Customer Reviews

The Silent Service: Los Angeles Class

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

 

 

I judge most books by how much I look forward to getting back to it once I put it down and whether or not I fall asleep immediately after opening the cover. I do most of my reading during my daily train commute into the Big Apple and it takes a lot to keep me awake and interested in any reading material. Riker provides some excellent material to fill the 90 minute train ride and its material I look forward to reading and when I open the cover I DO NOT fall asleep. Technical content I don' know about, I do know his material keeps my interest high and I enjoy reading it! I look forward to other works by Riker!

Riker needs an advisor. The plot was entertaining enough, but there were enough disconnects to make the book sound silly. For example, Riker calls a maneuver to reverse course a "Wilkinson" when it should be a "Williamson turn." All Navy officers of the deck use right and left when giving rudder orders and port and starboard for engine orders to avoid ambiguity. Riker has his CO telling the helmsman to "come to starboard" with no specified course or number of degrees of rudder. And so on. Failure to do his homework mars an otherwise entertaining book.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. In fact, I sat down one night and could NOT put this book down. I plan on attending the Naval Academy, and serving on submarines, and this book gave me a great picture of submarine life, including the treatment of the "nubs".

I was very disappointed - the characters were not well constructed. Gordon's relationship between his wife and father-in-law was weak, but apparently important. The first SEAL mission in the Mideast was interesting, but lead nowhere. Riker introduces Oliver North as a character, describes a high intensity mission, and does nothing to link its outcome to the main plot aboard the Pittsburgh.

Biker bar rumbles, switchblades, beer-maidens with a heart of gold, the Big C..... it was pretty tiresome testosterone with no focus. I enjoy the submarine/SEAL genre and there are some great stories to weave, unfortunately, Riker missed the boat on this one.

Love the way H. Jay Riker marry the Seal Team and the Superb SILENT SERVICE together. Although it is bit slow moving, it is interesting to read many aspect of the Submarine life of a person living in it. Those who had read the previous Grayback Class book, will either love it or hate it. I simply love both of them. It this book center around, the LOS ANGELES CLASS Submarine, SSN 720 Pittsburgh. Displacement standard, tons:6082 Displacement dived, tons:6927 Length, feet:362 Beam, feet:33

Draught, feet:32.3 Speed, knots: 32 dived. One of the most fearsome underwater manmade machine as it pitt itself against the enermy. Love the author way of telling you Naval jargons and then follow up by explaining, the way he create a charactor, give him a background and then LIFE. So dun wait, go get it!!!!!!!!!

Although the book contains a relatively engaging story, I was severely disappointed in some of the flaws in technical details. One that jumps out in my mind is the statement that certain classes of Russian submarines had an advanced aluminum hull. It has been common civilian knowledge since the mid 1980's that this class of submarine in fact had a titanium hull. Aluminum is not a suitable material for submarine construction. Had the author done ANY research he would have known this. I have never stepped foot on a nuclear submarine and was able to pick out several technical details that were incorrect just based on my previous research of the topic. I can only imagine how many flaws would be found by a real submariner.

I have a few other books by the author that I have not yet read, perhaps this book was just a fluke. It is an entertaining story, I was just disappointed at the apparently lack of research conducted before writing.

"Los Angeles Class" is one of H. Jay Riker's better "Silent Service" stories about submarines. It takes place at the height of the Cold War with the Soviets, and is the story of a covert US mission in the Sea of Okhotsk, on the Eastern Siberian coast. The story is not dissimilar to actual incidents that are detailed in the famous "Blind Man's Bluff" expose on US submarine exploits.

Once again, Riker's characterizations are somewhat thin. He tries to create a sub-plot dealing with the personal life of the Captain, but once again, it really does not go anywhere, and the recurrent theme seems to be that no submarine skipper has any business having a personal life. Surely this is not so.

The plot moves at a brisk rate, and the action seems true-to-life, although I hope that both the US and the Russians were a little more careful to avoid confrontations than this novel suggests. Well, less caution no doubt makes for more action. No matter; this is an enjoyable and realistic read about brave men and submarines.

This is a highly predictable book about a submarine which gets involved in some things in the Persian Gulf. I must admit it kept me rapt, but when all is said and done, it could have been a lot better. For one thing, there are few, if any, surprises in the plot. After a couple of pages anybody could pretty well tell where this book was going. There was virtually no character development, despite the fact that there were several characters which could have been brought alive, but weren't. There was some interesting technology portrayed, so I'll give Riker points for that. But this is one of those books you can't set down and then you forget about it mere minutes after you finish reading it -- and writing the obligatory Amazon.com review, of course....

Very prompt and good quality service. I would highly recommend this vendor for future purchases.

I absolutely love submarine fiction and non-fiction. However, Mr. Riker's work is a bore. Very little action and too much needless common "chatter" throughout the book. ...