Onslaught: The War with China - The Opening Battle (Dan Lenson Novels, 16) Hardcover – December 6, 2016

Poyer continues the third book since Dan Lenson took command of the troubled Savo Island, an Aegis cruiser with an experimental anti-ballistic-missile system but also a rapist somewhere among the crew.The China war started in the previous book heats up. The Savo Island takes station near Taiwan with Lenson as commodore of a multinational task force defending Taiwan from China. China now begins its long-anticipated territorial expansion with first blows struck against islands belonging to Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, as well as against Taiwan itself.There are many echoes of World War II, with Allied forces in the Western Pacific overwhelmed as they were in 1941. Events of that war are recalled - the diversionary attack on Makin Island near Guadalcanal, Carlson’s Raiders, the necessity for the Navy to rebuild after Pearl Harbor. Lenson’s ship itself is named after a World War II sea battle in the Pacific (which we lost. Wikipedia: “The battle has often been cited as the worst defeat in a fair fight in the history of the United States Navy.”) Back in Washington, Lenson’s wife Blair Titus worries that her husband’s ship will be stranded out front and written off just as the troops in Bataan and Corregidor were.What’s stunning, as World War IV breaks out here, is how much time is devoted to the Savo’s sexual assault incidents. Aisha Ar Rahim, an NCIS investigator introduced a few volumes ago, boards ship with the task of investigating and finding the rapist. She works thoroughly and in a mostly hostile environment. Yes, the men on the ship, other than the rapist himself, want the rapist caught. But lady, there’s a war going on! The crew is overworked and sleepless, many, including Lenson, still recovering from an epidemic of Legionnaire’s Disease.Poyer, IMHO, works way too hard making women protagonists and depicting men, other than Lenson, as variously disgusting, untrustworthy and unappealing. Here’s a typical description of a crewman: “A shrimpy messman with a face like a capuchin monkey’s leered from where he was swabbing up a spill.” No female characters get this treatment.And even Lenson himself becomes a suspect in the rape investigation. On the home front, Blair is running for Congress, but we’re always hearing how she’s the only woman in the room, or how the shrewd defense chair, with whom she has had a long professional relationship and whose support she needs, is a drunken lecher dinosaur - as are, seemingly, most other male members of Congress, albeit not as capable dinosaurs as Blair’s onetime mentor.Our NCIS investigator, meanwhile, is black, female and Muslim. I’m surprised that Poyer, to gain additional PC points, didn’t also make her gay, handicapped and part Native American. A lost opportunity!I give Poyer credit for grappling with troubling gender issues. He at least entertains discussion of whether vigilance against rape takes precedence over fighting a war, whether feminists like weapons officer Amy Singhe merely alienate the mostly male non-coms who are the heart of the ship, and what new-to-naval-life problems the mere presence of women crew members creates.Lenson, away from his wife for months, must continually fight off his lust for the smart and attractive (when she’s not annoying) Singhe. Crew members not so successful at walking the PC line view porn, have been caught playing a “Grand Theft Auto” type game centered on rape, or make remarks that would leave college feminists weeping over the sexism of it all but that the blue-collar crew women just shrug off.There are no sympathetic white males in this story other than Lenson himself. The chief master-at-arms - the ship’s top security officer - is sympathetic, and he’s Vietnamese. One top officer, Mills, is not disparaged but he’s also not developed much. The chiefs are portrayed as sexist blue-collar apes. And we take a wide and varied tour of the white-male rape suspects.Poyer apparently wrote this story during the rise of Donald Trump; he barely can contain his loathing at the unnamed president at the helm during this crisis, but depicts him both as a puling fool who won’t commit when our guys are already getting shot at, and as a reckless warmonger. Which is it? I think at least one passage - the president appearing before Congress to address the war situation - was written after Trump was inaugurated.Blair, meanwhile, seems like a stand-in for Hillary - blonde, female, a steady and responsible (as Poyer and some would see Clinton) hawk pitted against Republican isolationists or warmongers. Blair I like. The woman who as Secretary of State signed over 20 percent of U.S. uranium to Russia after an $140 million payment to her family foundation, not so much.I’ve complained about Poyer’s liberalism in several reviews, but I do keep reading the books. Their realism is commendable, it’s probably good to have a war series written from a liberal perspective (one is enough, though), and I do want to find out what happens now that this hot war has broken out.

…Days of our Lives meets military fiction…If you enjoy a good soap opera, you’ll love David Poyers works.…It’s senseless dialog that adds little value to the story.There are high points in the story arc that are interesting and keep you engaged. The naval surface warfare tactics are awesome, fun, and engaging to read. I like the tactics employed, the use of current day technology and seeing it employed against a real enemy.The drawbacks to the books and the series is the never-ending senseless dialog between the lead character, Captain Dan Lenson and his crew. The author weaves half the book through this soap opera dialog of the crew. You have the case of a rape victim on board, but rather than move the story along and resolve it, the author has managed to drag this particular scene out for three books. I have no idea if the author plans on resolving this or just using it as filler for his word count to keep cranking out books.The author really tries to interweave women into the story, and I think that’s great. But he weaves them in like they are a constant problem, weak and vulnerable, susceptible to the whims of their male counterparts who can’t control themselves (ie. Groping and rapes) while at the same time he tries to make them integral members of the crew. Given, I’m sure there are some issues like this when you integrate women onto a ship with 300+ men, I doubt it’d be this pronounced. It just distracts from the story unless you’re trying to use it to fill the word count.…It’s almost like reading Burnie Sanders try to write a military theme fiction novel with his socialist and liberal ideas of how the navy should run and be integrated.When the author finally gets to the action, it’s good. It’s the only reason I have kept reading them. He’s one of the few authors that writes naval surface warfare books, but for god sake man, lay off the days of lives soap opera. It detracts terribly from what would be a five-star rating.

I was glad to find and read of your series. We maybe down but not out plus we have a few tricks left like our new stealth railing destroyers and anti missile lasers plus the Ford, Kennedy and Enterprise on the pipeline. Plus I do wonder about the Aroura to make up for days like the old blackbirds plus black projects hopefully we secretly finish the SW program wink I mean plus pump out F35s for our carriers and pump out the mothballed fleet and Battleships as missiles can't stop shells. Plus start up F22As again. My main concern where our B2s will strike next we have to put a show of force at the same time not over kill I say 3 to 5 targets...one is the site that took out the FDR group for sure. Next their sole carrier as pay back I say get a sub with nuclear torpedoes and slip in deep behind their lines to strike. Next their primary nuclear weapons production center if we can say regular bomb their primary source of nuclear material and last but not least nuke Torpedo their shipyard but best case I say most of the torpedoes and cruise missiles should do. But first we have to find their subs and take them out only one place they'd go Pearl knock that out take out the Pac Fleet likely waiting for our nukes then nuke US back. We have to ready I hope we are. By the way have a idea to improve the BMD I wonder as we likely going to get a block 5 but what if we got a missile close say close enough to cross or intersect then self destruct to throw the missile of course at a key moment. A near miss better than a direct hit but a idea to put fourth besides that their is always option B to detonate a nuke over China to EMP them and hurt them overall. By the way I hope we get to see the Chinese knock offs of our ships and Humves. Bravo and good luck.

Simply genius, the best authentic war story author active today who has been there, done that.

I got lost in the storyline kept on reading it got better I would say I am maybe interested in the storyline to keep on reading the storyline of more of the books they are ok I have read two of the books now.

Probably ok. Heard no complaints

Excellent novel by Poyer. Have read all his books. Looking forward to next novel.

great book, really good reading