• The Taking of K-129

  • How the CIA Used Howard Hughes to Steal a Russian Sub in the Most Daring Covert Operation in History
  • By: Josh Dean
  • Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
  • Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (982 ratings)

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The Taking of K-129  By  cover art

The Taking of K-129

By: Josh Dean
Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
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Publisher's summary

An incredible true tale of espionage and engineering set at the height of the Cold War - a mix between The Hunt for Red October and Argo - about how the CIA, the US Navy, and America's most eccentric mogul spent six years and nearly a billion dollars to steal the nuclear-armed Soviet submarine K-129 after it had sunk to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, all while the Russians were watching.

In the early hours of February 25, 1968, a Russian submarine armed with three nuclear ballistic missiles set sail from its base in Siberia on a routine combat patrol to Hawaii. Then it vanished.

As the Soviet navy searched in vain for the lost vessel, a small, highly classified American operation using sophisticated deep-sea spy equipment found it - wrecked on the sea floor at a depth of 16,800 feet, far beyond the capabilities of any salvage that existed. But the potential intelligence assets onboard the ship - the nuclear warheads, battle orders, and cryptological machines - justified going to extreme lengths to find a way to raise the submarine.

So began Project Azorian, a top-secret mission that took six years, cost an estimated $800 million, and would become the largest and most daring covert operation in CIA history.

After the US Navy declared retrieving the sub "impossible", the mission fell to the CIA's burgeoning Directorate of Science and Technology, the little-known division responsible for the legendary U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird spy planes. Working with Global Marine Systems, the country's foremost maker of exotic, deep-sea drilling vessels, the CIA commissioned the most expensive ship ever built and told the world that it belonged to the reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, who would use the mammoth ship to mine rare minerals from the ocean floor. In reality, a complex network of spies, scientists, and politicians attempted a project even crazier than Hughes' reputation: raising the sub directly under the watchful eyes of the Russians.

The Taking of K-129 is a riveting, almost unbelievable true-life tale of military history, engineering genius, and high-stakes spy craft set during the height of the Cold War, when nuclear annihilation was a constant fear and the opportunity to gain even the slightest advantage over your enemy was worth massive risk.

©2017 Josh Dean (P)2017 Penguin Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

“It’s a complicated affair, but Dean relates it simply and completely. From undersea searches to maritime architecture to spy agency intrigue, the author excels at making complex operations understandable to the layman… The Taking of K-129 is a worthwhile addition to the shelves of military history buffs, nautical enthusiasts and anyone who enjoys a well-told story.” (USA Today)

“The stellar research Dean uses to tell this captivating tale includes declassified primary documents, personal journals, and autobiographies...Recommended for fans of naval history, marine engineering, ocean mining, and spy stories.” (Library Journal)

“Josh Dean has a gift for unearthing remarkable stories lost to history, and in The Taking of K-129 he has uncovered perhaps the most remarkable one of all - a story replete with spies and engineering marvels and a secret drama unfolding thousands of feet beneath the sea. Brilliantly researched and beautifully written, this is a book you can't put down.” (David Grann, New York Times best-selling author of Killers of the Flower Moon)

What listeners say about The Taking of K-129

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One of the great stories in history

this is a really good luck at an interesting chapter in American history. the effort to raise the sub was truly massive and this look at it explore parts of the story the history channels special left out.

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8 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars

The audio is terrible.

The end of every sentence is cut short and muted. Then a pause, then the next sentence. I have to return it. I'd love to hear it if it was better.

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7 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Engaging story, unfortunately. . .

the halting narration is very annoying. This person should not be allowed to narrate in my opinion. As I listen to more books I realize how much the narration plays in capturing the listener which is unfortunate given that this is one of the most brilliant lessons in art of spy craft.

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7 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book, awful narration

The story is great, and the broad knowledge and depth of research from the author is apparent. However, the brusque and staccato feel of the narration made the experience so bad I wanted to stop listening at times. It felt like the narrator was adding commas and question marks where they didn’t belong, and this really detracted from the listening experience. When I started listening I had to check my settings to see if there was an issue with my playback speed.

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Story All the Way Around

I had always heard about the Glomar Explorer but really had no idea what actually happened. This book reads like a Tom Clancy novel. You won't be disappointed.

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Very Interesting Read

This book takes a deep dive into the most audacious intelligence operation of the Cold War. The detail is impressive and the writing keeps you wanting more. I really enjoyed this story.

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6 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Great story but the narration distracts the listener

Good story, but the narration style is a bit jerky and distracts from the story

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5 people found this helpful

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Great Story, amazing

This is an amazing story. This is what exceptional American’s can do when needed. Thanks to all who help protect us and have to keep secrets and make huge sacrifices.

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5 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Loved this book Very well researched, good tech content excellent narration. Highly recommend to history buffs

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A fascinating covert operation

On a bumper sticker: The Soviet Submarine K-129 sinks in very deep water. The CIA decides to try and recover the sub, enlisting Howard Hughes to provide cover for construction of a huge high tech ship to lower a giant claw down to the sub to grab it and pull it up to the ship.

I'm a student (and former participant) of the Cold War, I enjoyed this book a lot. I knew the outline of the Glomar Explorer story, but few of the details.

This book fills in the details. Over the course of Project Azorian many people were involved, although only a handful had full knowledge of the purpose of the Explorer.

The author goes into detail explaining how the CIA managed to keep this four year program under wraps, despite many security close calls. In retrospect it is amazing that the program was not made public until after the mission was over.

This is a nice long book and one gets to really know the principal players, both human and mechanical.

Neil Hellegers does a good job narrating the book, he does have a kind of cadence of reading a sentence, pausing and the reading another sentence.

I did notice what I think was a production flaw in first few chapters. I think the sound engineer got a little aggressive in his use of compression. When Hellegers pauses, as he often does, the sound level drops to about zero. This gives a kind of stuttering effect. Audio books are supposed to have a 'room tone' during pauses that keep the audio flow nice an smooth. This problem was corrected after the first couple of chapters.

Highly recommended.

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5 people found this helpful