Customer Reviews

Vertical Dive

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

 

 

I've read all of Michael DiMercurio's books, and this one is kind of weak unfortunately. It is competent, well written and standard DiMercurio fare, but not as action packed as most of his works. I think he had a bad year personally last year (as he points out in his personal comments in the book), and quite possibly it ended up on the pages of the book.

Having read all his other works, it seemed as though he never really got where he wanted to go. The action didn't really start until nearly 75% of the way through, and then it was decent sub warfare. The beginning 75% was very detailed, and the book could have been a good 300 page longer if the back end of the story was as complete as the front end. But this time it was not. No big deal, I still love his writing and will still buy his books. I pre bought this one as soon as it was announced on Amazon.

I love submarine action, and other than Joe Buff, Michael DiMercurio is the tops in this game.

Bought this book for reading material on a business trip. I found it very slow to get going and strangely depressing. The plot - terrorist hijackers, as usual - didn't get under way until almost halfway through the book. The first part was a lot of run-of-the-mill potboiling and military exercise. The action section was really gory, almost to the point of making me wince. Not in a good way either. I didn't really see the point. All in all Vertical Dive is a pretty hack pulp fiction testosterone trip without anything new to say. Spend your eight bucks elsewhere.

The authors divorce, some details of which he shared with me in an email, seems to have made his mood even more dark than usual. It was very hard to get into, something his other books have not been. I thought it was me as I kept putting it down to do other things but it was just difficult. Hopefully, Patty will become a memory and Michael can return to his normal form. He is an excellent writer but this was not a great example. Get well soon.

I truly like military action novels, so I was let down by this book.

I found the opening scenes, with an exercise being conducted in the middle of a massive hurricane to be somewhat unbelievable to say the least. While I do know that risking ships and personnel during wartime is part of the deal, risking ships and the same people for an exercise, and one that is essentially a "bet" between the French and American presidents is ludicris.

I also found the paranormal nonsense to be just that, nonsense. It greatly detracted from the storyline, and that plot was telegraphed ahead of time so blatantly that I pretty much had the book figured out from about page 50 or so.

The gratuitous sex scene was totally unecessary to the book, and seemed to be there just to "fill a square" in the accepted novel formula.

It seemed to me that this book was just a reason to let the reading public know about Mr. DiMercurio's divorce. While I'm not doubting the seriousness of that situation, I question his using my money to exorcise his personal demons.

A waste of money.

I've read the rest of his books, and pretty much, if you liked EMERGENCY DEEP, you'll probably like VERTICAL DIVE. If you hated ED, then you probably won't like VD. If you haven't read ED, go back and read that first. That said, I'm a sucker for good sub books, so I liked this book. After buying it, I pretty much finished the book start to finish in one sitting on the same day as getting it.

VERTICAL DIVE is a lot darker than Dimercurio's other books. I'm guessing some of the darkness is from the the author's feeling a bit down after his real-life divorce. Even though he claims he's still good friends with his ex-wife, of course, it's still not a great experience. Much of this mood carried over in VERTICAL DIVE.

Burke Dillinger and Peter Vornado return from ED, although Vornado is pretty much a non-factor throughout the novel this time. The first part of the book (about 160 pages) is the standard intro training exercise that readers will recognize. After that, the main plot starts with a band of terrorists hijacking a French SSBN. They use extremely gruesome means, so it's definitely not for the squeamish. It kind of reminded me of the old ATTACK OF THE SEAWOLF Chinese scenes, so I really wouldn't recommend the book for younger children. The rest of the novel is standard Dimercurio with good, descriptive submarine scenes.

The only odd part that seemed a little out of place was the use of Natalie as a plot device. Not only did it give away the ending a bit too early but also it sort of tells how the next novel is going to be laid out, in terms of Burke Dillinger and Rachael Vornado. These revelations seemed sad, again similar to the author's general mood. I can't really comment more without giving away massive spoilers.

I found myself skimming over the technical paragraphs, such as reactor startup, explosions, etc. because I've already read them numerous times from the rest of his books. I understand the need for them because all of the books are supposed to be standalone, but they're a bit repetitive for a long-time reader.

I know the review seemed like a lot of griping, but books don't have to be perfect for them to be enjoyable. Bottom line, it was still a good read. Dimercurio is always going to be a niche writer, with a very specific target audience, as opposed to more broad books, such as Harry Potter. Thus, before reading this book, you'll probably already know whether you want to buy it or not based on Dimercurio's previous works.

Thanks, Michael. Keep them coming.

I was actually quite intrigued by this novel. I had never really read anything in the genre with the things in it that everyone else seems to dislike. I normally stay away from the "terrorists steal the ship" dynamic because they seem so implausible. This version however, seemed the only logical way that it could actually happen. I plan to read more by this author.

Not really much to say, I have read all his other books, but by far his worst. I'm not really into ghosts in subs, the rest of the plot was not too bad. But I have to agree with a previous reviewer, a billion dollar sub sent out on an exercise in a hurricane and his dead wife telling him what to do?

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Let's first start with - I am a fan of Michael DiMercurio and I have read all of his books!

However, when I purchased "Vertical Dive" in Dec 2005, it has taken me 5-months to push through and read the book.

Usually, I finish Mr. DiMercurio's books in 2 or 3 days. Regretfully, with "Vertical Dive," I kept putting it down every few pages.

This book was a miss and I know Mr. DiMercurio has an amazing talent and gift for writing. I do not know if the downturn in the book was due to problems in his personal life, but I am positive his next book will hopefully be back on track.

While I usually find the technical jargon interesting, well defined and compelling to read, "Vertical Dive" seem to just be stuffed with an over abundance of Navy manual material. Enough already. Did the story really need almost six pages of manual dialog on the French sub pulling out of the dock? Or, could the book have gotten by with simply, the French sub just pulled out of port and not go into such depth of details to cause the reader to zone-out?

"Vertical Dive" seems to be an amazing collection of abstracts from Navy manuals and the storyline was lost with all the filler information. I want to read a story, not a manual. In the past, Mr. DiMercurio did not allow the technical information to be so overwhelming as to overpower the storyline.

I do not know the author or his personal life but I have read all his books up to this point. This was by far the worst and I move on to Emergency Deep with trepidation.

I was first put off by the overly extensive descriptive narrative. It even surpassed Herman Melville! Everyone was described in excruciating detail, even those that were soon dispatched. The love(?) scene between a French officer and his wife went on for many pages (too long) and was virtually pornographic in its detail. This was unnecessary and really did not add to the story line. The graphic and sickening detail, that also went on for pages and was brought up again, on the torture and mutilation of terrorist victims made me wonder about the author's own level of anger. It was simply gruesome. More than once the disintegration of body parts was described in every detail using the device of time dilation to extend the narrative. In previous books this happened but not nearly to this morbid extent.

While I recommend all prior DiMercurio novels, I cannot do so for this one.

I like war and action books. I am a former submariner, so I was looking forward to reading my first book from this author.

I only read the first 1/3 of it and put it away. I am not a prude, but the graphic (I mean REALLY graphic, unecesary sex scenes, and unnecesarily sick torture scenes were so blatantly offensive that I will probably never read another book by this author again! It should be restricted to a shelf in an Adult Bookstore.

Aside from that, the book is cluttered with too much procedural detail. It might have gotten better, but I couldn't wade through the garbage long enough to see.

I'm no expert, but I think Mr. DiMercurio should run, not walk to the nearest therapist before he attempts to write again.