Customer Reviews

Tomahawk (Dan Lenson Novels)

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

 

 

I have read the other David Poyer novels featuring USN officer Dan Lenson. They are THE MED, THE GULF, THE CIRCLE and THE PASSAGE. I liked all of them because Poyer, a Naval Academy graduate writes well about men and the sea.

I had trouble with TOMAHAWK mainly because Poyer turns Lenson into (in my opinion) a very unbelieveable character. While I will grant the possibility of a career naval officer falling for a peace activist, I think the way Poyer writes about it is unrealistic and I think readers who buy the premise are simply naive romantics.

For those who have never served in the officer corps of any of the armed forces, let me say this. Dan Lenson's misgivings about the TOMAHAWK as a then new weapons system would have caused him a lot of trouble. Since the system gave him a moral dilemma, it follows that those doubts would reflect in his performance. The doubts did and his OER (Officer Efficiency Report) suffered.

To be sure, there is an incredible amount of waste in military procurement but, I really think that if LT Lenson had or developed moral qualms about the weapons systems the US Navy was seeking to develop and procure, he owed it to himself, his service and his nation to resign his commission and find another way to make a living. Most officers who leave the service do so for a variety of reasons. Some of them hate the OPSTEMPO, the deployments, separation from family, living conditions/low pay, etc. All of these are reasons retention of personnel in the military today is heading SOUTH!!!

I served on active duty and am now a member of the reserves and I found Dan Lenson unbelieveable in this book. If I served with a fellow officer like Dan Lenson, I would probably sit down with him and recommend that he find another career path because he was deliberately shooting himself in the foot. Well educated Annapolis grads like Dan Lenson don't do that. If they have a problem with the system, they make their recommendations for improvements; if they go unheeded, they either shut up and press on or they request a transfer. If the navy itself is what's getting to them, they generally put in their resignation papers and head off to greener pastures.

I just couldn't find any sympathy for Dan Lenson. If Poyer writes another Dan Lenson novel and I read that he has become an Admiral, I think I'll be sick. Dan Lenson is not Flag Officer material, not even with all the fictitious license in the world. The way it was written tells me that TOMAHAWK should probably be the last installment in the continuing saga of Dan Lenson, USN.

"Tomahawk" was a major disappointment to this fan of the Dan Lenson series. "The Circle," "The Med," "The Passage," and "The Gulf" were outstanding and authentic, written with great skill by one who had "been there, done that." But it seems that Poyer underwent some sort of social/political rebirth just before writing "Tomahawk," for the book is filled with a boring mish-mash of alcoholism, girlfriend woes, and Lenson's highly unlikely involvement with a radical pack of peaceniks out to sabotage the development of the cruise missile. Too bad, for this could have been a fine tale if it had been crafted in the style of the previous four books in the Lenson series. If you subscribe to turn-the-other-cheek pacifist theories, you might like this novel. Otherwise, save you money and your disappointment--this is NOT the Dan Lenson you knew and loved in the previous stories.

After three consecutive humdrum tours at sea, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Dan Lenson has been assigned shore duty, working on the TOMAHAWK cruise missile project. While stationed in the DC area, the divorced Dan meets and falls in love with an anti-nuke activist, Kerry Donovan, who helps the career naval officer renews his flagging spirit and energy.

However, Dan's newborn enthusiasm for life is abruptly aborted when Kerry is murdered in what seems to be a senseless killing. As he tries to regain his equilibrium, he finds his loyalty questioned due to his association with Kerry. He knows that he must still adhere to his oath to serve his country while trying to ferret out the identity of his beloved's killer.

TOMAHAWK is an exciting military thriller that will be loved by fans of the sub-genre. Dan's agony while finding ecstasy feels genuine and turns the lead character into a human being the audience can identify with. The story line has a bit too much vernacular for us civilians, but remains fast-paced and fun to read. David Poyer shows much talent that will please those readers who enjoy a military thriller.

Harriet Klausner

I very rarely buy hardbacks, reserving that honor for my very favorite authors - Grisham, King, etc.

