The Gathering Storm: Book 2 of The American War

The trap at Pearl Harbor changed everything. Now the bill is coming due.

December 1941. Six Japanese carriers lie on the bottom of the Pacific. America's first ace, Lieutenant Jack Gibson, is ordered off the flight line and onto a stage. The War Department wants a hero for the bond tour. Jack wants his cockpit back.

While Gibson sells war bonds from San Francisco to New York, the war he helped start is accelerating beyond anyone's predictions. In a basement at Pearl Harbor, codebreaker Mikey Voss cracks open a captured Japanese codebook and begins reading the enemy's mail. In Tokyo, Commander Minoru Genda rebuilds a shattered naval air force from the ashes of Kido Butai . At Lockheed's Burbank plant, Kelly Johnson shows Jack a prototype with no propellers and an engine that sounds like the future.

Then Patton lands in the Philippines with the 2nd Armored Division, and the war on the ground becomes a war of mud, mountains, and Japanese soldiers who will not surrender.

From the codebreaking vaults of Station HYPO to the cockpit of a P-38 Lightning over Luzon, from Roosevelt's war cabinet to Yamamoto's final gamble in the Philippine Sea, The Gathering Storm follows the men and women who fought the first year of a war that history remembers differently.

This is alternate history. The ships are real. The aircraft are real. The courage is real. The outcome is not.

Book 2 of The American War series. Book 1, A Date with Infamy , is available now.

Every great story begins with family.

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Praise for A Date with Infamy:

A superb read; I have already preordered the second book. I read a huge amount of Alternate History, and this is among the best I have encountered; it reminds me of the late Robert Conroy, one of my favorites. — Amazon Reviewer

From the very first page, the author pulls you into a vivid and emotionally charged narrative that brings history to life in a way that feels both personal and profound. — Amazon Reviewer

This novel shows what might have happened if determined men were given a warning in enough time and enough resources to do something about it. Believable events, and gripping action. — Amazon Reviewer

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The American War Series:
Book 1: A Date with Infamy — Available Now
Book 2: The Gathering Storm — Available Now
Book 3: The Deep Pacific — Coming June 2026

Also by Brian C. Thompson:
The Unnecessary War — Book 1 of The European War — Coming May 2026
The American War and The European War converge at El Alamein, July 23, 1942.