Customer Reviews

Dangerous Ground

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

I'm a big fan of Larry Bond. Computer Harpoon and his previous novels are great reads/games.

This novel meets one of my requirements for a good techno-thriller. The "techno" parts are either dead on or seem to be dead on. Almost reads like an introduction to 688 class submarines and what it takes to qualify in one. The description of what a "trim party" is assures you that someone involved with the book has served on submarines.

I do note that the action was a little long in starting, with some tantalizing glimpses of what was to come. I also note that some of the equipment is not fully explained, specifically the Manta remote vehicle, which is central to the plot. What is it doing there? What does it do? We don't find out until late in the book the whys and wherefores of this thing, and only then just enough to get on with the story. A little fictional background would have been helpful.

The characters are definitely uneven. The captain is a whip-cracking martinet. Or is he? We don't find out why he acts as he does. The same for the two civilian technical reps that are onboard. Even the main character, Jerry Mitchell, is sort of a hollow cutout. In fact the only character that received any sort of depth was the Senior Petty officer that gives Mitchell a hard time. We find out why he does what he does, but even that isn't enough development of character.

There are some very loose ends left undone. Does the XO ever find his "commissioning dirt"? A nice little side plot that could have been done better. What happens between the civilian tech Emily Davis and Lt. Mitchell? Much is alluded to, but we are left hanging, and not in a "sequel" sort of way. It just felt unfinished, almost like there was a rush to print.

But even with my quibbles, and that's what they are, I still recommend this as a good read. Not a great one, but a good page turner, especially if you like sea stories.

Nearing its decommissioning date, the nuclear-powered attack submarine "USS Memphis" is commandeered by a Presidential science advisor with a mission to track the dumping of Russian nuclear waste in the Kara Sea". "Dangerous Ground" is the story not only of that voyage, but of the crew of the Memphis - it's tough-as-nails Commander and the crew he terrorizes with relentless drills and merciless post-drill critiques. It's also the story of Jerry Mitchell, a fighter pilot grounded after suffering critical injuries in a flight accident that totals his F-18. A determined guy with political pull, Mitchell wangles a transfer into submarines, and arrives on the doorstep of the Memphis while its crew is still expecting to be decommissioned. When the crew learns of their mission and Mitchell's connections, they link the two and blame him for a shift in their plans. Worse, they must all learn to deal with Emily Davis and Joanna Patterson - politically-placed women assigned to find proof of Russian waste dumping. The women, especially Patterson, prove a tight fit aboard the sub, and the CO proclaims that the mission will be as close to hell as a cruise van be even before they've left the dock.

"Dangerous Ground" will take the creaky Memphis from the safety of American shores to the Arctic redoubt of the Kara Sea - with their days spent drilling for every conceivable disaster, with no telling what they'll find when they reach their destination, and no hint of the ends the Russians won't go to keep them from returning alive.

Though it has the makings of a dozen or so submarine novels written since the early 1990's, "Dangerous" is easily among the best written in that time and easily one of the most enjoyable and engrossing that I've read in quite awhile - easily better than some recent offerings of Dimercurio and proof that the genre can do (much) better than Patrick Robinson. "Dangerous" sets itself apart in that the story is told through the trials and travails of its crew. Bond doesn't saddle us with too-easily liked characters - those who crew the Memphis are the least sympathetic you'll find in any technothriller this side of Poyer (it's almost like Bond actually rounded up all the losers from other novels, the hacks and idiots who get written off as failures in other books). And we're so keyed into their survival drills and endless watches that pretty soon, it's hard to banish the feeling that we're along for the ride.

Six extravagant blurbs from the likes Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, David Hagberg and Stephen Coonts grace the dustjacket of Larry Bond's "Dangerous Ground." For a change, the blurbs aren't hyperbole: Bond has written a great contemporary submarine thriller.

Jerry Mitchell is a hotshot almost fighter pilot. The tire on his F-18 blows and Jerry Mitchell has to find a new career. He opts for submarines and with a bit of political pull is reassigned.

His first sea tour is to be on the Memphis, which is going straight to be decommissioned.

But a high-stakes politically connected scientist has a special mission in mind for the Memphis: skirt the waters of Russia for an "evironmentally sensitive" President who wants to make poltical points with the world's enviros.

So the Memphis is tasked one more mission.

And it turns out to be a doozy.

Bond is beautiful. As Mitchell, the neophyte submariner, learns the fine points of his calling, so do we readers. Very clever device on Bond's part and Bond very obviously did his homework on the silent service.

The two female scientists onboard --- pushed into this environment by the President --- are not welcome, one because of her abrasive personality. Mitchell himself isn't welcome because he used politics to get into the submarine service.