But I have been so impressed by the character of Dan Lenson that I have added David Poyer to my list of hardback-worthy authors. In fact, I wrote a similarly glowing review of one of Poyer's other more divergent novels, As the Wolf Loves Winter. David Poyer is simply one of the best writers still active today.

Lenson's universe is one of hard reality in which moral absolutes rarely exist, but the "high road" is nevertheless apparent and accessible - but always at the cost of great personal sacrifice. Lenson's choices demonstrate that there are nearly always moral paths beyond those we would consider to be politically or personally expedient.

Poyer does not allow the reader to escape with a sense of justice done or righteousness rewarded. Even as Lenson makes his choices, his world grows darker and more hopeless. Lenson is not a saintly Billy Budd with an evil enemy, but a modern man trying to make moral sense of a juggernaut world.

Read the Lenson books in order! You will soon find yourself fascinated with the continuing development of this very complex and absolutely believable character.

One of the worst books that I have read.

Nothing in the story seems real. The story about the missile is over 15 years old, but Poyer wants the reader to believe that it is set in the present time. The main character, Dan Lenson, is truly a work of fiction. Lenson is an alcoholic, developing a missile, falling in love with an anti-military freak and befriending her colleagues, saving the world from spies, etc.... Poyer's imagination is very vivid to have anybody believe that all of this could happen to one man.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS BOOK. SAVE YOUR MONEY.

Overall, I liked this book, as I like the whole Dan Lenson series. Dan is not the typical hero of a military novel -- which is refreshing. He's basically a well-meaning doofus whose love life & career are invariably in the toilet. But he's good-hearted & he perseveres & he recognizes his own weaknesses. The plot & characterizations were good in this book, better than in the previous Dan novels. But, unfortunately, there's way too much techno-jargon. (I just skip over these parts.) ...if a naval officer ever behaved as Dan did in this novel, his career would be over, kaput. .... ...the novel makes it quite clear that it takes place in the '80s. I'll keep reading this series....

Overall, I liked this book, as I like the whole Dan Lenson series. Dan is not the typical hero of a military novel -- which is refreshing. He's basically a well-meaning doofus whose love life & career are invariably in the toilet. But he's good-hearted & he perseveres & he recognizes his own weaknesses. The plot & characterizations were good in this book, better than in the previous Dan novels. But, unfortunately, there's way too much techno-jargon. (I just skip over these parts.) I agree with some of the other reviewers who said that in the real world, if a naval officer ever behaved as Dan did in this novel, his career would be over, kaput. I disagree with those who said that the author was deceptive in trying to convince the reader that the action takes place in the present. They didn't read carefully (possibly they were skipping over the techno-babble?); the novel makes it quite clear that it takes place in the '80s. I'll keep reading this series -- unlike the author's Tiller Galloway series which I disliked.

Lt. Commander Dan Lenson is balancing on a critical decision point of his life. His first Shore Duty assignment may be his last position in the Navy. Dan is trying to decide if he needs to get out of the service and commence a new career that would be more satisfying than the disappointments he has impacted against during the first half of his current Naval career. The failure of his marriage, and the ongoing failure of his sporadic parenting attempts with his daughter. His checkered career performance records, which would seem to indicate, that he will be unable to advance much further in rank if he continues his career path. And a nagging idea that maybe the military solution toward peace is not the right choice for the world.

Much better than 'The Passage'. Lensons' character is now starting to stabilize into a more satisfying representative of a mature military officer . . .

I like Poyer's books a little more each time I read one. Dan Lenson is a believable character in a believable world. Lonely, conscientious, reminiscent of the silent, conflicted Horatio Hornblower, he struggles with the naval life's contradictions.

It is hard to tell a rivetting naval tale about shore duty, which Lenson draws in this installment. But then Lenson is rarely at war. He is seen on the edge of greater conflict - a strike, a raid, a tense standoff - where lives and careers may be on the line but which may only end up as footnotes in history books, and where Lenson must wage his private wars of principle, alone.

Poyer does a surprisingly good job with this material as Lenson races deadlines and fights bureaucracy, first to get the bug-ridden Tomawawk missile program back on track and then to prepare it suddenly for deployment. He faces the raw realities of military procurement while drinking too much, falling in love with a peace activist, and being targeted for espionage.

