Arctic Sea

September 1, 2021
After a lengthy war between the United States and China (see 2020's Violent Peace), the world is slowly making the first steps toward recovery. The war took a savage toll on the combatants, and now, in a frighteningly realistic near-future environment, Poyer gives Admiral Dan Lenson his most difficult assignment yet: before he retires from active duty, Lenson is to go to Alaska and supervise the construction of a new U.S. naval base to monitor Russian activities. The fear is that, in the aftermath of a war that wreaked havoc upon the world's two major superpowers, Russia might try to capitalize on the chaos. Readers familiar with the Dan Lenson series (this is the twenty-first installment) know they can expect well-drawn characters, a clever story, and plenty of suspense. Poyer, who had a 30-year career in the U.S. Navy, fills the book with the kind of precise detail that makes the story feel less like fiction and more like a possible reality. Fans of military fiction, even those who haven't yet checked out the Lenson series, should mark this one as a must-read.

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September 27, 2021
The pace slows a bit in Poyer’s placeholding 21st military action thriller featuring U.S. Navy officer Dan Lenson (after 2020’s Violent Peace) now that the four-year war with China has ended and Dan has been reduced back to captain after his wartime rank of admiral. Several major American cities have been destroyed, major stretches of the Midwest are contaminated with radiation, and the country is stricken with riots, looting, disease, famine, and revolts against the government. Dan is fighting radiation exposure and working at the Pentagon on a less-than-compelling study of postwar force structure. With Russia undamaged by the recent war and expanding militarily into the Arctic Circle, Dan is assigned to explore the North Slope of Alaska for possible locations for a U.S. naval base. His wife, Blair Titus, continues her political work in Washington, D.C., and his daughter, Nan, is back working as a virologist in the rebel-held areas. There are still plenty of deadly adventures, including a couple of set pieces that are the same as in Violent Peace, and in the end the nation’s future is hanging by a thread. Series fans wouldn’t have it any other way.