In "The Gulf", Poyer brings back his nominal hero, Dan Lenson, the unluckiest surviving officer in the USN. Lenson went from the horrors of an Arctic cruise, the loss of his ship and full-blown inquiry in just a single book! (the superlative "The Circle"). In "The Gulf", Poyer tries to make Lenson share the focus of the novel with other intriguiging charachters - a grizzled, but tireless helicopter crew; aging UDT skin-divers; and a beautiful, but brilliant and tough female diplomat who calls Washington's shots in the Persian gulf. The notion of sending a woman - no matter how experienced - to relate American policy in the male-dominated Gulf region seems implausible, and once Poyer brings her and Lenson together, with an unconvincing spontaneity that only tears away her diplomat's shell, she's entirely spineless. The other charachters don't connect with Lenson, and Poyer doesn't bring together the story until the novel is almost over. The story revolves around American efforts to enforce stability in the region without using more than enough gunboat diplomacy to get the job done. (too much will at least bankrupt Washington, or perhaps trigger a confrontation with the Soviets). For Lenson, it means, again, facing a morally ambiguous figure in command - Ben Shaker, the commanding officer of a Destroyer sent to the bottom by an Iranian cruise missile. Unfortunately, unlike other books, the confrontation between Lenson and his obscure boss does not proceed as the result of a sustained buildup, but pops up, almost like a cruise missile itself. To compensate, Poyer doesn't bring closure to the confrontation immediately, but waits until the end of the story for a resolution. Unfortunately, closure is too pat and unsatisfying. The charachters go there separate ways when the novel comes to an end, less like one of Poyer's previous epics then some TV series based upon them. A good read, but unworthy of Poyer.

This is a fascinating look inside the essense of command. What makes a commander - someone focused on the next promotion or a warrior intent on being supreme in battle?

Captain Ben Shaker presents that paradox in The Gulf. Some of his actions are reprehensible and others are the kind this country needed the USN sailed into harm's way at Midway.

If you like a story about the gritty toughness at sea, then this is the book for you.

This is the first novel by David Poyer I have read, and I must say I enjoyed it. A great work of military fiction, the stars of this novel are those who serve on the "small ships," the destroyers, frigates, and minesweepers that often do not get into the headlines, ships that perform vital duties in war and in peace for the US Navy. While aircraft carriers (as in the Stephen Coonts novels) or submarines (as in the Tom Clancy novels) are more often the star in works of fiction, the "little guys" finally get their due in this work.

As the title suggests, the novel is set in the Persian Gulf. Published in 1990 - prior to the Gulf War - in the novel the Cold War is still the paradigm in US defense thinking, the Iran-Iraq War still rages, and the "tanker war" continues as well, the US (and British) escort of American, Kuwaiti, and other countries tankers and other merchant vessels through a deadly gamut of island bases, deadly small boats called "boghammers," aircraft, and mines. A narrow, shallow desert sea that winds its way through hostile, often warring countries, not allowing Americans basing rights for ships or aircraft, the seas too shallow for the great aircraft carriers or our mighty submarines, the task to protect one of the busiest and most important shipping lanes in the world falls clearly on the shoulder of destroyers, frigates, and minesweepers. As in real history, with the "accidental" firing of a missle on the USS Stark, the tragic downing of a commercial airline by the USS Vincennes, and most recenlty by the terrorist attack on the USS Cole, these ships are vulnerable, in the front line of what Poyer calls in the dedication "...a strange war, a half-war, shadowy and constrained...in what we call peace - though it isn't."