Girlfriend Kerry Donavan faces prison for anti-nuclear vandalism, wondering whether her protest was worth it. Lenson's exposure to her pacifist convictions meanwhile shakes his own commitment, not only to the missile's deployment but to his entire career. Poyer's depiction of 1980s left circles are well-done and accurate; Lenson easily might have questioned his life in this milieu.

Other reviewers criticize Lenson's wavering military faith as unbelievable and suggest he'd have been drummed out for it. Perhaps. But the entire Lenson formula involves his taking career risks or disobeying orders to do the right thing as military realities clash with its, and his, ideals. It's not unbelievable that a career officer might experience doubt, say, in nuclear weapons, but work through them and come to terms. Lenson's rebellious acts may exceed what an officer would realistically get away with, but fictionally they're needed to raise tension in peacetime scenarios. And his career survives each time, albeit with scars on his surface record, because of his extraordinary performance otherwise. It's not such a stretch to believe that the military forgives its own heroes.

The "Rotten Review" has a tough time with this one, the latest (but not last) of Poyer's "Dan Lenson" novels. Rather than an outright op., I'll go with what I saw and hope that gives readers an informed choice.

FOR THOSE WHO KNOW NO LENSON: I'd recommend against meeting him here. For its plusses, "Tomahawk" will never be considered a good starting point (oops - I eant, "point of ingress") for anybody. Instead, pick up "The Passage" or "The Circle". That said, Lenson is the unluckiest officer in USN history. Not especially genius, he's motivated (the reviewer who called him a doofus wasn't that far off). But {Poyer gave us enough to make him sympathetic - we had to follow the story because it was always about him (most of the time). None of the Lenson novels are contemporary - though written in recent times, they are set in the past along a linear line beginning with the post Vietnam war era. The Lenson novels are also a sort of blue-collar approach to the naval-novel - fixated on the flaws of characters rather than their hardware (though Lenson does provide plenty of the hardware as well). Chapters don't begin with block-letter blurbs of date, location and time in military/zulu hours, and pages aren't redolent with countless forgettable military acronyms. There's a lot of military arcane, but the stuff you need to know seeps in, while I think Poyer provides even the most unschooled with hints on what to ignore.

THE PLOT: "Tomahawk" occurs after the events of "The Passage". It's the mid -80's, as the Navy is gearing up to meet The Reagan administration's goal of a 600-ship navy, and the new generation of sophisticated weapons that will arm it. One of these new weapons is the Tomahawk, a low-flying cruse-missile capable of carrying nuclear weapons deep into hostile skies. Now a fixture of pour arsenal, in the mid-1980's, the weapon is untested, over-budget and apparently doomed to failure. Though cruise missiles were invented in WWII, as Lenson learns, the technology to make them worthwhile remains in a snag a generation later. Fresh from sea-duty, and at a cross-roads in his life, Lenson takes to his new high-stakes job with less than high enthusiasm. Romance with an anti-nuclear activist, and a less-than pretty look at the dark-side of military-industrial complex arouse his doubts about the program, and his own future as a naval officer. Poyer tosses in inter-service rivalry, Libyan rumblings and espionage into the mix.

Like I said this was not the Lenson novel to begin the series with. It's much too long, there's probably too much introspection (a lot of it religious, but much of it questioning our development of nuclear and nuclear capable weapons) and much other non-nautical stuff going on before Lenson oets to sea again. Also, there are more characters around then Poyer can deal with, and none of them rises high enough to define Lenson by reflection.

That said, Poyer is to be commended for giving "Tomahawk" a try. The focus never leaves Lenson - whose actions seemed plausible in light of his confused and unstable state of mind. Whether or not the novel evinces a left-ward slant on Poyer's part, the prose make it clear that Lenson has reason to feel his way - very much the anti Patrick Robinson novel. The nautical scenes are few and far between, but enjoyable and well worth the wait. This was an overlong novel whose biggest flaw isd that it takes bigger risks than most other naval-technothrillers.