Lenson's first command turns into a nightmare

books:


	• China Sea (Dan Lenson Novels) David Poyer St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2001 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 26 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

China Sea

I came across David Poyer's series of "Dan Lenson" novels by accident and was very excited about my discovery. As an ensign, I also got my sea legs on a Gearing class destroyer in the middle '60's. DD 818 was FRAM'd by the time I arrived, but a lot of stuff was still old on the USS NEW. The forward 5" mount was regunned during FRAM but not the after 5" mount. Going to GITMO with this inbalance made it near impossible to hit an air target. (We scored pretty good because we put up so much VT they were setting off each other)

As a long time Tom Clancy fan, I find David Poyer's books both refreshing and a reminder that Tin Can Sailors can save the world too. Poyer is right on target on so many things we shared on those WWII hulls. It brings back the memories of the good times, and more times than not, the reasons why I chose to leave active duty.

I normally recycle my paperback books to our Visiting Nurse used book store, but not the Poyer books. They will have a special place on my book shelf and will eventually be passed on to my grandchildren.

Whether you have a surface warfare backround or just want to read some quality sea stories, David Poyer is a great writer. He's been there and can tell it better than most. Now I'm looking for a copy of "The Gulf". It's out of print but a part of the story.

for more information click here

DAN LENSON NOVELS SATISFY ADVENTURERS

David Poyer writes wonderful books and the tradition continues with China Sea. Imagine hero Dan Lenson on his first command battling a part Pakistani crew who have their own way of doing things including primitive gunnery drills in an age of Tomahawk cruise missile strikes. There is also a murderer on board Lensons Knox class destroyer. Some people might think that this makes the American Navy look bad but there usually has to be a subplot in stories about warships and its better than the phantom crapper subplot in Flight of the Intruder. The showdown with a Chinese warship near the disputed Spratley Islands shows that Poyer is a master of relating geopolitical events. I highly recommend all of Poyers other books as well.

for more information click here

Lenson's first command turns into a nightmare

This novel excels, with Dan Lenson's first command turning into a nightmare. I would say "first real command", but whether or not he's even in command is part of the darkness looming over this book. Lenson replaces a drunk captain to overhaul a ship being sold to Pakistan. He then heads the Navy contingent aiding the voyage to Pakistan, dealing precariously with the arrogant and dangerously incompetent Pakistani skipper. Verbal order suddenly divert the ship back to U.S. control to fight pirates in Southeast Asia. As Lenson's pleas for orders and supply go unanswered, he sees this isn't the usual Navy mission. Commanding a mutinous crew of misfits, with a murderer lurking among them, Lenson struggles to maintain control, aided only by a handful of chiefs and an incompetent XO. Out on the edge of the world, beyond legal authority or help, a typhoon looming, Lenson reflects on the skippers he has known, on fictional characters like Queeg, Ahab and Kurtz, and, as usual, on how duty and honor apply to the murkiest situation he's ever been in. The unusual scenario for a Navy procedural takes this book into Age of Sail territory, earning comparisons with, say, O'Brian's Jack Aubrey novels.

for more information click here

A Cruise To Hell (and Back)

My favorite of Poyer's Lenson novels, 'China Sea' cuts the hero and his mutinous crew loose without communications, a definable command structure, or sources of supply, and thereby transports Cdr. Lenson mentally back in time to the days before "red phones" and command-by-email ruled the waves.

As a long-ago 'Knox' frigate sailor, I walked the same decks and climbed the same ladders into the stifling firerooms and the cramped CIC, and can attest to Mr. Poyer's grasp of seamanship and of the unique qualities of this class of "small boy". I was myself transported back to my Navy days, a feat that few writers (Patrick Obrien and Brian Callison, for instance) have accomplished.

For authenticity and a just plain enjoyable tale of modern war at sea, you can't go wrong with Mr. Poyer's "China Sea"! I'll be reading this one again...

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Welcome to the most dangerous sea in the world...

Dan Lenson was taking the USS Gaddis on her final journey, turning her over to the Pakistani Navy. But things didn't go according to plan. Now Dan finds himself commanding an undermanned, under-gunned, strife-filed ship on the China Sea--and cut off from Naval command. The Gaddis is supposed to be patrolling against pirates. But with a monsoon bearing down on his ship, and his crew ready to explode, Dan knows the Gaddis has been turned into a renegade itself: to engage in a violent, secret shoot-out against the second most powerful nation on earth.

For Dan, a bizarre, treacherous mission has become a desperate journey of honor, character, and courage. For not only has the Gaddis been forced into a covert mission against China, she now has a murderer on board...

for more information click here

hot