Customer Reviews

Threat Vector

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Well, Michael DiMercurio has done it again! Not only that, he topped his last achievement (PIRANHA FIRING POINT) with THREAT VECTOR, a novel that shows that DiMercurio can keep a series alive, fresh and full of new ideas. In addition, it could almost be said that THREAT VECTOR is the "logical" extension of PIRANHA FIRING POINT, especially when it becomes known to the reader early on, that the President has appointed Patch Pacino as CNO (Chief of Naval Operations).

This novel also has some bittersweet elements as well. When the Ukrainians sink an American cruise ship carrying the Navy's senior officers, many characters we know from previous installments become casualties. I was sorry to read that many of the characters I liked were gone. About 1/3 of the way through, DiMercurio shows that he also has a sense of humor, too. He has named one of the escorting destroyers the TOM CLANCY; read the novel and find out what he does with this ship.

Another thoroughly enjoyable aspect of this book was the way in which Michael DiMercurio combines plausible future developments with what we know is possible today. The explanations and descriptions of future technological advancements are masterful in their simplicity. The "Devilfish" as a weapons platform is something that may not be available right now, but given the dramatic technological leaps being made every day, it is not difficult to conceive its existence 18-20 years from now.

Michael DiMercurio also pays a subtle tribute to the naval traditions of the past. If I didn't read incorrectly, he re-introduces an officer uniform that the Navy did away with in the early 1970s. I'm speaking specifically of the service dress khaki officer uniform. It had a khaki coat and instead of the officer insignia on the sleeve cuff, the rank was carried on shoulder boards. I always thought that was a sharp uniform and it was a nice tribute to the USN of the past. That was a nice segue, Michael and I liked the sneaky little way you brought the uniform back.

To be sure, this is a submarine story but it also has all the elements of really good science fiction, too. With much of the technology future based, the reader is catapulted into a world that isn't here yet, but could very well be in the near future. Another aspect is that the author has left certain little clues as to where he might go with the next installment in this series. Without giving too much away, suffice it to say, that the reader will still have questions when he finishes with this story. They are good questions, though and the kind that will leave the reader waiting to read TERMINAL RUN (which is the working title of the next book in this series).

As I have said in my reviews of previous DiMercurio novels, this author is the master of this genre. If anyone cares to debate it, I'll meet them anytime, anywhere. Tom Clancy's "Hunt for Red October" was written by a lucky and gifted amateur. The Michael DiMercurio novels are thrillers but they're also a tibute to the men of the Silent Service, the same men that DiMercurio served with from 1980-88. Tom Clancy can't make that claim, because he never served in ANY of the armed forces.

There is an injustice associated with Micahel DiMercurio's books, however and it is not the author's fault. I really believe that if Penguin Putnam marketed these books differently (starting with hardcover and a much bigger advertising budget) that Michael DiMercurio could have been (and still could be) as big as Clancy or any of the other popular and best selling authors. There is no reason for this and in fact, more than one of the DiMercurio novels should have ben made into a movie. After all, if CRIMSON TIDE, a movie that came out 4-5 years ago could be a hit, ALL of DiMercurio's books should have been considered for production. IF the rest are still ignored, Hollywood should not ignore THREAT VECTOR. The plot premises are plausible and foreseeable and the storyline would adapt well to the screen if for no other reason than there would be a lot of action with believeable and likeable characters.

One other thing readers may find interesting about this book. The antagonists do some despicable things but by themselves, they are not all that despicable as people. The reader will find himself feeling a certain amount of sympathy for the Ukrainian sub captain. To me, he was a worthy opponent for both Karen Petri and later, Kelly McKee. He was a captain placed in an extrememly awkward and delicate position by an unscrupulous President. How he leads his men, fights his ship and makes his decisions all contribute to the make-up of a fascinating character. And once again, the critics are wrong; Michael DiMercurio writes action filled sub stories but he also gives his readers well developed characters.

I apologize to the critics for my comments. I really do. I just can't find anything NOT TO LIKE about this series and the writer who created it. If Michael DiMercurio is guilty of anything, stories and hours of reading enjoyment.

BZ Michael, you've done it again! I'm looking forward to TERMINAL RUN and to your mainstream fiction when that hits the bookstores. Thanks for another great read!

