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Dan Lenson #2
The Gulf
Aboard the guided-missile frigate U.S.. Turner Van Zandt, Lieutenant Dan Lenson and his dedicated crew take on daring assignment; escort a convoy of supertankers through the mine-filled gulf.
For Lenson and his men, however, the danger is only just beginning. When a missile from hit-and-run enemy sinks a U.S. destroyer, every ship and aircraft in the area goes on red alert.
As all hands prepare for the inevitable showdown with a hostile Middle Eastern nation, Benjamin Shaker, the destroyer's hair-trigger captain, plots his own secret form of revenge. If he isn't stopped, it will soon mean disaster for the entire Gulf region--and maybe the world.
463 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 1990
120 people are currently reading
202 people want to read
About the author
David Poyer
82 books240 followersAka D.C. Poyer.
DAVID C. POYER was born in DuBois, PA in 1949. He grew up in Brockway, Emlenton, and Bradford, in western Pennsylvania, and graduated from Bradford Area High School in 1967. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1971, and later received a master's degree from George Washington University.
Poyer's active and reserve naval service included sea duty in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Arctic, Caribbean, and Pacific, and shore duty at the Pentagon, Surface Warfare Development Group, Joint Forces Command, and in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. He retired in July 2001.
Poyer began writing in 1976, and is the author of nearly fifty books, including THE MED, THE GULF, THE CIRCLE, THE PASSAGE, TOMAHAWK, CHINA SEA, BLACK STORM, THE COMMAND, THE THREAT, KOREA STRAIT, THE WEAPON, THE CRISIS, THE CRUISER, TIPPING POINT, HUNTER KILLER, DEEP WAR, OVERTHROW, VIOLENT PEACE, ARCTIC SEA, and THE ACADEMY, best-selling Navy novels; THE DEAD OF WINTER, WINTER IN THE HEART, AS THE WOLF LOVES WINTER, THUNDER ON THE MOUNTAIN, and THE HILL, set in Western Pennsylvania; and HATTERAS BLUE, BAHAMAS BLUE, LOUISIANA BLUE, and DOWN TO A SUNLESS SEA, underwater diving adventure.
Other noteworthy books are THE ONLY THING TO FEAR, a historical thriller, THE RETURN OF PHILO T. McGIFFIN, a comic novel of Annapolis, and the three volumes of The Civil War at Sea, FIRE ON THE WATERS, A COUNTRY OF OUR OWN, and THAT ANVIL OF OUR SOULS. He's also written two sailing thrillers, GHOSTING and THE WHITENESS OF THE WHALE. His work has been published in Britain, translated into Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Hugarian, and Serbo-Croatian; recorded for audiobooks, iPod downloads, and Kindle, and selected by the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club and other book clubs. Rights to several properties have been sold or optioned for films, and two novellas appeared in the Night Bazaar series of fantasy anthologies.
Poyer has taught or lectured at Annapolis, Flagler College, University of Pittsburgh, Old Dominion University, the Armed Forces Staff College, the University of North Florida, Christopher Newport University, and other institutions. He has been a guest on PBS's "Writer to Writer" series and on Voice of America, and has appeared at the Southern Festival of Books and many other literary events. He taught in the MA/MFA in Creative Writing program at Wilkes University for sixteen years. He is currently core faculty at the Ossabaw Writers Retreat, a fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and a board member of the Northern Appalachia Review.
He lives on Virginia's Eastern Shore with novelist Lenore Hart.
DAVID C. POYER was born in DuBois, PA in 1949. He grew up in Brockway, Emlenton, and Bradford, in western Pennsylvania, and graduated from Bradford Area High School in 1967. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1971, and later received a master's degree from George Washington University.
Poyer's active and reserve naval service included sea duty in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Arctic, Caribbean, and Pacific, and shore duty at the Pentagon, Surface Warfare Development Group, Joint Forces Command, and in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. He retired in July 2001.
