Dark Waters, Starry Skies

The Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign, March–October 1943

By: Jeffrey Cox

Narrated by: John Chancer

Length: 31 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Esteemed Pacific War historian Jeffrey Cox has produced a fast-paced and absorbing read of the crucial New Georgia phase of the Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign during the Pacific War.

Thousands of miles from friendly ports, the US Navy had finally managed to complete the capture of Guadalcanal from the Japanese in early 1943. Now the Allies sought to keep the offensive momentum won at such a high cost. This is the central plotline running through this page-turning history beginning with the Japanese Operation I-Go and the American ambush of Admiral Yamamoto and continuing on to the Allied invasion of New Georgia, northwest of Guadalcanal in the middle of the Solomon Islands and the location of a major Japanese base. Determined not to repeat their mistakes at Guadalcanal, the Allies nonetheless faltered in their continuing efforts to roll back the Japanese land, air and naval forces.

Using first-hand accounts from both sides, this book vividly recreates all the terror and drama of the nighttime naval battles during this phase of the Solomons campaign and the ferocious firestorm many Marines faced as they disembarked from their landing craft. The reader is transported to the bridge to stand alongside Admiral Walden Ainsworth as he sails to stop another Japanese reinforcement convoy for New Georgia, and vividly feels the fear of an 18-year-old Marine as he fights for survival against a weakened but still determined enemy.

Dark Waters, Starry Skies is an engrossing history which weaves together strategy and tactics with a blow-by-blow account of every battle at a vital point in the Pacific War that has not been analyzed in this level of detail before.

©2023 Jeffrey Cox (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Wordy description of post-Guadalcanal campaigns

Narration is clear, varied, well done.

This is a thorough, meticulous description of land, air, and sea battles following the Guadalcanal campaign. As such it fills in important gaps in the telling of post Guadalcanal Solomon battles. Few books focus on this time period. There is much to learn from this important well explained, exciting contribution to understanding WW2 war in the south-western pacific.

However, it is also wordy and replete with cumbersome identifications of general officers and unit designations.

It is best to have a map in hand while listening. Otherwise, it is too difficult to follow battle locations and sequences.

Recommended for scholars and devoted WW2 enthusiasts.

Another Homerun!

I was so pleased to see this book come out. Always appreciate the author’s depth of story detail while keeping us within reach of the bigger picture. What sets the author apart is the willingness to take on the story of the Solomons which is usually glossed over by other authors after Guadalcanal. I also appreciate the witt and sarcasm. I hope we have more books from the author.

well done as usual

he continues to meet the standard as a military history author. while also being entertaining to read (listen) the narrator no doubt helps.

great but way too much alliteration...

As detailed as his other two WW2 histories, but this edition has an annoyingly aggravating amount of alliteration, after which I need an avalanche of Advil.

Good listening!

I enjoyed the book, it covers much of period of the pacific war that many other sources just ignore. Thank you!

Lots of facial material

I liked the book overall but some of the occrances were overlapping and sometimes confusing to follow

tremendous

Nobody Does this subject better. Cox always manages to tell the whole gripping story flawlessly

Outstanding Storytelling

The book begins and ends with a little-known atrocity, and it grips you from the start. I enjoyed the way the author, and the narrator, combine a conversational tone with historical facts and detail. He can be cracking wise with an inside joke (No, I will not give spoilers...) and then tell you precisely how many planes, of what type and from which air group are about to rain down havoc. As one reviewer pointed out, there are some things that repeat, but i did not feel they broke teh flow of the narrative. I saw them as more for emphasis, or repeated to then take you into greater depth.

My only complaint is one I often have with Audible works of history - A lack of maps. I saw in the Table of Contents on Amazon that there are "Plates" in the physical book. I would love to be able to see them, and, as someone who does most of his Audible listening on his iPhone, a PDF is very handy.

I highly recommend this book, and I will be reaching out to read others by this author, and by this narrator. Mr. Chancer's performance was engaging, emphatic and well-paced. I listened at 1.4x speed (My usual choice) and it sounded great.

Amazing detail and a great book to listen to.

The amount time spent on research for this book it took to write and then to publish has to be a very large number.
Great!!

Absolutely a Master Piece Work

I listened to the entire 31 hours and 15 minutes of this book. I love books that give the story from all sides, military and civilian involved in the conflict. This book has everything from Japanese aircraft fighting in the air to watching American bombers raiding their airfields. The very brutal naval battles are very interesting and don’t stop with the sinking of a ship but follow the story of the survivors. Highly recommend this book.