More nautical fiction. Poyer is well-known for his realistic and accurate portrayal of modern life in the Navy. He has the experience himself of serving on board modern warships and that knowledge is evident.
Several plots simultaneously converge in this story: the plight of Cuban sugar cane workers who are trying to escape Cuba during the great boat flight; a spy who is intent on sabotaging the computer software on the ship as a means to assist in the takeover of the destroyer through mutiny, the computer specialist who is trying to locate and disable the computer virus – we learn in fascinating detail about the unique features of the UYK-7 computer that used a binary logic called the “1’s complement” where register contents are inverted so zero can be a negative creating an illogical condition that is difficult to debug, the Captain’s struggle with his latent homosexuality, and Dan’s relationship with his ex-wife and new girlfriend. (One of the points Poyner tries to drive home is how difficult it is to maintain any kind of reasonable social and home-life for Navy personnel who are away from home for long periods of time and often get called up at a moments notice.) The plots intersect only briefly as Dan is accidentally left on the sinking boat of the Cuban sugar worker who is pregnant and he helps deliver her child during a tropical storm (if this sounds overly melodramatic, it is).
Nevertheless, Poyer recounts a good story that capture the reader’s attention. His narration of what it is like being in a small, sinking boat in the midst of a storm is riveting. ( )