More accurately, the focus of the book is primarily upon Lieutenant-Commander Dan Lenson, a star of previous Poyer novels, who serves as XO on the USS Turner Van Zandt. Hoping to have command of the ship when the captain is relieved due to illness, he instead finds himself serving a new captain, Benjamin Shaker, a man who lost his last command, the USS Louis Strong, to a missile fired from an unseen enemy. Sunk with the loss of many hands, many of the crew having died from fire damage from the missile strike, Shaker is determined that history will not repeat itself. Ordering changes in how the ship is run and even ordering torn out everything flammable, down to the crew's polyester uniforms, even against Navy regulations, Lenson obeys, but is unsure what is captain's ultimate intentions are, how far he should follow him, and how his past will affect how he operates. As the USS Turner Van Zandt continues to escort new convoys to and from Kuwait, protecting them from accidental and intential attack by Iraqi and much more often Iranian ships and aircraft, will this captain stay within established procedure for dealing with these threats, in a "war" that is waged under tight political constraints, or will he go beyond? What does Lenson really know about this captain, can he trust him? What unknown dangers lie in wait for the vulnerable convoy threadings its way down the deadly Gulf?

Poyer does a great job of illustrating several other charcters in the work, from aging reservist minesweeper divers to the hard-living helicopter aircrew of the ship to the drug-addicted but (mostly, sorta) trying to do well semi-stowaway corpsman, they add depth to the novel, their fates all intertwined in the end. His vivid descriptions of life abord the ship and sailing through the tropical desert sea are excellent.

Good book, I recommend it.

This book eventually rewards a patient reader, but it's quite an ordeal to get there.

Poyer is using the device here of an unpleasant character who learns and grows through his experiences in the story. Dan Lenson, the hero, is shallow and unable to engage meaningfully with others. One of the themes of the book is the process by which he learns to connect with his fellow human beings. But it takes a long time, and he's a jerk for much of the story.

In a year I make to be about 1981, the USS Barrett is an experimental warship with a computer program that can fight the ship essentially in autopilot. Lenson is an officer on the ship. Not only are there severe technical problems with the computer system, but there are various rumblings of discontent within the crew. This plot thread is interspersed with the story of Graciela, a pregnant Cuban woman who tries to escape the island in a refugee boat. The plot develops slowly, and though the climactic portions are exciting, they take a long time to show up. Because of the year, some of the plot seems dated, as when the computer whiz figures out what a computer virus is: realistic for the time, but not very exciting from the perspective of 2002 (the book having been published in 1995).

Poyer was exploring the issue of homophobia here, and so the reader has to sit through lengthy revelations of ugly bigotry on the part of various characters. While the dirty stories and nasty attitudes are no doubt realistic, they weren't fun to read. Likewise, though the main antagonist, Harper, is believable in his ugly sexism and crudity, I didn't enjoy reading about him. Eventually, Poyer comes across with a genuinely heroic homosexual character, but as with other aspects of the book, the reader has to suffer for a long time first. It's a meaningful issue and I think that to portray it realistically some ugliness is necessary, because that's an accurate representation of people's attitudes, but it got hard to keep turning the pages at some points.

The last quarter of the book is a good, page-turning adventure story. Getting there, though, may not be worth the time.

In The Circle, Poyer deals with corruption on a naval vessel, as his protagonist, then-ensign Lenson, confronts the difference between what he learned at the Naval Academy and the real Navy. The Med explores careerism. In The Passage, Poyer treats, inter alia, homosexuality in the military, and his treatment of this subject is as nuanced as his always-realistic characters, and also satisfying. As always, Poyer's descriptions are vivid and involving. I have always enjoy Poyer's books, but sometimes his endings haven't risen to the level of the body of his works--a small quibble for such good writing. Yet The Passage has a very tense, gripping resolution. I highly recommend this book.

The Dan Lenson series is spectacular. I got out of the Navy 27 years ago, but his exploits bring back so many memories. The description of shipboard life, the jargon, etc. Although I never lived these stories myself, it's so easy to put yourself there. I served in the Med and Guantanamo Bay and Poyer is right on with his descriptions. I can tell he draws from his own experiences from when he was in the Navy. Now I have to go find Tomahawk and read that one.

This book explores a potential future of earth that is has been purchased by a bank. In the 120 years it takes the bank to purchase everything it institutes vast changes in the way we live our lives. We literally become indebted to the bank from the age of 18. The bank tells us where to live, whom to marry, and delivers our babies to the front door. The one person on the planet who is not indebted manages to stay alive by pulling one scam or another. When the bank tries to terminate him, society begins to pay attention to this overweight, uneducated, scruffy man and his hypnotic little poems.

The insights into weapon system development are fascinating. Yet a sub-plot and it's deriviatives require such a degree of naivety on the part of the protagonist and some of his associates made it difficult to suspend disbelief.

Overall, I liked this book, as I like the whole Dan Lenson series. Dan is not the typical hero of a military novel -- which is refreshing. He's basically a well-meaning doofus whose love life & career are invariably in the toilet. But he's good-hearted & he perseveres & he recognizes his own weaknesses. The plot & characterizations were good in this book, better than in the previous Dan novels. But, unfortunately, there's way too much techno-jargon. (I just skip over these parts.) I agree with some of the other reviewers who said that in the real world, if a naval officer ever behaved as Dan did in this novel, his career would be over, kaput. I disagree with those who said that the author was deceptive in trying to convince the reader that the action takes place in the present. They didn't read carefully (possibly they were skipping over the techno-babble?); the novel makes it quite clear that it takes place in the '80s. I'll keep reading this series -- unlike the author's Tiller Galloway series which I disliked.

I very rarely buy hardbacks, reserving that honor for my very favorite authors - Grisham, King, etc.

But I have been so impressed by the character of Dan Lenson that I have added David Poyer to my list of hardback-worthy authors. In fact, I wrote a similarly glowing review of one of Poyer's other more divergent novels, As the Wolf Loves Winter. David Poyer is simply one of the best writers still active today.

Lenson's universe is one of hard reality in which moral absolutes rarely exist, but the "high road" is nevertheless apparent and accessible - but always at the cost of great personal sacrifice. Lenson's choices demonstrate that there are nearly always moral paths beyond those we would consider to be politically or personally expedient.

Poyer does not allow the reader to escape with a sense of justice done or righteousness rewarded. Even as Lenson makes his choices, his world grows darker and more hopeless. Lenson is not a saintly Billy Budd with an evil enemy, but a modern man trying to make moral sense of a juggernaut world.

Read the Lenson books in order! You will soon find yourself fascinated with the continuing development of this very complex and absolutely believable character.

The best part of this book was the first page. From there on, it was predictable, including a silly romance, and absurd adaptation of a city-slicker to the wilds.

Great book! W.T. Halverson reminds me of my late grandpa. It's difficult to put in into words but this book offers a lot. Halverson was a hard working man when we was young. He loves the woods, he is a man with principles. Despite being an old man, Halverson sets out to solve the recent string of murders during Pennsylvania's buck season. Halverson matches his experience as a local woodsman against the greater physical strength of the man whom he tracks.

This novel is a big disappointment. I'm a Poyer fan, but this is far below his usual standard. A boring book full of unpleasant characters & diving-jargon techno-babble. The plot, such as it is, doesn't even get going till the last 80 pages. If this had been my first Tiller novel I wouldn't bother continuing with the series. Another problem is that Tiller isn't that likable in this novel. It's OK to have a rogue hero, but the rogue has to have some redeeming qualities or be likable in some way. In this episode Tiller is an unattractive jerk even though he does the "right thing" in the end. But by then who cares. I'll continue with the series but I hope they get better!

In Louisiana Blue, the third of the Tiller Galloway series, Tiller and his partner, Shad leave North Carolina and head to the oilfield trash towns of South Louisiana looking for offshore diving jobs and a chance to put their lives back together. They find work with a less than reputable company, DeepTech, headed by a hard drinking, fast living cajun, Roland "Bender" Boudreaux. Just as things are starting to look good, Tiller find himself in deep trouble again! Deep as in 900 feet down in the Gulf of Mexico! Very smartly written, I couldn't read the last three chapters fast enough! As a diver, a former oilfield employee, and a native of the Bayou State, I was very impressed with Poyer's detail and vivid descriptions of South Louisiana and the Offshore Oil Industry. Galloway reminds me of Clive Cussler's DIRK PITT and James W. Hall's THORN all rolled into one! Readers who enjoy a good thriller with lots of vivid underwater action will love David Poyer's LOUISIANA BLUE!