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A Captain's Duty

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A Captain's Duty

By: Richard Phillips, Stephan Talty, Various
Narrated by: George Wilson
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About this listen

8th April 2009 was just an ordinary day for Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama as it headed towards the port of Mombasa. Ordinary that is until, armed Somali pirates attacked and boarded the freighter.

Captain Phillips offered himself as a hostage in exchange for the safety of his crew, and so began a tense five-day stand-off, which ended in a daring high-seas rescue by U.S. Navy SEALs.

©2010 Tantor Media Inc (P)2010 Tantor Media Inc Suspense Thriller & Suspense

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Critic reviews

"I share the country's admiration for the bravery of Captain Phillips and his selfless concern for his crew. His courage is a model for all Americans." (Barack Obama)
All stars
Most relevant

What about George Wilson’s performance did you like?

The quality of the narration was generally very good. However, there were many long pauses suggesting a chapter break where in fact there wasn't one.

Any additional comments?

This was an absorbing book. I recommend it.

Interesting and engaging

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I listened to this audio book after watching the film, the book is definitely worth a read/listen, covering extras such as how his family cope with events back home, news coverage, politics, the general life of a merchant mariner, shipmate duties, leadership (captaincy) and of course piracy. If you've seen and enjoyed the film, you'll like the extra details offered by the book... The story is of course exactly the same!

An excellent informative account of events.

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Would you listen to A Captain's Duty again? Why?

No...but would see film

What does George Wilson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Character. He actually sounds like Tom Hanks who plays the role in the film

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

"Just when you though it was safe to go back ON the water...!"

Any additional comments?

Enjoyable. Held my attention pretty well

Above average listen..

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Although I wanted to like this book, I just couldn't quite. The narrator over pronunciated each word and there are frequent unnecessary pauses, often in the middle of dialogue which just seems like bad editing in the studio.

The novel itself is ok but I got slightly frustrated that when we were finally hearing about the hostage situation, the story kept moving back to the wife at home. That sounds heartless and of course the author wanted to convey just how traumatic the event was for family and friends. But my point is that it sometimes became wearisome to go back to hear about how much his wife is missing him. There often seemed no point and no advancement in the wife and family story except to pop back home and tell us AGAIN how much the captain's wife is missing him.

Saying all this, I completed the book and it did gain pace and overall I enjoyed it.

A drawl of a narrator

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No sex drugs or rock n roll, can't be any good, your wrong. This book, well narrated in my opinion was both interesting and addictive. A story well worth a listen and very pleasing.

Easy listening

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