For the most part, the story is about Mitchell, the difficult captain of the Memphis . . . it's a service story. Long into the tale, we get into the drama of the Memphis searching for environmentally contamination caused by Soviet, then Russian, dumping of radioactive waste.

The story heats up when a major discovery is made and a Russian admiral decides that the Memphis has to be decommissioned a little earlier than planned by the Russian Navy.

Bond does a good job of conveying the tension of modern submarine warfare.

All in all, "Dangerous Ground" is an excellent naval thriller. Bond's plot is really outstanding and most of the characters have some depth. Excellent piece of work and well-deserving of its dustjacket blurbs.

Jerry

This book was written in memory of someone dear to Mr Larry Bond. As an enduring tribute for a friend, the book has some merit. But is not what one expects of Mr Bond.

The book is filled with so many minute incidents and details illustrating the life of a submariner, that the story itself is lost in petty conflicts, some rough encounters, and other miscellaneous incidents.
It almost looks like Mr Bond wanted to make a biography of his departed friend, and in hopes to make it authentic, he included every single incident that was ever witnessed by his friend when he was in Active Duty.

The story begins well, a young officer gets a second chance for glory, through political strings, he manages the impossible: a navy pilot transforms himself into a submariner. Then comes the crew who doesn't like him much, because he has connections. Then the mission involves an attractive female scientist and her overbearing boss, and now the junior officer shows some interest in her
Here is when I put down the book and started to wait for a movie to come out with Scott Caan or Jake Gillenhaal playing the main role and Jessica Alba to play the role of the young female scientist.

It's hard to think of Larry Bond as a sentimental author, but I think because of the more realistic nature of his characters on this story, many people are disappointed.

USS Memphis is out of date technology, a war-weary rust bucket submarine that has served its country and is now scheduled to be de-commissioned. But the President, in a bid to collect political points at an upcoming conference with the Soviets, has ordered the Memphis to complete one last covert mission - to sneak into Russian territorial waters, to document an environmental nightmare and to bring home evidence of leaking fuel containers dumped on the floor of the Arctic Ocean by the Russians during the height of the cold war.

Commander Lowell Hardy, a CO whose unpleasant and impossible to please leadership style is rivaled only by Captains Queeg and Bligh, is saddled with a novice weapons officer. This is the very first assignment for Lt Jerry Mitchell, a former naval aviator who made a mid-career switch to submarines after his Hornet fighter crashed with the resulting injuries sidelining him forever from flight status. And to make matters worse, the president has ignored all naval submarine tradition and appointed two civilian scientists, female no less, to lead the mission from on board the submarine.

As if lurking around Russian territorial waters looking to score points and politically embarrass the Soviet government wasn't bad enough ... the mission discovers a secret far more deadly than it ever bargained for and provokes an armed naval response that is much, much more than the aging Memphis is capable of facing. The Russian fleet is determined to sink the Memphis and wipe out all evidence that she was ever there in the first place.

"Dangerous Ground" is a first rate techno-thriller that will have you turning pages just as quickly as you can manage. But as Larry Bond pointed out in the author's note preceding the novel, a techno-thriller ought to be much more than a compilation of technical data which anyone can find with proper research. In the case of "Dangerous Ground", Bond has done a superb job, not only with individual characterization, but also with a compelling description of submariner culture - their attitudes, their loyalties, their black sense of humour, their fears and their bravery.

A thoroughly enjoyable plot driven thriller supported by a wealth of technical and, of equal importance, cultural and character details. Well done, Mr Bond!

Paul Weiss

I am happy that I heard Cold Choices audio first, otherwise I probably would not have finished this book. Like others, I am a huge sub fan & was so thrilled to find Larry Bond's series when I just happened to pick up Cold Choices at the library.

What didn't deliver in this book were the technical descriptions of everything in the sub. I could hardly follow the storyline (what there was of it) because the details were so boring...but I did want to learn of the characters after Cold Choices.

I think Bond could flesh out his characters a bit more, but maybe that will happen in the future. Course I don't want every detail about them...just a little background.

I recommend this book to those who really enjoy submarines as I think you will learn more than you ever have before....unless you have served on one.

This submarine yarn in Bond's best effort in a very long time. I've read everything he's written, but I think he does his best job yet of integrating all the specifics of the technology, the excitement of the action and the fleshing out the characters. While there isn't a great deal of action in the front half of the book, Bond's characterizations and interesting descriptions of what could have been mundane submarine life kept the book moving. I loved this book for the first nine-tenths, but will admit the end was very ineffective. It was so out of character with the rest of the book, it seems unfinished, like Bond was way past deadline and the editor was saying it had to be finished today. The rest of the book more than offsets that minor peccadillo, however, and I heartily recommend this book.