Red November

Inside the Secret U.S.-Soviet Submarine War

By: W. Craig Reed

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Red November is filled with hair-raising, behind-the-scenes stories that take you deep beneath the surface and into the action of the Cold War.

Few know how close the world has come to annihilation better than the warriors who served America during the tense, 45-year struggle known as the Cold War. Yet for decades, their work has remained shrouded in secrecy. Now, in this riveting new history, W. Craig Reed, a former navy diver and fast-attack submariner, provides an eye-opening, pulse-pounding narrative of the underwater struggles and espionage operations between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. that brought us to the brink of nuclear war more than once.

Red November is filled with hair-raising, behind-the-scenes stories that take you deep beneath the surface and into the action during the entire Cold War period from 1946 through 1992. Reed served aboard submarines involved in espionage operations, and his father was a top military intelligence specialist intimately involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Reed is one of the first authors to obtain so many in-depth interviews with dozens of navy divers, espionage operatives, submariners, and government officials on both sides (including several Soviet submarine captains) about the most daring and decorated missions of the conflict, including top-secret Ivy Bells, Boresight, Bulls Eye, and Holystone operations.

Transcending traditional submarine, espionage, and Cold War accounts, Red November is an up-close examination of one of the most dangerous times in world history and an intimate look at the men and women who participated in our country’s longest and most expensive underwater war.

©2010 W. Craig Reed (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“If Tom Clancy had turned The Hunt for Red October into a nonfiction thriller, W. Craig Reed’s Red November might be the result. Here is the full-throttle and riveting story of espionage, secret missions, and the never-before-told tales of submariners on the front lines of a clandestine war. Not to be missed!” (James Rollins)

wow! this is the best narration I've ever heard

I haven't finished the book yet, but I love listening to the story between the Russians and the US during such a tense time. The narrator really brings the people to life by giving characters their own voices and accents. I'm about half way through and am loving it!

Interesting view of history

Fascinating look at the real stories of how the submarine war is fought every day during the Cold War.

Good listen

Interesting listen about the Cold War Submarine activity.
Narration is well done.
The story line (at least the part I took part in) is mostly accurate. The facts are there, just the order is out of whack in a couple of places.
I started this wondering if I would be able to finish it before I got disgusted and quit. To my surprise, I finished it in two days.

Where was the editor??

I purchased this book to learn more about the topic of submarines and their part in the Cold War. To that extent the book stays on topic but I am left with serious questions as to it's accuracy. There are so many errors in minor areas, i.e. while riding to meet with President Kennedy the author refers to "a dark, lowering sky in Washington, DC", but while meeting with the President he refers to rays of sunshine streaming into the White House windows?!!

The above minor error is indicative of at least a couple of dozen other similar errors though out the story. The problem with them is that it makes the technical and historical accuracy of the book questionable. I have absolutely no knowledge of submarines, their operation, or of the technology used to track them. I'm also in the dark with reference to the historical events involving submarines in the Cuban Missile crisis. My main reason for listening to this book was to gain ACCURATE knowledge in those areas, at the end I'm left with as many questions as answers.

The reviews of this book published in Amazon.com's website delve into technical difficulties in great detail. If you are listening to this book as a learning experience I urge you to read through those reviews.

All said, the book is interesting, held my attention, and stimulated further interest. So it certainly isn't all bad. Tom Weiner does a good job reading the book, especially since the writing style doesn't necessarily flow easily.

Important, surprising, chilling history.

As a child I lived through the Cuban missile crisis and thought I had learned a lot about it. Yet when you read how close we came to nuclear conflagration, it is just absolutely chilling. It could've gone the other way so easily, launched by the Soviet submarines.In a couple of cases very brave men stood in the way and stopped captains from launching missiles that would've destroyed a good chunk of the American fleet And most likely prompted the launch of American and Soviet missiles that may very well have destroyed the entire planet. I wish I was exaggerating. This is very important history to know.

Submarines

I really enjoyed this book. The world of submarines has been very enlightening. The book never lost my interest. A pleasure listening

Read it!

This was one of the most informative books I have read in awhile. Great book.

Real ... By a Man Who Was Really There!

By understanding where our world has come from, Craig Reed helps us see where it is headed. The sacrifice of our submariners, and their part in the Cold War, makes this an important listen for all. Whether you believe we live in a safer world, or one that is increasingly unstable, you will gain a greater appreciation for our warriors of the deep. You will also gain a greater respect for their foes.
Tom Weiner was an excellent pick for reading this book. His Russian accents simply add to Red November's credibility.

Great deep-dive technical book despite some flaws

This book shines in places but it somewhat requires that you've already been through Blind Man's Bluff, Taking of K129, Hunt for Red October and still want more. If that's you, then this is the book for you. The book focuses heavily on the people, engineers, and electronics used by submariners and the ships & planes that hunt them. You'll learn a lot about radar, sonar, radio, and burst transmitters - often in advanced levels of detail. I liked those parts a lot. I liked the book more than the sum of its parts. The reader needs to be ready to trudge through actual events told in a fact/fiction hybrid way which, for me, can be exhausting and boring.

I'm a guy that finds Cold War submarine stuff thrilling and fascinating - and this book almost broke me in a few places. The conversations portrayed in many of the book's chapters can't possibly have been recorded, so the line-by-line dialogue from exchanges between C.O.B's and sub captains is 100% makebelieve. With access to so many facts, and reliance on normal nonfiction storytelling elsewhere, I don't understand why the author decided to do this. He had to make up full, lengthy conversations that the author completely conjured up from nowhere. These are by far the worst parts of the book. They are not creatively written. Like this:
Captain Rattlesworth said, "xyz."
Derek Midsipper said, "xyyz."
Then the captain said, "xyyyz."
Derek said, "xyyyyz."
The Captain said, "xyyyyyz."
And it can go on and on this way which really drove me crazy. Thrown in too, you'll find dry comedy and stupid banter in some of these nonfictional exchanges. Many are mundane and feel like filler. Actually, only the exchanges concerning the Cuban Missile Crisis use this well. I'm suprised the editor let so much of this dialogue stay in the book.

Otherwise this book offers a lot of background to the Cuban Missile Crisis, taking of the Pueblo, Scorpion, Thresher, the incident that caused the K129, raising it, and many more tales of deep, dark mysterious submarine ops.

The best early part of the book actually set off my B.S. detector. There's a story about a sub that submerged to hide in the Black Sea sometime in the 1950's (I think). Once down, they report seeing a sunken city 300ft under the water, complete with buildings and a street they called Main Street. Even with the Web at my fingertips I couldn't verify this. I assumed something like this would be a huge archaeological mystery and known site. But I also know that the west coast of Europe is dotted with submerged city sites, so who knows?

Happy to have gotten the chance to learn a few new sub stories. This book has problems but I have way more problems. I enjoyed this book and I'd happily recommend it to the advanced submarine history buff.

Great book!!

I highly recommend this book. Lots of information in there that I did not know.