Attack of the Seawolf

By: Michael DiMercurio

Narrated by: Joseph Courtemanche

Length: 11 hrs

Publisher's Summary

One of our subs was missing

The nightmare fear of the US had come true. One of our finest submarines, the U.S.S. Tampa, on a top-secret spying mission, had fallen into Chinese Communist hands. The Communists, fighting for survival in a savage civil war, now held not only the sub, the crew, and the gutsy Commander Sean Murphy hostage, but US power and prestige as well.

America had one last desperate card to play. The most advanced submarine in the world, the still untried U.S.S. Seawolf, under the command of maverick daredevil Captain Michael "Patch" Pacino. The Seawolf had to steal back the Tampa from where it lay guarded by the entire Chinese fleet armed to the teeth with technology from the bankrupt Russians.

©1993 Michael DiMercurio (P)2017 David N. WIlson

A Techno-thriller

I read DiMercurio’s first book “Voyage of the Devilfish” and enjoyed it. So, I decided to try another book by the author.

In this book China is at war. On one side is the White Army of New Kuomintang supported by the Japanese. The other side is the Chinese Red Army (Communist). The war is being conducted both on land and sea. The United States sends a submarine to eavesdrop on the action. The USS Tampa is captured by the Chinese Red Navy along with all its high-tech gear. The USS Seawolf, a stealth submarine, is sent to either re-capture the Tampa and its crew or destroy the submarine. Michael Pacino is assigned as the boat’s Captain. Now the anxiety and suspense begins. I could hardly put the book down.

The book is well written. The action is non-stop as is the suspense. The characters are realistic as is the seamanship. At times DiMercurio get overly technical in submarine or torpedo information. If you enjoy submarine stories, you will enjoy this book.

The book is eleven hours long. Joseph Courtemanche does a good job narrating the book. Courtemanche is a voice-over artist and audiobook narrator. This is my first encounter listening to him read.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Good sub story, bad narrator

This is one of my favorite books about submarines, but it's not up there with "The Hunt for Red October". This is because of two really stupid things that happen to set up the plot. Namely, the USS Tampa was in much too close to shore for a Los Angeles-class attack sub. No way an attack boat should be in such shallow water; this would be a job for SEALS in a minisub. Also, the periscope was up for far too long, allowing the Chinese to notice it and take action.

But I would be willing to overlook these details if the narrator hadn't been so boring. He hardly changes his voice at all from one character to the next, and doesn't provide much excitement, even at the most action-packed moments. Overall, this is a good book, with a few annoying details. Final score: 4/5 stars.

Great book bad preformance

Any additional comments?

The person reading needs to learn to take a drink or swallow between breaks and not audibly during the reading. I is really bad to hear someone swallow and sound like he is getting choked on it. Otherwise he was good.

Plenty Of Action

The Sea Wolf class submarine on which this book is based was not yet built I think at the time this book was written way back in the early 90's. However, it was known that Sea wolf would be the next generation of attack submarines for the U.S navy but scant details about it were available. I conjecture this based on some of the inaccuracies in this story. Nonetheless, this is largely irrelevant but just something I thought I'd mention to those out there like me who are into this subject matter and may be somewhat confused.

Pacino is placed in command of the navy's newest and most advanced submarine, the Sea wolf, in order to rescue the USS Tampa, a Los Angeles class nuclear attack submarine sent out to infiltrate Chinese national waters to gather intelligence.

Pacino has a huge and powerful arsenal at his disposal and this sets the scene for a large scale naval conflict. As ever, DiMercurio's strength is in writing the combat set pieces and there's plenty of action to be had here.

The only negative here is the narration. As covered in my other reviews of DiMercurio's books on Audible, the narration leaves much to be desired and I can think of others that would do a wonderful job of it instead. However, the fact the story is still as good as it is says a lot for the writing of DiMercurio and so if you can put up with the narration then this story is a solid submarine warfare thriller complete with plenty of detail to satisfy those like me that are interested in submarines.

I'd love to have these books re-recorded with the superb R. C. Bray narrating as this would inject incredible tension and slickness into the telling of these stories. Oh well, we can't have everything I suppose.

Attack of The Sea wolf is a solid read that should please any naval techno thriller genre lover.