The Med

Dan Lenson Series, Book 1

By: David Poyer

Narrated by: David Stifel

Length: 19 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

A powerful and fast-moving tale of the Navy-Marine Corps team in action, on a dangerous mission in the volatile Eastern Mediterranean.

Cloaked by the mists of dawn, Task Force 61 - carrying tanks, aircraft, and over 5000 Marines - steams toward Syria with deadly intent. Their mission: rescue 100 hostages from a terrorist stronghold - alive.

With realism seldom seen in military fiction, The Med is a magnificent and timely epic that brings the human drama of armed conflict compellingly to life. Driven by believable, flesh-and-blood characters, it is a painstakingly detailed portrait of amphibious warfare as only David Poyer can paint it. The Med is today's most explosive tale of international crisis, personal valor, and emotional struggle - a disturbingly plausible novel that crackles with non-stop action.

©1998 David Poyer (P)2019 Tantor

Could have been a true story.

liked the book very much. an intricate story that is nicely told through multiple viewpoints. Although, i didn't like the narrator. He was too monotonous in my opinion. The story itself is like how life is on board.

Meh

Voice range of reader was jarring whenever voicing females. Story was decent, but harder to follow when overly prosaic in describing settings, etc..

Good book but confused.

This is a great detailed story. If you like military fiction you’ve got a deep cast of characters and a good story.

My criticisms are this. The narrator is very monotone and sometimes hard to tell when he’s changing perspectives of characters.

Secondly. There is a choice with a particular character towards the end of this book that is so wild and un earned it’s angering. You’ll know when you get there if you get there. Just know I warned you.

A little boring

Struggled to finish. Many times in the story where nothing happens. Many detailed descriptions and dialog that do not move the story forward.

Best Modern Naval Techno Thriller Series Ever!

I absolutely love this author and his books. Possibly not the character and story finesse of Tom Clancy, but the Naval warfare is presented in a way that no other author aside from Larry Bond has ever captured. Brilliantly done and Dan Lenson is a fantastic protagonist.

Disappointing

You have to suspend belief to listen to this story.
While there are some interesting characters and exciting parts, to get to them, you have to slog through some very boring backstories.
The Commodore was over the top. I doubt he would have been given the command of anything, much less an amphibious task force.
Spoiler alert; the main character b*** s****s his way onto a Navy helo to fly to Syria to rescue his wife and daughter, deserting his ship in wartime, arriving unarmed, and kills the PLO terrorist leader with a piece of rebar. If I hadn’t been driving, I’d have hit stop.
Save your money.

Vulgar and boring

I made it halfway through the book and nothing happened. I expected a military novel somewhat like Red Storm Rising. Nope. But I get plenty of sexual adventures and talk.

Hop for a series worth listening to. Have to look somewhere else. This is not it. Don’t recommend it.

Very slow and hard to follow

I was hoping for a fast paced, smartly done modern techno-thriller in the vain of Mark Greaney, but this is like the worst of James Michener in its plodding glacial pace. The author's style is very dated with overwrought flowery vocabulary that obscures the plot. I guess Poyer is attempting to make the banality of life aboard ship poetic in his word craft, but it falls miserable short of the mark. Most of the first 10 hours of the book is dedicated to describing in repetitive and painful detail just how boring life aboard a Navel vessel can be. In this the author has succeeded masterfully as I am thoroughly bored.

I can give Poyer some praise in attempting to address the racism and classism that was the dark underbelly of Navy tradition. However the authors portrayal of black characters in the book is so stereotypical of what white people thought what black people are like it is the literary equivalent of blackface minstrel show 70"s style. Black characters are portrayed as seething with racial resentment that bubbles up in passive aggressive indolence, salted with malcontent behavior such as petty theft and drug use. If you have seen the films Boys of Company C or Hamburger Hill you'll know what I'm speaking of. I hope at least in this case Poyer also portrays the heroism to rise up through a racist system and triumph. The narrators attempt to do black voices is painful to hear and comes off as mocking...but I honestly believe it is just incompetence and poor decision making in directing the voice talent. If black characters have a significant level of dialogue in the story, hiring a black narrator is a better choice than trying to imitate (poorly) black voices.