Red November: Inside the Secret U.S.-Soviet Submarine War

This 2 part book really is in two parts. The first part covers the beginning of the nuclear age, and covers some, though not nearly all, of the espionage stories detailed more completely in Sherry Sontag's excellent "Blind Man's Bluff". There is an interesting and significant portion of this that talks about how we figured out how to track the Soviet subs by their transmissions.

Then the second part segues into how subs helped the American side during the Cuban Missile crisis and the Cold War, including the Jennifer Project. There are some excellent stories, and a few gripping moments, but mostly it isn't a compelling, edge of your seat read. If you want to be informed, get this book. If you are looking to be entertained, there are better ones.

I enjoyed this book very much. The author talks about history that is years old but is just now available for the public to read. I enjoyed the technical terms and all the explanations.

I expected this book to be an in-depth look at the cold war submarine actions between the USA and USSR. I was looking for something that explained the significance of these warships and the crews that manned the in the outcome of the cold war. I'm also an engineer, so I was interested in how technological developments in the subs on both sides impacted the arms race. This book didn't really do any of these things, at least not in modern terms. Red November focuses mostly on the Cuban missile crisis and doesn't really discuss any events from the 80's or early 90's.

Red November tells stories from the perspective of the submariners who lived through the events. The author recounts these stories by recreating the events through the dialog of the people who were there. This is a good way of telling the story, but does not leave much room for analysis of the significance of the events that were going on around the characters.

The narrator did a good job. He was entertaining and I never got bored with his performance. The only criticism I have with is performance is that he had some issues properly pronouncing some words and acronyms in the story.

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

The action parts were very intriguing. You would think you were in a Tom Clancy thriller very exciting. The majority of the book is the development of the advancements of science in detecting of submarines. This book contains some great details in history of the Cold War between Russia and the United States, and some accidents that kept us from nuclear destruction. A really good listen if you like history.

Well-written and exciting history of submarine warfare during the Cold War. Describes how Soviet sub commanders during the Cuban missile crisis came a lot closer to firing nuclear torpedoes than we all thought. (Scary!) Many other exciting events are described. If you are former Navy, you will like this book. If you are a submariner or ASW sailor or airman, you will love it! The reader is good, but mispronounces several important geographic names that will grate on you if you are former Navy. For example, Sasebo, Japan, is pronounced “SAS-i-bo”, not “sas-SAY-bo”, and its not “mar-RAY” island in Northern California, but Mare Island, as in the name of a female horse. There are other glaring mispronounciations. (Why don’t producers makes sure their readers have a pronunciation key to the names used in a book?) Aside from that, the book is well worth the price.

Wove the technology and events (both in the subs and political) together to make a good story.

Information on the use of technology that I was not aware of previously.

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No

I am reasonably new to this format, but with a littlle limited experience, I do have some comments.

Finally realizing what Walker's treachery had cost us.

Authentic, military, historic.

It was called a "Cold War" but real people died. Good people - Brave people!

Know I can see more clearly; Where we were and what we were doing.

Having been enthralled with Blind Man's Bluff from start to finish, I was hoping Red November would give more of the same. But it just doesnt measure up. This book recalls the facts, describes the event, but forgets to tell the story.

Excellent narration and a fine story combined to provide a great listening experience. The story captivated me while listening and made me look forward to my next quiet moment. It was a great way to learn a bit about our history while being treated to an entertaining experience.