17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I WANTED to like it more...3.5 stars, June 29, 2005
I am a BIG fan of Larry Bond and submarine thrillers in particular, but as I began Dangerous Ground, I guess I set my expectations a bit too high. Bond's previous novels have been high octane entertainment with great stories which moved at the speed of a Tomahawk Missle -- but unfortunately, this story moves like a missle about to be disassembled. The storyline is good enough, and the technical detail is plenty, but unfortunately the action is too little and just not enough to keep this book afloat.
Don't get me wrong...Bond has clearly done his homework. As the story unfolds, you can just TELL he has spent a great deal of time making certain that this story was told from a standpoint of someone who was entering the world of the submariner from the outside. Dangrous Ground sets the stage for the main character, Jerry Mitchell, a former rising star in the ranks of Naval Pilots, who becomes grounded after an unfortunate aircraft accident (not his fault) and uses his Uncle's political weight to gain access to the Navies Sub force. Immediately he is considered unfit by many under his command because of how his uncle helped his career along. One Chief Petty Officer under him makes it his prime goal to make Mitchell's life as miserable as is humanly possible. Jerry works overtime to earn the respect of his crew and in the process, learns quite a lot about himself as well.
The USSN Memphis, a sub clearly past her prime and in desperate need of being turned into scrap, is sent on a mission into Russian waters to collect top secret information. This is where I had my biggest problem with the storyline. I know from personal experience that the Government can make some really harsh and stupid decisions -- but what I simply cannot accept is a vision of the US Navy knowingly sending an aging and vastly inferior submarine into an incredibly dangerous situation complete with the intention of expecting it to fail. I find it absolutely impossible in this day to believe no matter HOW mis-guided some military officers are, that they would send our men almost to their certain deaths for the flimsy reasons we discover later on. Anyway, on with the review: We discover soon enough along the way that the government has virtually written the entire mission off and fully expects it to fail...something that Jerry Mitchell and the Memphis skipper, Lowell Hardy intend to avoid. Once again, the technical detail is very thorough. You receive everything but a guided tour of a real nuclear submarine while reading Dangerous Ground. What you unfortunately do NOT get, is a lot of entertainment along the way. Certainly the story was interesting enough, but just barely enough to maintain my attention over the course of the two weeks I spent reading. One thing you CAN look forward to is the eventual arrival of the Memphis to Russian waters to carry out their nearly impossible job. The last quarter of the book is text-book edge-of-your-seat action. My only gripe is that in order to get TO that action, you must meander through three-quarters of semi-enjoyable submarine jargon-filled storyline. If the majority of this book represents what it is actually like on board a United States Submarine (which I believe it does), I will be forever thankful I chose a different career path than the military...and the Navy in particular.
In short, I found that I CAN recommend this story, but only to those hard-core submarine thriller readers like myself who find it difficult to wait in between books by Michael DiMercurio and Joe Buff. Other than that, I found the story quite lacking when compared with the previous novels of Larry Bond, all of which I can endorse quite happily.
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24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
LOTS of techno with this sub thriller!, May 5, 2005
Medically disqualified naval aviator "weasels" a lateral transfer to the sub fleet and meets a lot of resistance from the noncoms and officers who made subs a first choice rather than a fallback. In amongst all the technical aspects of this book--which serves to actually enhance interest--is a study in small group leadership, VERY similar to the canned scenarios that junior military officers study in their professional development schooling. It is good stuff if you aren't familiar with leadership dynamics in the services. This young officer works hard to catch a break with the crew, but also brings a very unique set of skills to the boat that will prove invaluable! The bigger story however is the covert mission this sub is on to retrieve data from just off the Russian coast. Made more difficult by the presence of two attractive female scientists, one of which, has overall mission responsibility (read: command authority). What they discover in the icy Russian waters is shocking and not what they expected and those wily Russians are willing to literally kill to protect the secret.
Great little undersea adventure with lots of character development thrown in for good measure!
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too little way too late, August 21, 2005
You have to read through over 250 pages leading up to about 30 pages of what I was looking for in the first place: action and some suspense.
You could just skip the first couple hundred pages and get right to the real story. Excellent book for the readers digest version without really missing anything.
Also all the political discussions came across as so phony that it really hurt any sence of reality.
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