Poyer began writing in 1976, and is the author of nearly fifty books, including THE MED, THE GULF, THE CIRCLE, THE PASSAGE, TOMAHAWK, CHINA SEA, BLACK STORM, THE COMMAND, THE THREAT, KOREA STRAIT, THE WEAPON, THE CRISIS, THE CRUISER, TIPPING POINT, HUNTER KILLER, DEEP WAR, OVERTHROW, VIOLENT PEACE, ARCTIC SEA, and THE ACADEMY, best-selling Navy novels; THE DEAD OF WINTER, WINTER IN THE HEART, AS THE WOLF LOVES WINTER, THUNDER ON THE MOUNTAIN, and THE HILL, set in Western Pennsylvania; and HATTERAS BLUE, BAHAMAS BLUE, LOUISIANA BLUE, and DOWN TO A SUNLESS SEA, underwater diving adventure.
Other noteworthy books are THE ONLY THING TO FEAR, a historical thriller, THE RETURN OF PHILO T. McGIFFIN, a comic novel of Annapolis, and the three volumes of The Civil War at Sea, FIRE ON THE WATERS, A COUNTRY OF OUR OWN, and THAT ANVIL OF OUR SOULS. He's also written two sailing thrillers, GHOSTING and THE WHITENESS OF THE WHALE. His work has been published in Britain, translated into Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Hugarian, and Serbo-Croatian; recorded for audiobooks, iPod downloads, and Kindle, and selected by the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club and other book clubs. Rights to several properties have been sold or optioned for films, and two novellas appeared in the Night Bazaar series of fantasy anthologies.
Poyer has taught or lectured at Annapolis, Flagler College, University of Pittsburgh, Old Dominion University, the Armed Forces Staff College, the University of North Florida, Christopher Newport University, and other institutions. He has been a guest on PBS's "Writer to Writer" series and on Voice of America, and has appeared at the Southern Festival of Books and many other literary events. He taught in the MA/MFA in Creative Writing program at Wilkes University for sixteen years. He is currently core faculty at the Ossabaw Writers Retreat, a fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and a board member of the Northern Appalachia Review.
He lives on Virginia's Eastern Shore with novelist Lenore Hart.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 19, 2019
The next chapter in naval officer Daniel V. Lenson's career occurs in David Poyer's novel "The Gulf." Dan, still a lieutenant commander, is now the executive officer (XO) of a guided missile frigate, the USS "Turner Van Zandt." The frigate is on convoy duty in the Persian Gulf, ensuring commercial shipping is not threatened or interfered with by Iranian naval forces (the novel takes place during the time of Ayatollah Khomeini's rule.) Dan seems to have found himself a good sea duty assignment. He even meets one Blair Titus, an attractive woman who is also the top defense aide for a senator serving on the Armed Services committee. However, the Persian Gulf has an element of volatility, and Dan Lenson will experience that volatility with devastating results... I found "The Gulf" to be a fascinating and absorbing read, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good military adventure.
May 5, 2018
I was in submarines, never in the surface fleet, but the story rings true on all the significant points. The evidence handling for urinalysis testing was depicted incorrectly, no big deal for the story.
Also, I can't imagine that any ship would accept a transient duty servicemember so casually, so Phelan's character is implausible. When we had a guy miss movement from Fremantle, Australia, it was handled by the Aussie police. It's kind of a big deal. The Pakistani police would have run Phelan down quickly, the proverbial sore thumb. But liked the redemptive story line and accept the author taking a bit of artistic license there.
Also, I can't imagine that any ship would accept a transient duty servicemember so casually, so Phelan's character is implausible. When we had a guy miss movement from Fremantle, Australia, it was handled by the Aussie police. It's kind of a big deal. The Pakistani police would have run Phelan down quickly, the proverbial sore thumb. But liked the redemptive story line and accept the author taking a bit of artistic license there.
