10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very Little to Recommend, December 14, 2009
This review is from: The Crisis: A Dan Lenson Novel (Dan Lenson Novels) (Hardcover)
Finishing this one was a real chore for me. Since
The Command, Poyer's last few tales of the modern navy featuring thoughtful protagonist Dan Lenson have been progressively less interesting. This one outdoes all the others in the boredom department.
The modern navy is actually on very limited display. Much of the action is told from the point of view of three African children (the novel is set in an Eritrea-like fictional country). The plight of this region of Africa is a real and terrible one, but neither real not fictional children have much to offer that is new or useful.
Besides the underused Lenson, other characters from earlier Poyer novels reappear, chiefly SEAL 'Obie' Oberg, whose parts of the story are the only sections of any interest. An improbable NCIS investigator also makes a second appearance and is even less believable than she was before. In what at first looked to be a mildly interesting subplot, Lenson and a female officer who had served with him before seem to develop a mutual attraction - but this storyline never goes anywhere, much like the novel itself.
For his next effort, I hope Poyer either returns Lenson to a more nautical setting or else reinstalls him in a political role where at least something of interest is happening. The author's continuing detachment from his feature character may indicate that he feels he has mined Lenson for all the character development he is good for. If so, that's fine, but then there's no need for him to keep writing novels set in the 'Lensonverse,' or to include Lenson at all.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
super thought provoking thriller, November 10, 2009
This review is from: The Crisis: A Dan Lenson Novel (Dan Lenson Novels) (Hardcover)
The western governments are very concerned with the civil war in Ashaara on the strategically important Horn of Africa. The constant fighting has sent the country into deepening destitution with shortages in sustenance life necessities in a place that was already overrun with abject poverty. If the spiral turns any worse, Ashaara could become a nation void of central authority and home to outlaws and Jihadists.
To prevent this horror from turning even more calamitous, the US Navy sends Commander Dan Lenson and his Tactical Analysis Group into the area to provide humanitarian aid to the besieged masses and to train a patrol squad in the Red Sea. With chaos the norm, Lenson and his unit realizes they cannot distribute the assistance without an infrastructure followed if successful by a force to weed out terrorists. However, what seems obvious to aid the forlorn proves complex and ugly as internal and external forces see the region as a ripe place for their specific agenda with people being damned.
The Crisis is a super thought provoking thriller that will have readers pondering ethical and logistical questions involving aid to nations desperately in need but lack the infrastructure to make proper distribution. The story line is fast-paced from the moment TAG and its leader receive the assignment, but really takes off in Africa when the team learns the boots on the ground dynamics of the situation is appallingly chaos. Alliance switch within a murmur and helping the indigent is impossible due to avarice of leaders who seek wealth or ideological and religious advantage over truly caring for the downtrodden.
Harriet Klausner
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
"The Crisis", January 31, 2010
This review is from: The Crisis: A Dan Lenson Novel (Dan Lenson Novels) (Hardcover)
This book has nothing to do with the Lenson that we grew to enjoy - exhausted naval officer. Poyer come back to your core!
Lets at least get Dan up to Captain with a command first before we put him in TAG permanently.
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