Atlantic

Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms,and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories

By: Simon Winchester

Narrated by: Simon Winchester

Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

From best-selling author Simon Winchester comes the immense and thrilling story of the world's most mysterious and breathtaking natural wonder: the Atlantic Ocean.

Atlantic is a biography of a tremendous space that has been central to the ambitions of explorers, scientists, and warriors, and continues to affect profoundly our character, attitudes, and dreams. Spanning the ocean's story, from its geological origins to the age of exploration, from World War II battles to today's struggles with pollution and over-fishing, Winchester's narrative is epic, intimate, and awe inspiring.

Until a thousand years ago, few humans ventured into the Atlantic or imagined traversing its vast infinity. But once the first daring mariners successfully navigated to its far shores - whether they were Vikings, the Irish, the Basques, John Cabot, or Christopher Columbus in the north, or the Portuguese and the Spanish in the south - the Atlantic swiftly evolved in the world's growing consciousness of itself as an enclosed body of water. Soon it became the fulcrum of Western civilization. More than a mere history, Atlantic is an unforgettable journey of unprecedented scope by one of the most gifted writers in the English language.

©2010 Simon Winchester (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers

Well Done

This book is narrated superbly & I enjoyed learning about the history of The Atlantic Ocean.

Great Author

Simon tells amazing stories and narrates his stories extremely well. I highly recommend all of his books.

No Movie Here!

The mark of a great historical book is that there is no chance the dimwits in Hollywood will make a movie out of it. This book fits that bill, in a good way. Broad and in depth, the author covers the subject in an original way. As he does so well, in his other books, he makes the approach personal. From his own prospective, the author brings to life the myriad of characters within the story of this seemly inanimate geological feature. His narration is easy to listen to while being interesting and, dare I say, compelling.

More of, brilliant, same.

Simon Winchester once again charms with an inspired framework and ever lilting tongue, wrapping the deep history of the Atlantic Ocean in beautiful language, personal narrative and a sprinkling of Kiplingesque turns of phrase. My only disappointment is that Winchester occasionally speaks with undue authoritative confidence about some ‘facts’ of history and science, without putting them in their rightfully muddied and complex context.

Another great Simon Winchester book.

I first became acquainted with Simon Winchester when I listened to him read his book Krakatoa several years ago. Since that time, I think I've enjoyed all of his audio book presentations. Atlantic is one of the best.

Many of his works have a geology story associated with them - and the connections between geology the subject of the book are fascinating. He has a gift for sharing insights about phenomena that leave the listener wondering - "I never knew that - why haven't I heard that before".

I've grown to love Simon Winchester's writing style - wrapping a thought in layers of adjectives to create a rich, thought-provoking visual picture of a concept he is teaching.

I really like the fact that this author reads his own works. His reading performance is wonderful and I never tire of hearing his personable, authentic and empathetic voice.

Atlantic weaves a fascinating story from the ocean's creation to its exploration and plundering by mankind. Simon Winchester explores the role of the Atlantic ocean in history and speculates about its future.

Take the opportunity to listen to this book, or any of Simon Winchester's other well-reseached books to learn much from this master teacher.

Simply Spectacular

A very enjoyable several hours! Be prepared for solid history, science and riveting tales of the sea.

more stuff than story

S. Winchester has a roster of spell-binding renderings of tales centered around water. This is not one of them. The latter portions of Atlantic are more woven than the earlier, but this well-researched walk through the millions of years of Atlantic Ocean events streggles for linking transitions and bridges of connection between eras. The audio production is excellent; his delivery does not disappoint.

Another Masterpiece by Simon Winchester!

Where does Atlantic rank among all the audiobooks you???ve listened to so far?

This book is easily among the 10 best audiobooks I own.

What did you like best about this story?

Simon Winchester tells a story like no one else writing today. His classical education simply sparkles in this book. He looks at the history and geography of an entire ocean and asks questions no one else would think of, and then goes on to answer them using the old oral tradition of true storytelling.

Any additional comments?

If you're not farmilliar with Simon Winchester, this is a good book to read as an introduction to his work. Atlantic will surprise you with how interesting a subject can be, when most of us would simply think of it as an ocean that we learned all we needed to know about years ago. If you don't purchase this book, do try something by Simon Winchester. You'll be glad you did.

Fascinating overview of the Atlantic

I believe Simon Winchester can make any historical subject interesting. To have him read his own prose makes it even more special.

Nice history from a confused author

The book has wonderful stories of ancient histories revolving around the Atlantic ocean. Unfortunately the author uses the last part to rail about climate change with absolutely no knowledge of the subject except to just repeat the United Nations LIE concerning the climate. If he was truly an intelligent human being he would know, SCIENCE does not deal in consensus. Only bought and paid for "science" by world governments plays this word game to alarm the populous so that they can have an excuse to destroy western civilization and obtain complete control over their people.
As H.L. Mencken once said, "The whole aim of Practical Politics is to keep the populace scared (and hence clamoring to be saved), by an endless series of HOBGOBLINS, most of them Imaginary!"
You would think supposedly intelligent people like Simon Winchester would be aware of that FACT and wouldn't fall victim to what is obviously PROPAGANDA against CHEAP ENERGY!!

PS: If you read this review then congratulations Amazon for not acting like what you claim to hate and actually supporting Free Speech instead of the "selective" free speech that many in the world are trying to achieve.