David Poyer's cycle of modern Navy tales ranks among the finest nautical fiction of our time. With China Sea , his self-doubting protagonist Daniel V. Lenson faces for the first time the unforgiving challenge of command at sea. Ordered to relieve an alcoholic skipper, Dan finds he has inherited a damaged ship, an untrustworthy crew, and an ambiguous mission. He is to take the USS Oliver C. Gaddis, soon to become the PNS Tughril, on her final voyage to be donated to Pakistan. But in Kirachi, Dan gets new orders: take Gaddis still further east, and operate against modern pirates preying on commercial shipping in the remote, dangerous South China Sea. Pursuing an elusive and shadowy foe into an exotic, isolated world of hazardous reefs and tropical islands, Dan gradually discerns a larger purpose behind his supposed objective. Who are these "pirates?" What expansionist cunning supports them? Abandoned by the Navy, threatened by a mutinous crew, a murderous shipmate, and an approaching typhoon, Gaddis struggles to survive without crossing the shadow-line herself. Filled with suspense, battle, and unforgettable descriptions of the sea's beauty and violence, China Sea continues Dan Lenson's star-crossed career in what Booklist calls, "One of the outstanding bodies of nautical fiction during the last half-century." In his latest book, Poyer (The Circle) has brought back Dan Lenson and given him first command. It is 1990-91, at the start of the Gulf War. The navy, ready to discard the U.S.S. Gaddis, has asked Lenson to ready the ship for a final voyage. Accompanied by a crew of misfits and brigrats, Lenson endures a journey filled with bungling allies, hurricanes, a cronic supply problem, and piracy. THe crew is ready to mutiny - the vagueness of his orders and a disgruntled executive officer have undermined Lenson's authority. And to top it all off, Lenson soon realizes that one of his crew is committing murders in every port. Poyer's characters are as good as ever, and the action scenes are lively, but the book's lulls - passages filled with characters repeating themselves and to command - make for painful reading at times. Still, this is recommended for larger fiction collections. Patrick J. Wall, University City Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Poyer's sixth novel about U.S. Navy surface warfare puts series protagonist Dan Lenson in command for the first time. That command, however, is at first only of the caretaker party aboard an obsolete frigate that is to be turned over to the Pakistanis. After a bizarre voyage with a mixed crew, during which Lenson carries out a rescue at sea over the objections of his Pakistani counterpart, the frigate is suddenly repossessed by the U.S., at least nominally. Short of supplies and unacknowledged by any official U.S. agency, the frigate sails with a scratch crew into the China Sea to exploit "plausible deniability" in an attack on communist Chinese-backed pirates. Lenson survives understaffing, obsolete or nonfunctional equipment, a mutiny, and a serial killer among the crew to engage the Chinese in a climactic battle that ranks high among single-ship actions in maritime fiction. Readers who can meet Poyer halfway with knowledge of modern seafaring stand to be especially richly rewarded. Roland Green David Poyer's naval career has included service in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Arctic, Caribbean, and Pacific. His twenty novels have won millions of readers around the world, and his sea fiction has been required reading in the Literature of the Sea course at the U.S. Naval Academy. China Sea is the sixth in his novel-cycle of the modern Navy, following The Med, The Gulf, The Circle, The Passage, and Tomahawk (all available in St. Martin's Press paperback). He lives with his wife and daughter in Virginia.