[Bill Nichols]

Got the following from Michael DiMercurio's website
( http://www.ussdevilfish.com/index01.htm ):



I am sitting here doing the revisions on the novel that follows EMERGENCY DEEP. It has an amazing title, but I can’t tell you what it is yet, as my competitors may like it too much! But it is even more tense and compelling than EMERGENCY DEEP, and EMERGENCY DEEP’s characters continue, the ones who survived…

Here’s a taste, just a nibble, of the new novel’s plot:

Peter Vornado and Burke Dillinger are lifelong best friends. Both have risen to command nuclear submarines, and they are friendly but fierce competitors on the Squadron 8 piers for the best-in-squadron award. Vornado commands the Virginia-class submarine Texas. Dillinger commands the Los Angeles class submarine Hampton. Their shared history includes a thousand exploits at the Naval Academy, their first sea tour on the same ship, and a recent deadly combat operation in the Barents Sea north of Russia that is so highly classified that they themselves don’t even mention it. This operation resulted in the loss of Dillinger’s former submarine, the Tucson, leaving him with a lifelong wound. During the Barents operation, Vornado experienced something he can never speak about – a woman he became involved with. During the operation, Dillinger fell in love with his female executive officer, Natalie D’Assault. There was a nuclear explosion that ended the Barents operation, but Dillinger, D’Assault and Vornado all survived, although they all took nearly lethal doses of radiation.

Dillinger and Natalie, who is now retired, are married. She is pregnant with their child. Dillinger is concerned with her health, because Natalie hasn’t gained much weight. The idea of having a child makes him feel awed and almost unworthy. He will be relieved when September comes and the baby is born.

Hurricane Helen is headed for the North Carolina and Virginia coastline. The U.S. Navy’s Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet, orders all vessels to scramble to sea. Dillinger and Vornado are pulled out of their houses on a rainy Sunday and ordered to get their ships to sea. Dillinger is bothered because he doesn’t want to leave his wife, whose health he is worried about. Vornado is in the middle of a serious marriage-ending fight with his wife over something he said in his sleep. Vornado tells Dillinger he may have said something about the other woman.

On the way to the naval base, Vornado tells Dillinger about his sleep-talking episode. He also talks about something going on with the recent exercises with his ship, the USS Texas. Apparently the Navy is worried about the ballistic missile submarine force, and has been practicing submarine-versus-submarine exercises between fast attack subs and ballistic missile submarines in an attempt to teach the fast attack crews how to rapidly detect and destroy a ballistic missile “boomer” submarine. It is not the Russians the Navy is worried about, but the French. Three French sub officers and a French intelligence officer have been observing Vornado’s exercises at sea.

Dillinger is told by the squadron commodore before departing to evacuate the hurricane that he may be out at sea longer than just a week – there is something going on in the eastern Atlantic and that the Hampton has been ordered on the operation. Dillinger protests being given a mission, since Natalie is about to give birth, but the commodore sends him out anyway.

[Perseus]

If I may say so...

I've read three of DiMercurio's books and to be honest, I still can't figure out why someone would want to publish such utter crap.

[Dakar23]

Well if it's anything like his other books, Mike Pacinio will be called out of retirment, given "the most advanced submarine in the world", he'll rename it, then destroy it saving the world. And then go back into retirement. Again. Only to be called out of retirment, given "the most advanced submarine in the world", he'll rename it, then destroy it saving the world. And then go back into retirement. Again. Guess what happens in the NEXT book?

[DAB]

[Perseus]

DiMercurio's writings are utter CACK.

[Hellcat]

I read the first few books in the series, but the moment they branched off to the SPOLIER rocket powered vortex torpedo which destroyed ownship it all just fell apart. The first 2 are okay books after that it just gets silly and repeitive. Oh and Dakar23 you forgot to meantion the near death experience each time he loses a sub.

I've just started a Patrick Robertson book Kilo Class and it's not bad so far, well at least it seems plausible.

