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3.0 out of 5 stars
Light Read with Weak Spots, August 31, 2006
This review is from: Seawolf (Paperback)
The Navy's top submarine, the U.S.S. Seawolf, is patrolling in shallow water in the Yellow Sea trying to get information regarding a new communist Chinese nuclear ballistic missile submarine. The biggest questions the crew of the Seawolf are trying to answer are the size of the missiles the new submarine will carry and how many it will carry, the goal being to understand the strategic offensive capability of the submarine.
The Seawolf's crew evades several attempts by the Chinese to sink her, providing several tense moments in the early part of the book. However, due to an error in navigation, and more than a bit of arrogance on the part of the executive officer, the Seawolf finds herself in relatively shallow water with little more than auxiliary motive power. Soon the Chinese cleverly capture the Seawolf and her crew.
The United States can ill afford to have the Seawolf remain the property of the Chinese, knowing they will steal every piece of technology they possibly can. Further, after detailed consideration of communist Chinese motives and past record, high-level decision makers determine that it is unlikely that the Chinese will release the crew of the Seawolf. After pages of consideration, it's decided that the Seawolf must not remain in Chinese hands and her crew must be freed. It is at this point that the setup for the bulk of the book ends and the real action begins. The remainder of the book details how the last two tasks are accomplished and how well they are accomplished, details that will remain for the reader to discover.
I enjoyed reading the book. I thought portions of the book were filled with suspense and reasonably believable action. However, I suspect that readers with significant knowledge of the military will likely find some plot holes and several discrepancies. My knowledge of Navy related equipment and techniques is cursory, at best, so I'm sure I missed plot holes that would be obvious to more knowledgeable readers. I did have several problems with the story. Not all the problems I had can be detailed here as a discussion would give away portions of the story. However, let me provide a couple of examples. First, the executive officer makes a critical and fundamental error in operation of the periscope. I know mistakes can happen, but improper operation of a periscope by the executive officer of a submarine would seem to me to be the equivalent of a pilot not knowing how to operate flaps properly. In another situation a fighter is expected to drop a bomb undetected in a heavily defended area. The explanation of how the fighter penetrated Chinese air space to drop the bomb without being detected, and further, getting away without being detected, was shaky.
I could point out several other details that were a bit of a stretch, but I should also point out that this book should be considered a military thriller and as such some assumptions should be allowed to be made. I think the author made more assumptions than he should have made, which is why I gave the book only three stars, but during the action portions I was interested in what was going to happen next. I am also tempted to rate the book lower because of the somewhat banal ending, with which I disagreed. However, it was the author's prerogative to end the book as he did, regardless of whether I thought the actions of at least one character were inconsistent with that character's personality.
Military fiction can be difficult to write. The author spun an interesting tale that held me well enough to the end, with minimal distraction due to extraneous details. A light read as military fiction goes, I would recommend this book to those who enjoy military fiction, unless you require exacting and accurate detail.
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