Thirteen Lessons that Saved Thirteen Lives

The Thai Cave Rescue

By: John Volanthen

Narrated by: John Volanthen

Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

In this first-hand account, John Volanthen reveals how he pushed the limits of human endurance in the life-or-death mission to rescue the Thai youth soccer team trapped in the flooded cave.

The world held its breath in 2018 when the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach went missing deep underground in the Tham Luang cave complex in northern Thailand. They had been stranded by sudden, continuous monsoon rains while exploring the caves after practice.

With torrential rain pouring down and the waters still on the rise, an army of rescue teams and equipment was deployed, including Thai Navy SEALs, a US Air Force special tactics squadron, police sniffer dogs, drones and robots. But it was British cave diver John Volanthen and his partner, Rick Stanton, who were first to reach the stranded team and who played a key role in their ultimate rescue.

Each chapter of Thirteen Lessons that Saved Thirteen Lives tells one part of the edge-of-your-seat mission from Tham Luang but also imparts a life lesson, gleaned from John's previous rescues and record-breaking cave dives, that can be applied to everyday obstacles and challenges.

©2021 Quarto Publishing plc.; text copyright 2021 by Comparket Limited (P)2021 Tantor

High valued life lessons woven into rescue retell.

Purchased this Audio to hear the view point of one of the key rescuers. As a bonus, this real life story contains advice that can help me reach my own personal goals. This book is like having one of the heroes sit down with you over an entire day reliving the event and is narrated beautifully. I just finished it and look forward to giving it another listen.

unbelievable!! true heroes all

Unbelievable how many things had to go right for this to occur. Strong minds with cool calm and collected planning and the nerve to pull it off

Interesting, healthy advice

The book is well written and well narrated. Thank you for sharing your Wisdom John!

outstanding!

John
I do hope you receive these reviews. If only to accept the beautiful impact of this powerful story, these trying and miraculous moments of time you and many others co-authored, but also to accept the gift of your writing about this experience.
Events such as these are guided and anchored by discipline, structure and practice. Your learnings that shaped how you did your best to show up in Thailand are so very transferable no matter what deep diving another human is attempting to do.
thank you for sharing so vulnerability and honestly your story! I have been blessed to hear it, a person in California who is terrified of water, but not terrified to dive deeply into the meaning of things as a therapist and a healer.
Well done

So excellent!

Although a great deal of personal and professional background are provided, the necessity is clear as the story unfolds. What person could step into an unfortunate, unbelievable challenge and add smart, doable solutions? What a team!!

Satisfying Cocktail of Survival, Rescue, & Advice

This was really good. I just finished his diving partner's book and then picked up this one because I wanted more of that delicious combo between survival (really, all cave-diving is survival. There's like a million ways that you can kill yourself if you're not a stickler for ritual and detail, apparently), rescue, and problem-solving.

The cool thing here is it's written totally unlike a survival story. I had no idea, though I should have, that this was written as a type of of self-help book. I wouldn't have thought about making his lessons of cave-diving and rescue into a self-help book, but he really made it come together. He actually had some good, not-popular advice too, and I'm not new to the self-help/advice genre.

The author reads it, so at first it comes off as a little dry, like someone who's medium is normally power-point presentations. But he actually does a good job, and it's read at a good pace. You get used to the lack of broader inflection normally used in this genre. I get bored by some readers and will quit when a reader is just too boring or not my style, and at no point did I think that he wasn't doing a good enough job to keep going, and the fact that it was actually the author does make me want to give props.

The book was very interesting, and went by very quickly, leaving me wanting more. 5 stars.

Disappointing, a little boring

I had high hopes for a recounting in detail of the infamous Thai cave rescue and nothing but admiration for the cave divers that pulled it off. A tremendous feat of prowess and bravery but this book doesn't really elaborate on the actual rescue. So Rick and his partner were very deliberate about shunning all publicity or taking credit for their actions. That was why when I saw the book I was surprised but I guess that in order for John to justify writing it he had to drape it in the guise of a self-help book that way he could avoid any self agrandizement, even though he does tout his experience and knowledge a good deal. He doesn't really go into much deatil about the rescue, a little but not what you'd expect or hope for. I'm going to read the Aquanaut by Rick Stanton and hope that is more satisfying. This book was just boring to me.