Good but not his best, its should have been 2 or even 3 books.

It's odd and hard to nail down why i felt disappointed and far less engaged than I was with the Guadalcanal and Tin Can books.
Perhaps it's the far more complex nature of both the engagements and background politics. The USN at the Marianas and there after was at a stage of such overwhelming power that the drama of the story from a historical perspective lacks quite the sense of danger, hairs breath from possible failure, of the earlier part of the war and the intimate desperate struggle of 'Tin Can'. This book is never a failure at either aspect nor overall and the people involved no less brave heroic or at peril its just I wanted even more coherence and concentration upon the tactical and a separation of the telling somehow...another 20 hrs perhaps a consistency of detail that at times went missing. David is now muscle bound and all conquering but still the generous decent hero, Goliath the misguided ever-erring hollow warrior, weak and inept despite brave yet also badly mislead by his own false sense of honour. This of course is a story narrative and a desire for human theatre, a weakness born of the uninvolved's need for stories not solely to be informative but also entertaining. It takes a greater effort of Will on the part of the reader to remember these are 'histories', the people and stories 'real'. Thus the task as envision by the author was a harder one, the obligation not just to cover the Marianas campaign but the complex technological and moral underpinning of the strategic motivations, are as larger in scale and complexity to the earlier books as the U.S. navy itself and the overall Pacific campaign. Don't be put off though, despite its partial success as an engaging listen, there is a wealth of insight and understanding to be found.
As the author intended I have come away with a reappraisal of the significance and success of a number of commanders that I did not have before, first of all Nimitz and particularly in this book Spruance whose quiet effectiveness has been over shadowed by that natural warrior Halsey. Too often the big noises like MacArthur and Patton, and Clarke undeservedly won far too high a National stature their military record did not entirely match. MacArthur, deserved the gratitude for his handling of the occupation of Japan, and its rebirth, and later for Inchon but his own nature brought him down in the end.

In the end I think this ought to have been 2 or more books because at times the is a definite sense of needing to gallop suddenly onwards on far too many occassions. I appreciate the dilemma the author faced but I felt too often distracted by jumping too far, by losing the sense of momentum and grind. When focused the book matched the involving nature of the earlier works, the ground pounding stories to the tactical and strategic difficulties and choices faced by commander of both sides. The ghastly human cost was portrayed, as effectively as ever.
It suffered from The Game of Thrones effect, of too many stories, each engaging but leaves you hanging when it jumps away for long periods, hence a sense of dissatisfaction.

I am glad I did no have to hear the occassional dismssive remarks about the British and Churchill in particular that very lightly peppered the Guadalcanal book, Marshall... thought no... did no wrong? No second guessing at all !! it's interesting yet rarely examined that the quality of USMC over US Army training was unquestionably a laurel for the USMC and a scandal for the Army even given the difficulties of up scaling. There were far too many stories of replacements showing up at the Bulge who never even fired a rifle !! ... ahh I digress terribly, sorry.
You will note that I have only talked so far about the effect, the style and manner of writing but not about detail historical accuracy and this might seem odd giving this is a history book. I can not tell you whether the history is true or accurate or balanced, it seems so to me as far as any book can be. I am not a researcher, just an avid reader of military history.
I can say that I do not regret purchasing this book and look forward to the author's next, that the reading was ok and did not as some audio books have make me annoyed at the narrator. I am always grateful for an unabridged book.
Perhaps my gripes are from too high expectation after the previous 2 master works, and their naturally gripping stories, wreathed in smoke and dark night, breath held on quiet waters, oppressive humid fetid jungle, sudden death from the sun, humanity stretched thin. ....


P.S.
Mr Hornfischer books deserve any ones time and patience and I do hope, impatiently, for more.
I would particularly like to see him bring such a detailed and humane examination to a book on the full story of the Silent Service in the Pacific. (Both sides of course).
There is a space for such, the individual boats, crews and operations; the tactical and strategic over views; technology; service politics and much more, all in one place would find a large ready audience.

There is so much in this book that an equally long and detail review is the only way to do it true justice and I haven't done so, for which I apologise. For instance I haven't mentioned the large finned spherical container in the room nor the story of the dilemma of its use, or its means of deployment. I cannot personally assess the validity of the portrayed image of Mr Paul Tibbits but I found it all informative, compelling and balanced.

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3 people found this helpful

Very good if rushed account

Any additional comments?

I can only agree with the other reviews of this audio book that the author would have been better served making this work into two or three volumes. Important battles are covered but not in any great depth.

That is not to say that this is not a good book and I look forward to reading it again

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Excellent

A captivating and thorough account of the climax of the US pacific campaign. Provides fascinating insight into the mentality of the Japanese army and people pre and post surrender.

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great listen

fantastic potted history of the Pacific war from 44 until its conclusion in 45. brilliantly well written and read.

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just amazing

I have listened to this at work along at night cleaning and security I can say I thought I knew a lot about the Pacific war but after listening to this book i now know just how little that was.
this is my second book from Hornfisher and I still have two to go. This lad is top class and is only a shame I can't listen to more of his great work due to his passing.
great reading too I felt he did the author prod with no infection out of place.

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Pedestrian and lazy

Nothing new here.
Not a naval history. Sequences of stock anecdotes.
No analytical discussion of broad or narrow themes.
Lazy journalism.

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1 person found this helpful