[TLAM Strike]

[Hellcat]

I don't mean to hijack the thread but I'd just like to add my comments considering "Kilo Class" Well I just finished it yesterday and it did'nt quite end the way I had envisioned....
SPOILERS

Why even brother with the subplot of Taiwan developing nuclear weapons at all when 93% of the novel concerns the destruction of the kilo's?

Why does everything work out perfectly for the good guys? Not a single thing went wrong of any magnitude other than the blind fire on the russian convoy. Which in itself is just a silly situation to begin with. (The way the US reasons that the Typhoon is not there is complete BS)

Why does every submarine commander on the "good" side have a wife at home crying about the guys absence (see DiMercurio's and others)

Does this guy love SEALs or something, their described as sorta like super-above all of us group. ie when their hauling the charges for the destruction of the subs in the channel. (I know their good but come on!)

Now on the other hand we have DiMercurio's hero who just goes out saves the world as we know it, loses a multi-million $ piece of equipment and loses most of his crew each time. That's cool though because he has to come back in the next novel.... I really should'nt be so severe they are good books to sit back and read if you really dont mind the holes. (sorta like watching Commando, or Rambo)

[MSgalileo]

In one of his book there is a description of the Kergelen island where a foreign country built a hidden submarine base and he say that this island is empty (just a meteo station with 3 guys) . This man never search on google or yahoo about this french island because there is one of the biggest french polar research station with almost 200 people in summer and 50 in winter (half are from army forces).

And for his new novel, it is well known thaht in the french navy, we left all saturday night the submarine keys on the pump jet with the nuclear lauch code when the crew is at a party.

[kschang]

Here's my opinion of the vairous authors

Patrick Robinson -- way over-rated. Nimitz class should never have been published, much less made him into a multi-book seller. Who the f*** would start a book backwards? The most exciting part is in the beginning, and the rest reads like a whodunit spy novel! Kilo-class is okay in that it's mostly special operations stuff and spy play. HMS UNSEEN is, well... two novelettes disguised as a single novel. USS SEAWOLF is a joke, and practically a rip-off of DiMercurio's Attack of the Seawolf's plot. I am also turned off by the extremely sad ending. I didn't bother to read his latest, Shark Mutiny.

Michael DiMercurio -- got the sub touches down pat, but seems to have lost his touch in the more recent novels, and I think we are all getting tired of Pacino surviving another scrape against another secret Russian or whoever's supersub. And there is no defense against Vortex or equivalent once it's fired. It all comes down to getting the first sniff, and that means sending out more remote sensors and such. I think his best novels are voyage of the Devilfish, and Attack of the Seawolf, before all this Vortex mumbojumbo is introduced.

Joe Buff -- his novels are about 60-70% sub and the rest commando action. And so far I think he's the current top writer out there, IMHO of course. Deep Sound Channel and the sequel painted an very interesting if bleak picture on modern naval warfare, where tactical nukes are used frequently and often esp. on high seas.

[kschang]

If you want some serious French bashing, you need to read Matthew Reilly and his Shane Schofield thrillers (Area 7, Ice Station, and Scarecrow). In Scarecrow, Schofield blew up the French carrier, right in the middle of the French CVBG. By shooting a palladium charge into the French nuke reactor.

[Guest]

I not searching french (or other country) bashing books, but i want some reality .
the soviet submarine fleet have been stollen by rogue, terrorist about three time is number and sunk 10 times by one US submarine,
it s the same for the chinesse, iranian and all axis devil fleets.
At this time if we refer to all the novels there is only one inctact fleet in the world US Navy (and RN) all other subs are sunk even old U-boat from the German (yes there is also US nuclear subs involved in the WW2).

I think sub novel Authors have the same inspiration, I am just waiting a more 'realistic' book like Red Storm Rising not one with we are the best with the best sub and all the other are evil and there sub are crap.