Customer Reviews

The Silent Service: Seawolf Class

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

 

 

This was a very fast, engaging, enjoyable story from beginning to end. I have read all of the Silent Service series books by H. Jay Riker and they just keep getting better. I am really eager for the next one, which -- I won't give anything away -- the epilogue suggests will be called VIRGINIA CLASS. At least I hope so. I am a real fan of submarine novels and this one stands up well compared to the rest of them. Read it soon!

This is the first Riker novel I've read. Had Tom Clancy continued featuring thesilent service in his fiction, he could have done no better. First the few minor glitches: there is some confusion in naming characters in the parallel SEALS and submarine events. Submariner Garrett somehow intrudes in the meeting between SEALS commmander Morton and his Taiwanese counterparts, when it is clear that he could not have been present. Some other person is meant here. Also, although Riker likes to use authentic jargon, he uses the terms "Get out of Dodge" (for vamoose) and "clusterf***" ( 21st century variant of SNAFU) repetitively.

That said, the political as well as the techno-naval aspects are handled deftly, and sound quite convincing. The book provides a painless and dramatic primer on how modern attack subs operate in a combat situation. Ditto for the SEALS. The motivations and reactions of the men....and women...are not caricatures, as in too many techno-thrillers. I look forward to following Commander Garrett to his Virginia class boat.

First, I did read the earlier book in this series, 'Silent Service: Los Angeles Class' and, while it had problems, was far better than this book.

Given that books problems, it was still a good read and had merit. I expected this to be at least the same--or better. It was not.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a former submariner. So these books are a form of narcotic to me. I'll take my fix any way I can get it. Unfortunately, were it not for this, I would have never made it past page 50.

I could nitpick things all day but technical accuracy is not what my review is based upon. This book suffers from either a complete lack of editing or one performed in the most lazy, inattentive manner. A few non-spoiler examples.

In this book:

--the Seawolf went from four to eight torpedo tubes.
--the wrong character was inserted in the wrong scene.
--a character's rank was repeatedly misstated. (From CAPT to CDR to CAPT)
--numerous grammatical errors, missing words and various mistakes that one would expect in a draft but that should never have made it into a final product.

These are just a few. There are pacing issues as well. The Seawolf spends a huge middle-chunk of the book tied at a pier. It gets a little spoilery from here:

Regardless of the political situation and the US desire to 'show the flag', they would not have sent any submarine, much less the newest, secretest, most special and most expensive, submarine to dock in Hong Kong as a show of force. That is what carriers and surface ships do. Not submarines. Not the Seawolf in this context.

I said earlier that I wasn't nitpicking on technical details and, up to this point, I sincerely have not. However, I have no shortage of those and I will list just a few of the not-even-so-nitpicky.

I will credit the author with having put a lot of thought and research into many things in this book. It is because these things are evident that obvious and easy technical problems are so surprising. A few examples:

-- course and speed change orders are given to the Helm station. Not 'Maneuvering'. Maneuvering is a station in the engineering spaces which controls all things propulsion and power-plant related. The Bridge/Conn would almost never communicate directly with them and they are located in a completely different part of the boat.
-- most speed orders are given as 'ahead one-third' or 'ahead standard' and not, 'set speed for 15 knots'. The latter does happen but much more rarely.
-- Signals contacts are monitored by ESM and not the Radar station. If there is an aircraft or a ship out there that has a radar that may pick up the sub, it is the ESM station that is looking for that stuff. The Radar is almost never used except for when navigating near land on the surface.
-- the sail of a submarine is supposed to flood. It is normal and desired for it to fill with water when the submarine submerges. It is called a free-flood area. There are multiple references to the opposite of this in the book which I really find interesting.

Well, I could go on and on. My point here is that I find it surprising that these very basic things are not understood by the author who has clearly put much thought and work into this and these things would have been discovered by anyone who had ever spent even a week or two on a submarine.

In summary, I frankly am not even certain if I will/can continue the series.

This book from the start is action action. Some sub books that I have read get way into the techinical aspect of the sub. This book could be read by both a novice or an exeprienced sub reader and still be enjoyed. The ending is a spectacular display of tactical writing that could easily compete with Tom Clancy. High recommendations

H. Jay Riker is a fantastic storyteller and a master of the thriller genre. The action is fast paced and this book is impossible to put down. The realism of the submarine battles rivals Clancy at his best. I will be working my way through the entire series.

Gary Ryman
Author of Fire Men: Stories From Three Generations of a Firefighting Family
www.fire-men-book.com

This is an excellent submarine techno-thriller. It is based on a scenario in which Communist China has decided to invade Taiwan and use force to annex it. The US Navy moves to interdict the Taiwan Straight with carrier groups and nuclear submarines, and the war is on. This novel centers on the US nuclear submarine Seawolf and its captain and crew. Riker does not disappoint--his trademark romantic break-up caused by the stresses of a naval career occurs early in the novel, and no Riker novel is complete without it.

One of the best things about this novel is its realism; Riker manages to make this a story not just of war and technology, but also of people. The struggle between the Captain and Executive Officer of Seawolf rings true, and the military politics involving the XO's appointment to the Seawolf, against the Captain's preference, seems realistic. The combat scenes also have an air of authenticity. All in all, this is a very readable and realistic novel that the reader will enjoy.

Seawolf was a very interesting read - from the action to the political situations. The characters were well developed and the plot well paced. There were a few technical things, character name mix-ups (i.e. Garrett named in place of Gordon), and a few odd Chinese phrases (though it could have been Cantonese he was using instead of Mandarin). These little things did not detract from the overall enjoyment of the book.

I find Riker's take on the Taiwan issue interesting; though it might have been just for the plots sake that he presented it the way he did. It's an interesting scenario for the future.

Tense and thrilling, but without a lot of the artificiality of many submarine books/movies. Riker's story kept me glued (I won't say "riveted") to its pages.