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Title: U.S.S. Seawolf by Patrick Robinson, George Guidall ISBN: 0-7887-4356-2 Publisher: Recorded Books Pub. Date: January, 2001 Format: Audio Cassette List Price(USD): $93.00

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Average Customer Rating: 2.73 (90 reviews)

Rating: 2
Summary: Patrick, please make it better the next time!
Comment: I have read all previous novels by Patrick Robinson ("Nimitz Class", "Kilo Class" and "HMS Unseen")and I found them excellent. I've just finished his latest book, "USS Seawolf", and I must admit, it was a major disappointment. First what was good: You learn quite a lot about American military and the naval forces (particularly about submarines). On the other hand, the way Robinson dealt with his characters wasn't all right at all. People participating in the story were complete cliches without any connections to reality. The American staff was highly professional, failureless, overly patriotic, not selfish at all, everybody were close friends to each other and had the same opinions, whereas the Chinese, the "enemy" in this novel, were described as personificated evil we know from children's stories. Additionally, it seems that every second Chinese in this book was an idiot and was completely unable to carry out the simplest assignment. The Americans, for their part, seem to be able to easily destroy the Russian and the Chinese Navies at the same time. I really doubt that the USA are so strong. If they are, why did it take the West some 40 years to win the Cold War?

Arnold Morgan, the National Security Advisor, is indesputably the main personnage in "USS Seawolf". This fact doesn't explain though why it's him who makes all difficult decisions. Though I don't know every paragraph of the American Constitution by heart, I am quite sure that it is the President who ultimately decides whether to start a war or not. Actually, I think even the President mustn't do it on himself; there is a Congress after all. This was one example of an obvious logical mistake in the novel. I assure you, there are many, many more.

At the end a few words concerning story and style. The plot of "USS Seawolf" offered nothing new; it was mainly the same stuff as in "Kilo Class". The only difference was the emprisoning of the crew of the US submarine. But then there were once more the SEALs who liberated the "brave Americans", in the same fashion as in "KIlo Class". Robinson's writing style isn't the most ideal either. His storytelling is very monoton; it has remained the same since "Nimitz Class" (with the only exception in "HMS Unseen"). He describes his characters in a very one-dimensional way. We miss important parts of them, like how they spend their freetime or something like this, and that's the reason why we never quite understand them.

So, I repeat it, I was quite disappointed by this book. I can only hope the next one will be comparable to "HMS Unseen", Robinson's finest yet.

Rating: 4
Summary: Great Adventure Story, weak ending
Comment: The story is gripping, a sub captured, the crew being tortured, the SEAL's being sent in to rescue them. The whole concept is a bit farfetched but fun.

The first section details the mission up to the capture of the sub, its exciting as we follow the sub around sneaking in and out of Chinese waters, evading capture, etc. The actual capture seemed a bit goofy, why didn't the sub just sink when they attached the cables? but you have to give some leeway to get the story rolling.

Then there is the in-between section where the crew is being moved to their jail, being tortured, the SEAL team is being formed, etc.

The big story is the mission to rescue the captives, its all written with exact detail and seemed very believable to me (an armchair quarterback with zero practical experience)

Finally the weakest part of the book is the wrap up. I really feel that the book should have ended at the "fist pumping in the air - rah rah" moment, instead we are treated to a series of bad things and the whole book ends with a whimper - I'm trying not to give it away here, but for me the ending was really depressing.

The characters are perfect in their own way, the chinese are perfectly bad, no redeeming qualities, the US forces are perfectly good, no bad decisions are ever made, no mistakes happen, no hidden agendas, nothing. This is a straightforward action book, your not reading it because you want a complex CNO (Chief of Naval Operations) your reading it because you want the US to kick some serious booty.

And it does, the action sequences are great and very realistic. As with all of Patrick Robinsons books you follow along like a travelogue, there isn't any "oh my god" sequences of sudden understanding or of a secret plot revealed - you know the one, where suddenly all those unexplained things that have been happening now make sense, in these books each step of the process is methodically layed out and followed.

If I had stopped 50 pages from the end I would have given this a 5 star rating, but the ending so turned me off that I would have dropped it 2 stars except for the excellent middle. The ending just doesn't work, throughout the book the characters are all fairly simplistically handled and we are all used to them being that way, then suddenly a "deep psychological" twist happens and everything starts to unravel. If that was planned to happen why were the characters not given more time to develop? and the lack of closure for several key characters makes it difficult as well, the Chinese C-and-C, the XO - both of these characters are just dropped with their lives and futures hanging...

Buy the book for the exciting action sequences and to read about the SEAL's kicking tail - my recommendation is to read up through the end of chapter 12 and stop there - you'll finish with a big smile.

Rating: 2
Summary: An "F" for effort.
Comment: I listened to the unabridged audio version. Robinson knows a lot about submarines and naval hardware, but he doesn't know jack about creating interesting characters or plotlines. The plot itself is ripped from the headlines; substituting a submarine for a plane. To the rescue comes the infallible and irascible Arnold Morgan, the President's National Security Advisor. On a side note I think Rip Torn would be excellent in the movie role of Arnold Morgan. The problem is that even the main characters are somewhat 1 dimensional. Sure there is some background history provided on each character but that is about it. Everybody is a stereotype. The Chinese are all evil, the American's all righteous, it's terrible. I know this is a novel about sailors and sailors curse a lot but the volume of anti-Chinese expletives uttered by some of the characters is a little over the top. The other thing is that Robinson himself seems to sometimes get confused between Chinese and Japanese, for example once referring once to the Chinese Yen. But the most unforgiviable thing was the ending. I won't spoil it by revealing what happens but it made no sense and seemed forced. Seawolf was my 1st foray into this author's work and I might have been my last, but for some confounded reason I am giving him another chance. I'm listening to Kilo Class right now but that is another review.