June 19, 2018
Again a very dissatisfying ending...way too many loose ends
January 27, 2023
This is a weak three stars. It's an occasionally believable seeming account of U.S. Navy activities in the Persian Gulf during the 1990s. It skips around between points of view of many characters and many ships and has some very exciting action sequences. Prose is competent but not better than that. While the day to day activities related are often interesting, and characterization is mostly adequate for this type of genre fiction, several of the plot points are beyond ridiculous. Worst for anyone with a passing acquaintance of how military activities are conducted was a long and silly chapter with commander of the U.S. Fleet in the Gulf deciding what to do next--with the political appointee Ambassador to Qatar in a safe room in the Embassy. That Ambassador would be lucky to be informed the military activity would be happening, let alone telling the Navy where and when to strike Iran. I am really surprised that the author would be so ill-informed about the way the White House and the Pentagon and the regional commands do their targeting, given his clearly first-hand experience on the ships themselves. Anyway, only read if you are looking for a slice-of-life of the Navy in the Gulf in the '90s.
March 7, 2020
I thought this was "dan lenson series", not "100 minor characters and then maybe some dan lenson chapter so you don't forget about him series".
I don't care about gazillion other people in this book, it's boring, uninteresting, chops up the story... One or two are more than enough to enlighten us on some other aspects of the story but author overdone it.
I don't care about gazillion other people in this book, it's boring, uninteresting, chops up the story... One or two are more than enough to enlighten us on some other aspects of the story but author overdone it.
January 14, 2019
I've started from the wrong end, reading David Poyer's latest in the long line of Dan Lenson stories, but they've all been great reading, so far! I've just started Circle and hope to finish the entire series here shortly. The reading's been great, so far.
Read
November 2, 2019I enjoyed it. Interesting characters, engrossing plot. Even though this is fiction, it fits well with what has been going on in the middle east for the past 20 years.
December 23, 2023
Recommended.
Much, much better than The Med. About the same as Black Storm. As I suspected, his writing gets better with age (his, not the readers).
Much, much better than The Med. About the same as Black Storm. As I suspected, his writing gets better with age (his, not the readers).
October 9, 2020
The second book in the Lenson series did not come off quite as successful as the first one for me. What was exciting, new, and interesting in the first one was carried forward in the second almost formulaicly and I was reminded more than once as I read that my goal is to binge through these earlier books in the series to get to the ones that I think seem more interesting towards the end. It wasn't entirely unenjoyable, but the fact that it took over twice as long to read this than the first shows that the series is already starting to become a struggle. Now I see the next book is sort of a prequel--just as I was hoping things would start to advance more quickly!
December 12, 2024
This was an improvement on the first book in the series. It still has a complex range of characters, only loosely connected but it came together well in the end. It seemed to justify continuing with the series for me.
January 31, 2009
The Van Zandt is a naval frigate on convoy duty in the Persian Gulf at a time when the Iranian War is in full swing. The new captain, Ben Shaker, is determined to avoid a repeat of the loss of his earlier command, a destroyer that was sunk by an Iranian missile. Men had died because they were wearing the new, sharp-looking polyester clothes that melted onto the skin during fire fighting, and had their feet horribly burned because they had abandoned the standard leather shoes for the more flammable cordovan that held a shine better.
Dan Lenson, a character from an earlier novel (The Circle) and maybe the unluckiest officer in the Navy, having survived an Arctic sinking and the attendant inquiry, is the XO on the Van Zandt. Shaker is out for revenge, and that leads to a confrontation between Lenson and Shaker as the ship becomes a pawn in U.S. gunboat diplomacy.
Interestingly, readers at Amazon.com validated my observation that if you like Tom Clancy, you will not like Poyer. Clancy is much more escapist, whereas Poyer attempts to realistically portray what it is like working on a naval vessel during the late 20th century. Poyer is a former naval officer, and the books reflect that. A scene describing the fire-fighting efforts after a ship has been hit by a missile washorrifyingly realistic. Clancy hasn’t delivered since The Hunt for Red October, which was great, and he’s become a mere shill for the high-technology, can’t-do-anything-wrong-superman military. As one reader noted: “Clancy is escapism. Poyer is life.”
