PASSAGE [Paperback]

DAVID POYER (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (2009)
• ASIN: B000J1CXEQ
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Passage, June 26, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Passage (Mass Market Paperback)

This book eventually rewards a patient reader, but it's quite an ordeal to get there.

Poyer is using the device here of an unpleasant character who learns and grows through his experiences in the story. Dan Lenson, the hero, is shallow and unable to engage meaningfully with others. One of the themes of the book is the process by which he learns to connect with his fellow human beings. But it takes a long time, and he's a jerk for much of the story.

In a year I make to be about 1981, the USS Barrett is an experimental warship with a computer program that can fight the ship essentially in autopilot. Lenson is an officer on the ship. Not only are there severe technical problems with the computer system, but there are various rumblings of discontent within the crew. This plot thread is interspersed with the story of Graciela, a pregnant Cuban woman who tries to escape the island in a refugee boat. The plot develops slowly, and though the climactic portions are exciting, they take a long time to show up. Because of the year, some of the plot seems dated, as when the computer whiz figures out what a computer virus is: realistic for the time, but not very exciting from the perspective of 2002 (the book having been published in 1995).

Poyer was exploring the issue of homophobia here, and so the reader has to sit through lengthy revelations of ugly bigotry on the part of various characters. While the dirty stories and nasty attitudes are no doubt realistic, they weren't fun to read. Likewise, though the main antagonist, Harper, is believable in his ugly sexism and crudity, I didn't enjoy reading about him. Eventually, Poyer comes across with a genuinely heroic homosexual character, but as with other aspects of the book, the reader has to suffer for a long time first. It's a meaningful issue and I think that to portray it realistically some ugliness is necessary, because that's an accurate representation of people's attitudes, but it got hard to keep turning the pages at some points.

The last quarter of the book is a good, page-turning adventure story. Getting there, though, may not be worth the time.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gosh, I like his work!, August 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Passage (Mass Market Paperback)

The Dan Lenson series is spectacular. I got out of the Navy 27 years ago, but his exploits bring back so many memories. The description of shipboard life, the jargon, etc. Although I never lived these stories myself, it's so easy to put yourself there. I served in the Med and Guantanamo Bay and Poyer is right on with his descriptions. I can tell he draws from his own experiences from when he was in the Navy. Now I have to go find Tomahawk and read that one.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another grpping Naval story from David Poyer, November 26, 2000

By 

Jon R. Schlueter (Grand Terrace, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Passage (Mass Market Paperback)

In The Circle, Poyer deals with corruption on a naval vessel, as his protagonist, then-ensign Lenson, confronts the difference between what he learned at the Naval Academy and the real Navy. The Med explores careerism. In The Passage, Poyer treats, inter alia, homosexuality in the military, and his treatment of this subject is as nuanced as his always-realistic characters, and also satisfying. As always, Poyer's descriptions are vivid and involving. I have always enjoy Poyer's books, but sometimes his endings haven't risen to the level of the body of his works--a small quibble for such good writing. Yet The Passage has a very tense, gripping resolution. I highly recommend this book.