Customer Reviews

The Med

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Med" is a great read. I say this not just because I'm a former destroyer sailor who enjoys an authentic rendering of naval action, though the book would have repaid my time on this basis alone. "The Med" is also a compelling story with believable characters (some sympathetic, some contemptible) dealing with real issues under real stress.

The central character, Lietunant Junior Grade Dan Lenson, is an appealing man whose integrity you can feel as you watch him struggle with the question of just how far one has to go in the name of duty. Just how much one has to put up with from a swine with four stripes. You see him realize, intellectually and viscerally, that the orders he gives (or doesn't give) may decide whether men live or die. The Queeg-like Sundstrom (not as crazy as Queeg, but as conniving and perhaps even more inadequate) shows how everyone's life can be put in danger by a dithering, totally self-centered, incompetent commander.

I don't know how people who've not been in the Navy will react to the build-up of tension between the junior officer Lenson and the incompetent and evil commadore. For those who understand what total control a commander at sea has over a subordinate, and what serious business it is to even appear to question authority, there will be some electric moments. (By comparison, telling a civilian boss to shove off is nothing; I've done it more than once with hardly a measurable change in my blood pressure.)

The story is a believable and complex one (that could go from novel to headline anyday) involving an amphibious task force in the Mediterranean compelled by terrorits to go into action fraught with physical, political, and military peril. In sub-plots we follow a squad of marines fighting each other until they face a real enemy; a first-rate chief machinists mate who must battle old, balky equipment as well as officers who demand too much (some things never change); and an officer's wife who must decide whether she loves her husband as much as she hates the Navy. These are played out against the background of vicious Middle East politics and resentments and the struggle between a good officer pushed almost beyond humnan endurance and a horrible officer in busines for himself.

And boy does Poyer - a former Navy officer - reproduce Navy life accurately. Not just in the speech and jargon, though that's right on. I could almost smell the salt water and feel the ship roll under me as I read. I almost expected to hear a bosun's whistle (fortunately, I didn't taste the creamed chipped beef). He has everything down right: the Marines' cocky attitudes, the chiefs' raunchy stories, and the weariness of the sleepless drudgery that makes up so much of Navy life at sea. Poyer's Navy is so real I feel that after I've read all his novels (and I plan to) I'll rate another hash mark.

As a fellow Naval Officer,I know naval terminology and ships. David Poyer provides all the action and sounds found on naval vessels. His indepth knowledge provides realistic sights and sounds of the "old Navy". I highly recommend this book and the other Navy series to anyone interested in great mysteries.

When my son bought me my first David Poyer naval drama book, I thought, ho-hum. Then I started to read and was immediately caught up in the shiveringly realistic scenes of life aboard a naval ship. David Polder has spent a career in the Navy and makes you feel as if you are right there on the bridge.

Polder follows his main character, Dan Lenson, through his career in the Navy and throughout the series of books, we follow Lenson from a raw, new ensign to a fully fledged naval officer who has done it all-- including being lost at sea with 120 men being nipped at by sharks after his ship has sunk. Really incredible!

Polder writes so beautifully you can feel the hot sun, smell the 40 foot waves splashing over the boat, feel what it's like to be down in a sub listening to "pings" from sonar radar. These aren't just shoot-em-up books but fully detailed novels that illuminate the cruel, beautiful, exciting world of men at sea and at war. By the way, Polder has more of these books besides THE MED. THE GULF is another great one. Once you've read one, you'll start browsing the bookstores for the others. Why AMAZON doesn't have more, beats me. Polder is quite a find.

I'm not surprised that Poyer's sea novels are required reading in the U.S. Naval Academy's Literature of the Sea course. Although I myself am not ex-navy, its easy to see that Poyer's sea noverls -- and certainly The Med -- realistically depict the difficult choices that a Naval officer can find himself making. The Med forces its protagonist, Lt. (j.g.) Lenson, to choose between what's right and what will advance his career -- between Annapolis installed blind obedience and the higher good.

The characters are well drawn. They are definately not the one-dimensional cartoons found in most military-based novels and movies. Even the "villains" are complex and plausible. They are people you've met and known. Their failings and virtues are amplified by the hugely stressful circumstances they are placed in and the high stakes of the action.

There is less jargon in The Med than in The Circle..... In giving The Med four stars I am saying Poyer wrote a truly excellent novel.

Lieutenant (jg) Dan Lenson, USN is on a Med cruise aboard a destroyer. His wife and daughter are in Cyprus at the US embassy and are taken hostage by a group of Islamic terrorists. Poyer takes the reader through Lenson's time at sea by reaching out from the ink and paper and pulling the reader into the heavy seas, the port calls, cramped compartments below deck, and the horror of a mob storming the American embassy and taking a man's family hostage along with several dozen others. It starts off a little slow, but turns into one helluvan epic!

The kindle version of this book seems to be scanned. There are a lot of stray blobs around, and the formatting is a little off in places. None of this distracts from the great story. However, it does cause the book to be very slow to open, like 5 times longer than other books. That includes turning the kindle on if this is your current book, long enough to make you wonder if you actually hit the on button. It also takes up 10 times more memory.

This is bit different from many of Poyer's other works. The center of the action is the USS Guam (a helicopter assault carrier). This is a different perspective and he carries it off well. Having read his later works first, I can see the impending disaster of Dan Lenson's marriage. The ending is bittersweet. You can see Poyer developing as a writer and his attention to detail is second to none. You know the man has been down in those engine rooms.

This is a good read for naval action buffs.

Poyer has turned out a masterpiece with "The Med", featuring a Captain Queeg-like commodore and an all-American Naval officer faced with pulling off an invasion to rescue American hostages. Not only does the plot involve the military action itself, but it also gives us realistic characters clashing at one moment and working together the next. There is not a boring moment in this thriller. Poyer starts off by introducing the characters in the setting of the ships they crew and then, when you've got everything clear, things start happening -- fast. At this point, you won't be able to set the (560-page) book down. I particularly appreciated the fact that the ending was realistic and not intelligence-insulting like so many other popular books are. Whether or not you like books about the sea, this is one that goes beyond its genre and gives a most pleasant and exciting story that you will be glad you read.

Poyer's realism describing life in the modern U.S. Navy is his strong suit. His characters struggle with messy personal lives while devoting themselves to their demanding jobs, where a single wrong decision or false move can cost lives and destroy careers. Officers find their forces spread too thin and their hands tied by political decision made over their heads. Queeg-like Commodore Isaac Sundstrom jeopardizes all under his command with his paranoid style of leadership as his amphibious squadron attempts to free the hostages of Palestinian terrorists.

Poyer sees the mission through the eyes of Sundstrom; those of Sundstrom's staff officer Dan Lenson, whom Sundstrom works to exhaustion; can-do warrant officer Kelly Wronowicz, an expert mechanic tasked with an impossible repair at sea on a mission-critical ship; and Marine grunt
Will Givens, one of those who must actually hit the beach. The battle scene at the end is compelling and the personal fates of the main characters, both touching and real. This was the first Poyer novel I've read; I'll be back for more.

I have to say that this book was good. I have never served onboard a ship, but Mr. Poyer paints a detailed picture of the life. The Med deals with Lt. Lenson, a young officer, and his life that occurs during short period of time. The terrorist plot was all too realistic.
My only complaint is for the excessive use of swear words throughtout the book. ...