Another character is Blair, an investigator for Senator Talmadge on the House Armed Services Committee. She’s in the Middle East on a fact-finding tour, trying to decide if the billions being spent on the Navy are being appropriated for the right kind of equipment. The major threat to the shipping lanes is coming from small torpedo/gunboats that don’t even show up on radar, and can scurry back to safe ports in Iran or Iraq. As a result of their harassment, insurance rates are escalating for tankers going through the Straits of Hormuz, and the Navy seems unable to do much about it. There are also rumors of a small submarine that is unaccounted for. It was purchased by Iran from Germany, but can’t be found where it should be, and sonar does not work well in the shallow waters of the Gulf.
Then there is the human element. The captain of the Van Zandt has his own grudges, one of the corpsmen is handing out drugs to make friends and feed his own addiction, and the helicopter pilots have personal problems of their own. Despite his loyalty to the captain, when Lenson discovers the captain and the gunnery officer attempting to override the safety mechanisms and fire off a nuclear missile at Iran following the destruction of the ship's helicopter by an Iranian gunboat, he aborts their efforts. That leads to an investigation and a suicidal retaliatory raid on a hidden Iranian port by the Van Zandt and another American destroyer.
Pure escapist fiction, but it's hard to knock nautical realism.
Dan Lenson, a character from an earlier novel (The Circle) and maybe the unluckiest officer in the Navy, having survived an Arctic sinking and the attendant inquiry, is the XO on the Van Zandt. Shaker is out for revenge, and that leads to a confrontation between Lenson and Shaker as the ship becomes a pawn in U.S. gunboat diplomacy.
Interestingly, readers at Amazon.com validated my observation that if you like Tom Clancy, you will not like Poyer. Clancy is much more escapist, whereas Poyer attempts to realistically portray what it is like working on a naval vessel during the late 20th century. Poyer is a former naval officer, and the books reflect that. A scene describing the fire-fighting efforts after a ship has been hit by a missile washorrifyingly realistic. Clancy hasn’t delivered since The Hunt for Red October, which was great, and he’s become a mere shill for the high-technology, can’t-do-anything-wrong-superman military. As one reader noted: “Clancy is escapism. Poyer is life.”
Another character is Blair, an investigator for Senator Talmadge on the House Armed Services Committee. She’s in the Middle East on a fact-finding tour, trying to decide if the billions being spent on the Navy are being appropriated for the right kind of equipment. The major threat to the shipping lanes is coming from small torpedo/gunboats that don’t even show up on radar, and can scurry back to safe ports in Iran or Iraq. As a result of their harassment, insurance rates are escalating for tankers going through the Straits of Hormuz, and the Navy seems unable to do much about it. There are also rumors of a small submarine that is unaccounted for. It was purchased by Iran from Germany, but can’t be found where it should be, and sonar does not work well in the shallow waters of the Gulf.
Then there is the human element. The captain of the Van Zandt has his own grudges, one of the corpsmen is handing out drugs to make friends and feed his own addiction, and the helicopter pilots have personal problems of their own. Despite his loyalty to the captain, when Lenson discovers the captain and the gunnery officer attempting to override the safety mechanisms and fire off a nuclear missile at Iran following the destruction of the ship's helicopter by an Iranian gunboat, he aborts their efforts. That leads to an investigation and a suicidal retaliatory raid on a hidden Iranian port by the Van Zandt and another American destroyer.
Pure escapist fiction, but it's hard to knock nautical realism.
December 18, 2012
The Gulf tries to be at least three different things: 1) A naval procedural about life on frigates and minesweepers -- the vital, unglamorous “small ships” of modern naval warfare ; 2) A sprawling, multi-stranded chronicle U. S. naval operations in the Persian Gulf during the closing years of the Iran-Iraq War; 3) A chapter in the ongoing chronicle of the career of U. S. Navy officer Dan Lenson. It is, in short, hugely ambitious. It would take a superb writer – a C. S. Forester or a Patrick O’Brian – to integrate the three stories successfully, and David Poyer is merely a competent one.
