The Guns of Navarone

By: Alistair MacLean

Narrated by: Jonathan Oliver

Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

The classic World War II thriller from the acclaimed master of action and suspense.

Twelve hundred British soldiers isolated on the small island of Kheros off the Turkish coast, waiting to die. Twelve hundred lives in jeopardy, lives that could be saved if only the guns could be silenced. The guns of Navarone, vigilant, savage and catastrophically accurate. Navarone itself, grim bastion of narrow straits manned by a mixed garrison of Germans and Italians, an apparently impregnable iron fortress. To Captain Keith Mallory, skilled saboteur, trained mountaineer, fell the task of leading the small party detailed to scale the vast, impossible precipice of Navarone and to blow up the guns. The Guns of Navarone is the story of that mission, the tale of a calculated risk taken in the time of war....

©1957 Alistair MacLean (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic Reviews

"Could hardly be bettered." ( Sunday Times)
"Its strength comes from the speed of its narrative, its vivid creation of tensions and its power in handling descriptions of action." ( Evening Standard)
"Action sustained at a high pitch. From the outset there is a feeling of suspense: a problem that can only be solved by action involving danger and demanding courage...an insistently gripping tale." ( Scotsman)

Better Than Movie

I have seen the movie numerous times, but had never read the book before. While the movie is partially true to the book, I found the book to be much better and the narrator good for this story.

good movie...better book

great performance worth listening to again in the future over a drink, next to a fire

wonderful reading!

the guns of navarone is a classic, but I didn't realise how well it suited being read out loud. there are lots of conversations and the reader does a brilliant job with these.

really good book

this is the first time that I've read anything from Alistair McCain. I found the story riveting up to the last part of it and it kind of ended abruptly in my opinion but other than that it was a really good story and I would highly recommend the book

One of Maclean's best

I enjoyed this book immensely. It brought back great memories of the first time I enjoyed this author's work. I recommend the others as well. Great performance by the narrator also.

amazing and adventurous!

classic adventure tale! so good. nothing better then blowing up some Nazi's. highly recommended for all who like the genre.

Hins of Navarone

We enjoyed The Guns of Navarone and it kept the miles flying by. Good character voices.

Another good 'read"

Alistair Maclean movies are among my favorites, but it's interesting how they are so different from the books - and often so disappointing; I've said many times that I prefer to watch a movie first and THEN read the book ... because there's so much MORE to the book. So though I see familiar actors in my head, the novel's more to my liking.
A stirring tale, and an exemplary narrator! Glad to see there were more of his titles on Audible; looking forward to listening to the next ones.

Great Story

Alistair MacLean is a master storyteller. Plot, characters, settings, are all brilliantly interwoven in this epic tale. Jonathan Oliver's narration is so wonderful to listen to, that he allows the listener to really feel immersed in the action.

amazing 👏

great story and performance. I enjoyed the book more than the movie which says alot I think because the movie is one of the best.

Nice to see, painful to listen ?

Where does The Guns of Navarone rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Having seen the movie and listened to the abridged cassette (?), read by Patrick Allen, in my teens it was a pleasant surprise to find a full unabridged version available on Audible. The story, although written in 1957 is still a great roller coaster ride and thoroughly enjoyable. A great piece of WWII fiction.

Would you be willing to try another one of Jonathan Oliver’s performances?

Oliver is good at the straight forward narrative parts. He struggles with accents and it really shows here. For example, Andrea, pronounced as An-drey-ah to me and most greeks is pronounced as And-rea, much like your great aunt, and I found myselt constantly correcting him!
Some of the german and greek accents are cringeworthy and the New Zealander, Mallory, comes across as rather.... wet. Miller was equally painful and Brown tolerable.

Oliver also struggles with moving between the accents and there are a number of overly long pauses in the diagloue. and also one horrendous edit (or my download glitched) within the first couple of hours. I think the director/producers have something to answer to here, and they let MacLean down here.

I nearly put it down (and that would have been the first time for any audible book) because of the accents in the narration, but persevered to the end. It would appear that Oliver is going to be the voice for this round of releases on MacLean's stories and therefore works like, When Eight Bells Toll, could play more to his strengths, rather than accentuate (bad pun) his weaknesses.

BRILLIANT much better than the film by far.

excellectly read.voices charaterised superbly ... Could not stop listening. Cant wait to hrar gorce 10, my next download

An all time classic.

Arguably the best work from the Thriller Writers Thriller Writer! The pace, detail and suspense never falter!

One weak point

A good read it there is a single hut large weak point and that is the character of the lead saboteur, Mallory, which does not convince. Too weak, too indecisive. Time and again he is saved by the men he has been sent to lead. Ironically Maclean is just recreating the character of Capt Valery from his first novel HMS Ulysses who was altogether more realistic.

Horrible Listen

Good story spoilt by the narration. Would have preferred it just read rather then all the attempted accents. Gave up on it in the end.

Didn’t live up to the memories

Perhaps it is a mistake to revisit books I enjoyed in my uncritical teens.

I read a lot of MacLean way back then but now I find his style cloying in its over-use of superlatives. Now, too, I find the attitudes and responses of the wartime soldiers quite incredible - for example, the character who, hearing his team leader plan an ambush of an approaching group of enemies in a kill-or-be-killed situation, protests “You can’t do that. It would be murder!”

The only characters that really came to life for me were Andrea and the fearful young Lieutenant, with Louki as a good runner-up. Mallory, the principal character, was given to too much maundering introspection for a man leading a dangerous act of sabotage.

I wasn’t enamoured of the narrator on this occasion. At times there seems to be over long gaps followed by a gabble of words, which was distracting. I disliked intensely the accent given to Miller, the American, and like another reviewer I found myself constantly correcting the narrator’s pronunciation of Andrea’s name.

Overall this recording of this book failed to draw me in.

Still one of the best

Great storyline with a narrator who always brings the tales of wartime exploits to vivid life.

High tension adventure story'.

A very good adventure story, well written and expertly told a very pleasant way to have the full range of the books secrets read out while relaxing. At 80. I find it better than the TV.
Please keep these storied coming

Excellent Listen

I watched the film a few days ago and enjoyed it. Then I purchased the unabridged book and throughly enjoyed much more than the film.

Long, but a classic tale, well told

Wonderful narration. Believable story line. Engaging characters. It may be an old novel but it's a good listen.