book, so I became curious and decided to give it a try.

Bennkah is kinda Titanic of the 21th century. Only Bennkah is not a passenger ship, but the biggest oil tanker in the world. So, you can imagine the extent of natural disaster if something similar would happen to a full loaded Bennkah. An eco-thriller wouldn't be an eco-thriller if the author didn't consider this turn of events, and he gets right down to business: the fire breaks out and spreads out in seconds fast over the whole ship.

When a Mayday call comes, Sonny Wade, one of the best and probably the most experienced captain in a salvage business, but who is on the brink of financial collapse due to the bankruptcy of his small salvage company, sees it as the last chance to save his small business, his ship, his crew and his home.

He is though not the only one who dreams to be the first to get to Bennkah. His ex-employer and the owner of the largest salvage business in northern Alaska, of course with much better equipment and possibilities, wants to be the first who can claim the burning ship and its load too. A race against time begins.

Though it is not the only problem Sonny and his crew have to face...

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In spite of Goliath was not a read in one sitting for me, I found the book entertaining enough to want to finish it. The characters were good developed and interesting, the setting was thrilling and the writing decent, and I can understand and comprehend the rating and many positive reviews.

But I couldn’t give it more than three stars (and I'm VERY generous with my rating here):

1. The story didn't exactly keep me awake at night.

2. There were many technical details considering salvaging. I’m not an expert in something like this, but still it is difficult to imagine a small crew of 6 people to be able to do all these extensive works, among others pumping the oil from the tanker, extinguishing the fire and many others.

3. There were some serious ISSUES that I COULDN’T ignore:

"His name was Rupik and he was a Chechen from one of the Balkan states in the Ukraine.” (quote from the book)


I’d like kindly to advice all authors to make a better and more serious research if you plan to write a book where you - in what ever context - are going to mention a country or people from the country you don't have a personal relation to, or translate something from a language you don't speak (without asking a native speaker of people who speaks the language to prove its correctness).
There are many readers who are not necessary personally related to a country you write about, but who possess a good general knowledge, and a single ridiculous sentence can spoil the whole book, not to mention the fact that you make fools of yourselves.

Maybe for an oversee reader this kind of nonsense goes unnoticeable, but not for an average European reader, not to talk about the readers from one of the countries that had been mentioned in this sentence - some of them can consider it as a personal insult.

4. "BENNKAH - in Russian translates to Goliath".
I’d like to know what dictionary the author used.

5. The whole book is written from the third person POV. But from time to time worms the first person POV into the story. It appears from nowhere and seems very illogical. Because it doesn’t match with the way it is told. If it is an attempt to show the intern thoughts of a character, then it would be better to do it in italic, and then all intern thoughts should be told from the first person POV and not just some random thoughts. It looks like an editing error.

I love this book. I was hooked from the minute I picked it up until the very last page, it was excellent and I highly, highly recommend it!!

I liked how fast paced this book was and that it grabbed my attention from the first chapter without ever letting up. It was a wild ride that forces you on this emotional rollercoaster where you feel invested in the drama and tragedy of the salvage operators. I definitely gained a whole new level of respect for the people who do this in reality because it’s not for the faint hearted.

Corridan and Waid did a wonderful job in character development so you really feel like you get to know Sonny. It reminded me a bit of LOST with the flashbacks and wanting to keep jumping back there to know what happened which of course you don’t find out til the near end. I thought the switching between perspectives could’ve used a little better flow as it seemed a little confusing at times.

I liked how descriptive the authors made their writing along with being educational so you get to learn about sea salvage operations as you’re being entertained. The depth of knowledge the authors put into this book was impressive. I think it’d make a cool movie

When I saw this story had some of my favorite elements- ships, the sea and icy cold weather, I just knew it had to be a good one. Although for some reason, I went into it thinking it also had a supernatural theme to it, and it didn't, but it was extremely good without it. It's all about salvaging ships and the race between two competing salvage companies to see who can first lay claim to a massive oil supertanker that's going down in the Bering Sea.

The entire book was a page turner and complete thrill ride. It will have you rooting for the underdog along the way. The ending was also very satisfying. I would love to see this on the big screen; it would make a fantastic movie!

If you have a thing for stories set on the high seas, then you'll definitely want to add this to your to-read shelf!