The naval procedural – centered on the frigate Turner Van Zandt and the minesweeper Audacity – is, by far, the most successful of the three stories. Poyer uses his own experience as a surface-warfare officer to good effect, bringing to life the rhythms of shipboard routine and the complex web of relationships that binds the crew. He captures the feel of the Persian Gulf equally vividly: the smothering heat, the grittiness of blown sand, and the unnatural warmth of the water. The drama built around the larger naval campaign is intermittently effective: gripping in the small moments of confrontation, but unconvincing in the big set-piece battles, which too often seem dictated by the demands of the plot rather than by any real-world strategy.
Lenson’s story, by a wide margin, works least-well and least-often. Part of the problem is Lenson himself: a hero too blandly two-dimensional to engage the reader or generate sympathy or interest. Clearly meant to be a Horatio Hornblower or Richard Bolitho for the 20th century, he lacks both their verve and their vulnerability. The book’s least convincing (and least necessary) subplot, involving the captain of the Van Zandt and his thirst for revenge against the Iranians, seems shoehorned into the story in order to provide Lenson with a career-defining crisis in the midst of a story that wouldn’t otherwise provide one. Later in the story, for the sake of giving Lenson a love interest, Poyer transforms the book’s only significant female character – Congressional staffer Blair Titus – from a tough, competent professional woman on a mission to a simpering girlfriend anxious about Her Man’s safety in battle.
Poyer, to be fair, faces a significant challenge in writing his tales of the modern U. S. Navy: the lack of a full-blown war to provide life-or-death challenges for his hero. C. S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian had the wars against Napoleon, Douglas Reeman had World War II, and Stephen Coonts (Flight of the Intruder and The Intruders) had Vietnam. Poyer is forced to make do with the “little wars” and politically constrained interventions of the eighties and nineties. It’s not an insurmountable problem, but – in The Gulf at least – Poyer still hasn’t figured out how to solve it.
The naval procedural – centered on the frigate Turner Van Zandt and the minesweeper Audacity – is, by far, the most successful of the three stories. Poyer uses his own experience as a surface-warfare officer to good effect, bringing to life the rhythms of shipboard routine and the complex web of relationships that binds the crew. He captures the feel of the Persian Gulf equally vividly: the smothering heat, the grittiness of blown sand, and the unnatural warmth of the water. The drama built around the larger naval campaign is intermittently effective: gripping in the small moments of confrontation, but unconvincing in the big set-piece battles, which too often seem dictated by the demands of the plot rather than by any real-world strategy.
Lenson’s story, by a wide margin, works least-well and least-often. Part of the problem is Lenson himself: a hero too blandly two-dimensional to engage the reader or generate sympathy or interest. Clearly meant to be a Horatio Hornblower or Richard Bolitho for the 20th century, he lacks both their verve and their vulnerability. The book’s least convincing (and least necessary) subplot, involving the captain of the Van Zandt and his thirst for revenge against the Iranians, seems shoehorned into the story in order to provide Lenson with a career-defining crisis in the midst of a story that wouldn’t otherwise provide one. Later in the story, for the sake of giving Lenson a love interest, Poyer transforms the book’s only significant female character – Congressional staffer Blair Titus – from a tough, competent professional woman on a mission to a simpering girlfriend anxious about Her Man’s safety in battle.
Poyer, to be fair, faces a significant challenge in writing his tales of the modern U. S. Navy: the lack of a full-blown war to provide life-or-death challenges for his hero. C. S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian had the wars against Napoleon, Douglas Reeman had World War II, and Stephen Coonts (Flight of the Intruder and The Intruders) had Vietnam. Poyer is forced to make do with the “little wars” and politically constrained interventions of the eighties and nineties. It’s not an insurmountable problem, but – in The Gulf at least – Poyer still hasn’t figured out how to solve it.
