Customer Reviews

Black Storm: A Novel (Tales of the Modern Navy)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In "Black Storm," Poyer subverts the conventional elements of military "thrillers." By underplaying, almost underwriting, the firefights, the political "big picture" background, he leaves room for what becomes a harrowing, deeply convincing, account of men, and women, in battle.
I have no military background at all, let alone combat experience. But Poyer's account of this fictional small-unit mission, by a squad of Force Recon U.S. marines with a Navy missle expert and a biological warfare doctor, during the Persian Gulf War rings true on every page. The achievement is all the more remarkable because his previous novels about the U.S. Navy today have usually been focused on naval and naval air themes.
Poyer captures the strange intimacy of a Force Recon unit, whose members may not even be friends, yet they must be willing to die for each other. As the mission progresses, the squad finally enters Bagdad, and the sense of physical and emotional claustrophobia is almost palpable.
The reader can share in the extreme isolation of these combatants, the constant pressure to avoid detection, to avoid battle, the obsessional nature of the mission objective -- to discover if the Iraquis have created launchable missles armed with a deadly smallpox variant, and if so, to destroy them.
By under-writing the traditional action elements, Poyer lets the characters, with all their flaws and doubts and problems, emerge ever more clearly, and surely, as the focus of our attention. Against all odds, the squad moves toward its objective by all means possible. Over and over again, we're aware of how things both great and small hinge on the decision, the choice of single member of the squad.
Often that is the squad leader, Marine Gunnery Sargeant Marcus Gault. In Gault, Poyer has created a remarkable portrait of the nature of small-unit combat leadership: "Black Storm" could almost (again speaking as a civilian) be a primer on the subject. As the team leader, Gault is continually facing and making life and death decisions, each one measured against the merciless standard of the mission's success.
But Poyer doesn't cast Gault, or any of the characters, in traditionally "heroic" terms. In fact, the character of a sociopathic, if not psychotic, British SAS sergeant, with whom the Marines make contact inside Iraq, acts as a mirror of how the same military virtues Gault displays have the potential to become monstrous.
It is the very "ordinariness" of Gault and the others that is so compelling: young men, most of them, with terrifying responsibilities. And yet..."they soldier on."
In the end we, at least we civilians, are left facing the awe-full mystery of men and women willing to sacrifice their lives.

I just finished reading David Poyer's latest tour of duty with Lieutenant Commander Dan Lenson. I recommend it highly to anyone who wants to enlist for an "A-Ticket" ride ready for immediate departure.

LTC Lenson's diaspora scrabbles across the rocky deserts of Iraq only to slosh trough the sewers of Bagdad. Poyer's warts-and-all portrait of personal and military ethics brings the combat experience into fine focus.

While BLACK STORM is set in the closing moments before the allied invasion of Iraq it is not a history lesson. BLACK STORM reads the tea leaves of tomorrows headlines. Read this book before some Hollywood hack neuters it for the screen.

If you like adventure stories with good realism and technology, then you'll like Poyer. Overall, this is one of his best. Thank the muse that he has gotten away from his "Crazy Captain" theme that left a bad taste from some of his earlier stories.
Highly recommended! If you want the REAL info, you might also want to read "The Threatening Storm -The Case for Invading Iraq" by Kenneth Pollack. It is a the real stuff behind Poyer's story. --fjd

The Authur takes us into a new environment for Commander Lenson, the Persian Gulf ground war. As usual , he does a vantastic job with details, descriptions and character layout. The book maintains an active pace from the beginning and keeps the reader on his toes. Good job again David !!

Although the 7th volume of Dan Lenson's experiences in the modern US Navy, this book seems to jump back to his earlier tours in the Persian Gulf. The opening scenes of insertion behind enemy lines are harrowing descriptions of helicopter operations that will have you ducking your head. Here and elsewhere Poyer extends the action not with technical descriptions a la Clancy, but through minute by minute narration from the point of view of each of the specialists along on the mission. The main similarity to CHINA SEA, his previous and incredible novel, is the vagueness of the force's target, some unknown kind of horrible Iraqi weapon of mass destruction (shades of today's headlines, too!). Once again poor Dan is on a deniable operation that won't earn him promotion.

Poyer is a master of claustrophobic conditions, whether underwater or in tight conditions like the sewers of Baghdad. Even in desert Iraq Poyer manages to find underwater(!) action (cf. his Tiller Galloway novels). Otherwise, the presence of navy man Lenson is hard to explain, and is something Dan also has to essay several times during the story itself (harking back to his work in TOMAHAWK). One disconcerting stylistic quirk is that Lenson finds time to ruminate on profound qualms of war and humanity even while in mortal danger during a fire fight in an underground weapons bunker ("when is counter-aggression more dangerous than the aggressor?"). Serious consideration of such thoughts, however, is what make Poyer's stories so different from mere technothrillers or the ordinary run of war novels. He truly is an excellent writer, psychologically acute and able to evoke just the atmosphere he wants, however much mainstream reviewers may ignore his military genre.

For those of you who have followed all of Poyer's books, this is his best yet ! He veers from his normal naval tales to one of a Force Recon Team in the Persian Gulf War, Although Dan Lenson is still a central character, the cast is well described and the plot exciting.

I really Liked this book it kept me guessing the whole time. The book was very exciting. The characters were written out so they were exactly like real people to me. Black Storm had one of the best plots i have read.

No one does it better than David Poyer in this genre...no one! In Black Storm:Tales of the Modern Navy, a weapon of mass destruction intended for Israel becomes the focus in this MUST READ Navy Thriller.

David Poyer's latest Dan Lenson novel takes us back to the Middle East and places him up against a fantastic nightmare situation. Although the timing is 1991 just before the American ground attack, several of the issues raised are very timely following the shocking events of September 11, 2001. Protagonist Lenson remains human and believable in facing the new challenges, which makes him a more credible hero than Clancy's Ryan, in my opinion. Furthermore, without the burden of Clancy's wordiness, Poyer's attention to detail in the novel's setting, even in the sewers under Baghdad, come across plausibly. And his knowledge of the modern U.S. military is extraordinary. THE CIRCLE remains my favorite Poyer novel in the Lenson series, but BLACK STORM comes close.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: If you're new to David Poyer please see the section titled ABOUT THE AUTHOR. Dan Lenson's exciting, yet imperfect Naval career is about to take a new twist, this time with the Marine Corps. Because of his expertise in missiles he is pared with a USMC Recon unit and dropped into the desert during the first Gulf War to search for WMD. I love small unit military action when it's written well and Poyer nailed it in this book! The Marines in this book are well portrayed, realistic and in some cases deeply flawed human beings.

YOU'LL LIKE THIS BOOK IF:
* You like small unit military action novels like "God's Childrend" and moveis like "Blackhawk Down"
* You want to know what it's like to have Boots On The Ground, as infantry troops say.
* You like Poyer's earlier stuff.
* You don't mind a little harsh language. This book has more of that than you typically see from Poyer or this genre in general.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Poyer is the only writer in this genre I'm aware of who isn't writing about future, "what if" scenarios. He has been writing Dan Lenson into recent historical situations, which might make you think that you already know how the story ends, but he makes it very, very exciting. His writing is excellent (not so with every writer in this genre)and his stories are compelling. What else could you ask for?

BOTTOM LINE: It's on my Favorite list.