Michael DiMercurio's novels contain many characters which(obviously)continue through the series. In Threat Vector, the supervillain from the first novel, Admiral Alexi Novskoyy, is sprung from jail in Siberia by a consulting company. This consulting company plans to use a supersub, the Vepr, to wreak havoc on the international oil trade. The Vepr, for a demonstration, must sink a cruise ship with the entire U.S. naval brass onboard, effectively decapitating the U.S. fleet. Michael Pacino, the main character, has progressed to the title of Chief of Naval Operations, and thus the book is fairly far removed from the other books, as he is no longer driving submarines. However, DiMercurio comes up with an excellent replacement, Captain Kelly McKee. Michael Dimercurio has, once again, worked wonders. Threat Vector is well written, engaging, and delivers a cast of characters perfect for the plot. END

I've been a Dimercurio fan since I read "Barracuda, Final Bearing." Love his stuff and this one, his latest, did not let me down. Plausible, highly realistic plot and characters. Interesting twists with the characters but doesn't leave the track. I've always loved Clancy's stuff but this guy is AS good if not BETTER than the ol' master. New ideas, far enough in the future but not too far. You'll identify with a lot of his technology ideas: writepad computers, virtual reality, the whole package has kept me up the last couple of nights turning pages. Warning: if you read this book you'll want all of his others...so be prepared. Trust me, "Threat Vector" will not let you down if you like solid, "hard" techno-fiction - the kind that can actually happen - Mike writes it and writes it very well indeed.

Michael DiMercurio hardly needs another review, having already received so many good ones. However, I must say THREAT VECTOR, and his other books, are not just thrillers to read once and then put away or trade to someone. His books, in addition to being good reads, are worthy of being read over and over again because there is so much information in them. Yes, the plots are good and, yes, the characters are excellent, but for this reader the beauty of them is in the information about submarines, submarine command, leadership and - for want of a better phrase - international politics. THREAT VECTOR, especially, cannot be beat when it comes to a plot of international intrigue that makes you wonder how in the world the author is going to get out of the corner he's painted himself into. In addition, DiMercurio has done one more thing for me: he has made me understand chemistry in a way I never could before. How? By describing, in minute and horrible detail, what happens when a weapon hits its target.

Michael DiMercurio has done it once again with his latest novel Threat Vector. As always, he does a masterful job of telling a gripping plot line and describing action scenes in marvelous detail. His prior experiences in Navy submarines really shine through in all of his novels with his realistic depiction of every detail and thought the characters encounter. He finds a way in each story to keep the same characters interesting and introduce new ones, and Threat Vector is no exception. It's a must read for any naval fiction fan. I can't wait for the next one in the series!

Dimercurio has penned another winner. This time the world faces a potential war in south America and the usual suspects are renting out their battle fleet to the highest bidder. In order to keep the American Navy at Bay, a submarine creeps into waters outside Norfolk and sinks cruise ship carrying most of the Navy's top brass. This is a crippling and devastating blow to the level of readiness.

There are many charcters you have grown used to in previous books and some new ones as well. The sea battles are realistic as Dimercurio moves about twenty years into the future and speculates the type of weaponry available to attack subs: Plasma warheads (a small, focused nuclear weapon, Vortex undersea missles (a super cavitating munition) and a light imaging system (much better than conventional sonar).

He also does something I like to do myself. He brings back a bad guy from the first book and sends him after Patch Pacino's Navy.

Overall a great, great read.

Michael DiMercurio's THREAT VECTOR is at once both a superbly written stand-alone novel, as well as the most recent and possibly the best in a riveting series of submarine techno-thrillers. Here is an entirely possible perspective of what could happen in the early decades of our post-Cold War era.

With completely deserved confidence, DiMercurio walks that often uncertain ground between the worlds of fact and fiction, drawing upon his firm footing in the former to create the best of the latter. Writing as a former assistant engineering officer on a 637 nuclear attack submarine, his description, for example, of the workings of a pressurized water reactor and power plant is simply the best and most accurate this reader has seen. And, while all his descriptions contain the appropriate technical and military acronyms and specifications, the reader is not suffocated by them, as is often the case elsewhere. To this refreshing knowledge and credibility, he brings his substantial talents as a writer, weaving a believable and imaginative plot, creating poignant and engaging characters, and doing it all in an even-flowing and economic writing style.

Da Vinci Maritime, headed by a cunningly skillful and greedy entrepreneur, will stop at nothing to garner profit by disrupting world oil trade, taking full advantage of political tensions and technical weaponry sophistications that could be just around the corner. A ruthless and vengeful former Russian Northern Fleet Commander, Alexi Novskoyy, is sprung from prison, emerging along with us, into a slightly foreign but dazzling near future. He is put aboard the Ukrainian super sub, Vepr, as a "consultant" to decapitate the U.S. Navy high command structure, and ends up pitted against the Unified Submarine Command, with its SSNX Devilfish, and the newest NSSN Virginia-class Hammerhead (the descendent of DiMercurio's boat in real life).

Technical goodies abound. Email, palm-pad computers and live-time video conferencing have really come into their own, ramping up the speed and efficiency of communications. The boats are equiped with acoustic daylight array sonar (state-of-the-art at least on our Ohio-class Tridents), three-dimensional, high-frequency secure littoral bottom-sounding sonar for "seeing" in shallow water, ingenious over-the-horizon optical, radio and sonar sensors, and VR "Battlespace," all creating a further tightening of the tension of the underwater engagements. While the skill of the Captain and his crew (along with pure luck) determine the final outcomes, a cyberspace "Second Captain" can up the odds, and a crucial split-second advantage might also be gained by having 300 mph rocket-powered torpedoes (there are reports of 200 mph "cavitation weapons" being currently tested by the Russians), or Bora II torpedoes and Barrakuda mobile mines in your inventory, all with "plasma" warheads. These "surgical incendiary" weapons, cleaner descendents of atomic and hydrogen bombs, utilize a fission/fusion trigger to create a more confined nuclear plasma (the so-called "stellar" fourth state of matter), resulting in extremely high temperatures, minus "the wide-pattern radioactivity and blast effect" -- a not unreasonable extension of today's leading edge thinking in physics. (Los Alamos has become a private sector entity.)

DiMercurio's descriptions of mechanical event sequences -- the arming, detonation and explosion propagation of the above described plasma warheads, the deployment of remote, over-the-horizon sensors -- have an elegant sense of animation to them that nearly brings the devices to life. (In this book things also fail every now and then.) The departures from the Norfolk Naval Base piers of the Bush-class destroyers, Christie Whitman & Tom Clancy, and the nuclear-powered cruiser, Admiral Hyman Rickover, not to mention that of the Devilfish herself, simply give you goose bumps.

The tension of the near-future submarine battle engagements, and the events leading up to them, are knitted together and rendered real by the true-to-life nature of DiMercurio's characters. His are vividly complex, heroic but flawed people who think, feel and sweat just as you and I do. Commander Kelly McKee hides his violently trembling hands from his executive officer after successfully sinking an entire battle group and nearly losing his own boat in the process, tragically not yet aware that his wife has died in his absence. Brooding darkly behind everything is Michael Pacino, now calling the shots as Chief of Naval Operations, himself an almost tragic figure, having lost in years past both his father and his own submarine, the SSNX's predecessor Devilfish, to the sinister Novskoyy, yet again his (unknown) nemesis. Painting the struggle between two such men in the submarinal setting, where everything is unknown except (hopefully) "own-ship" and "threat vector," is part of DiMercurio's art as a writer. Even his minor characters glow with splashes of humanity many readers can immediately relate to. Pacino's Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Pauly White, has paid the price for quitting smoking by regaining his taste for food, therefore putting on the pounds, and then becoming "...an exercise fanatic, as habit-bound with that as he'd been with cigarettes." Interesting innovations have also taken place in command and crew make-up, as far as who, and for that matter what, is now admitted to the submarine service.

If you liked the testosterone and drama of HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, and the gut-wrenching stark realism of DAS BOOT, you will love THREAT VECTOR.

THREAT VECTOR is a great read! DiMercurio always offers far more than a mere techie treat. His novels are real novels, with a sound story line, with characters who come off the pages and with a special kind of vision about future weaponry that makes sense. His plots are intricate, twists are frequent and in this book he writes sypathetically of a Ukrainian "enemy" sub commander. Along with Adm. Pacino and other DiMerurio regulars, there is a mysterious Russian ex-admiral, who, I hope shows up in other stories. Pick this one up--you won't put it down.

DiMercurio hits it big time with a balance of futuristic politics and probable technical advancements in naval warfare! Each page is filled with suspense and intrigue that pulls the reader into the story. The knowledgeable descriptions and attention to detail bridge the gap between plausibility and realism, bringing the not too distant future into the present to such effect you'll find yourself brushing seasalt off the pages! The author has further perfected his ability to make you understand the emotions and feelings of a submarine captain while under attack. He puts you in the Captain's chair and doesn't let you up until you turn that last page! This has definitely put DiMercurio at the top of his genre. Hollywood should get on its knees and start begging!

THREAT VECTOR is the latest in a series of highly compelling sub thrillers from former submarine officer Michael DiMercurio. With the attention to detail and the recreation of atmosphere that can only come from personal experience, DiMercurio takes you into the shadow world of deep-stalking nuclear subs and gives you the conn. Superb storytelling, supported by technical information that never gets in the way of the yarn. Get this one, and beware: DiMercurio's naval thrillers are highly addictive reading!