February 4, 2015
The second of the Dan Lenson series (now up to fourteen books), carries the strengths and weaknesses of the first book ("The Mediterranean"). The strengths include a clear depiction of day-to-day operations on US naval vessels, in this case a frigate, and a fairly clear depiction of the US navy's role in the Persian Gulf toward the end of the Iran-Iraq War. The central character, a LCDR named Dan Lenson, is XO to a captain whose prior ship was sunk by an Iranian cruise missile, and who is determined to place the "USN Turner Van Zandt" on a war footing, even though it is involved in something of a shadow war. As XO, it is Lenson's duty to carry out the will of the captain, whatever his personal doubts about the wisdom of it. It is fairly clear tat the captain, Benjamin SHaker, will use the Van Zandt to avenge the loss of his earlier ship (though it's not quite that starkly obvious, even to him).
There are a set of secondary stories: one about a navy senior chief on a minesweeper, another about two officers attached to the helicopter detachment on the Van Zandt, another about a petty officer who is a drug user/dealer, and yet another about a senatorial aide on an information-seeking mission about naval policy in the gulf. (The aide is a tough woman who asks tough questions of both navy leadership and the Saudis, and who also serves as Lenson's future love interest.) The secondary stories are not without interest, but they take the focus away from the Van Zandt's central story arc, and they're a lot to juggle. Later books in the series solved the issue by focusing on the naval part of the story.
Viewed as a whole, the series is the best saga written about the post-World War Navy. Viewed individually, there are weaknesses, though Lenson develops as a character over time (as in real life, I guess).
There are a set of secondary stories: one about a navy senior chief on a minesweeper, another about two officers attached to the helicopter detachment on the Van Zandt, another about a petty officer who is a drug user/dealer, and yet another about a senatorial aide on an information-seeking mission about naval policy in the gulf. (The aide is a tough woman who asks tough questions of both navy leadership and the Saudis, and who also serves as Lenson's future love interest.) The secondary stories are not without interest, but they take the focus away from the Van Zandt's central story arc, and they're a lot to juggle. Later books in the series solved the issue by focusing on the naval part of the story.
Viewed as a whole, the series is the best saga written about the post-World War Navy. Viewed individually, there are weaknesses, though Lenson develops as a character over time (as in real life, I guess).
March 14, 2021
Another great sea story in the Dan Lenson series by David Poyer. Now Dan Lenson is the Executive Officer aboard a US Navy frigate on station in The Persian Gulf. He’s got his hands full serving under a captain who is burning hot with a personal vendetta against Iran. And, as always in the Dan Lenson book series (THE MED, THE CIRCLE, THE PASSAGE, THE COMMAND, CHINA SEA, and many others) David Poyer weaves in several sub plots involving sailors who are up to no good. Set in the mid-1980s, with the Iran Iraq war raging, The Gulf takes us back to those pre Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Gulf War days when the US Navy tried to keep the shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean open, while operating inside a hornet’s nest of warring oil-rich Arab Nations.
Watch my no-spoiler video book review for THE GULF by David Poyer on YouTube.
Watch my no-spoiler video book review for THE GULF by David Poyer on YouTube.
July 20, 2015
An FFG Story
Didn't disappoint as it brought back many memories of serving aboard a PERRY class frigate. I remember all the changes that took place on board after the U.S.S. Stark was hit in 1987. The author talks about that.
The acronyms drive me nuts, but I'm just out of practice I guess. I found the ending a bit abrupt but I suppose I wanted a good story to go on.
Didn't disappoint as it brought back many memories of serving aboard a PERRY class frigate. I remember all the changes that took place on board after the U.S.S. Stark was hit in 1987. The author talks about that.
The acronyms drive me nuts, but I'm just out of practice I guess. I found the ending a bit abrupt but I suppose I wanted a good story to go on.
did-not-finish
May 22, 2008Quit at page 161.
February 8, 2011
I love these novels. Why hasn't anyone written the USAF equivalent?
November 27, 2014
Set in the Persian Gulf, this tells a story of the navy at war and the people who man our military ships. The action is centered on the crew of the USS Turner Van Zandt.
March 12, 2015
Much better than the first in the series. Hope the upward trend continues.
June 21, 2016
Read multiple times
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews