Customer Reviews

The Jennifer Project

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have read a number of books in this genre and I rate three of the most important ones in this order: Three stars to "The Jennifer Project", four stars to "A Matter of risk", and 4.5 stars to "Blind Man's Bluff". Blind Man's authors had the distinct advantage of researching and writing their book well after the cold war was over and people were more willing to talk. "Spy Sub" should receive an honorable mention since it deals somewhat with this mission but only if you have read at least one of the other three can you piece together what Spy's author is saying about the overall search. Conclusion: Read at least two if not all books mentioned and certainly read "Blind Man's Bluff" if you want a more complete picture. "The Jennifer Project" is definitely a good read and worth the effort to obtain it.

A so-so mix of fact and speculation with a lot of errors. This, and most books about the recovery of the K-129 have been made obsolete by the public the release of project details, photos and videos of the operation. The definitive work on the project is Project Azorian: The CIA and the Raising of K-129 by Norman Polmar. There's also an excellent documentary, Project Azorian: The CIA and the Raising of the K-129, which has interviews with key participants and actual videos of the raising of the K-129.

I was very disappointed in this book. While many details are known to be true, there are equally many where the author has simply made up something, and presumed to be true if it was not denied. Not exactly the mark of great writing. The author would have been better off just sticking to the facts.

He also makes basic mistakes such as claiming the DEW line (Distant Early Warning Line in Northern Canada) to be unmanned (I know two people personally who were part of the group who manned it, as I used to live in Inuvik, NWT, Canada). The new North Early Warning System is considered to be unmanned, and this was only completed in the late 80's, early 90's.

There are much better books out there, such as 'Blind Man's Bluff' where the authors try scrupulously to present only the facts.

I had heard about this book some time ago while watching a documentary on television about sub warfare and the Cold War. Naturally, I kept this book in mind. I finally found it at a thrift store and paid $1 for it.

I felt that the author skimmed over the entire matter and wrote about the fetching of the submarine at a "high level" - meaning not enough real meat and details to be that interesting. I think that some of the digressions about the CIA didn't really help. I also felt that the author did not go into too much detail about how Hughes was involved with the ship.

Most of the book dealt with the recovery of the submarine. I would have preferred more technical details. But, at only about 170 pages, it is worth a read only if you find a deal like I did. In retrospect, I wouldn't pay full price for this book.

OK, I'll admit it. I'm a geek...I wanted to know more of the technical details. This was roughly what you'd get from a long series of NY Times articles.

The Jeniffer Project tells, documentary-style, of the most difficult deep-sea salvage mission of all time, the CIA's effort to raise a Russian missile submarine that sank 750 miles northwest of Hawaii in 1968. Political infighting between the White House, the Pentagon, and a few select members of Congress changed a mission that was to be accompolished by small remote submarines (ala Bob Ballard/Titanic) to one which spent in excess of $200 million dollars to research, design, and built the Glomar Explorer, a one-of-a-kind salvage ship under the cover story that it was to be used by Howard Hughes to mine the world's oceans. Other books since the origional 1977 publication have shed more light on the story ("Spy Sub" & "Blind Man's Bluff" for example) of how involved the salvage mission really was. Most reports say the mission was a failure, and only part of the submarine was recovered. But one question has yet to be answered: If the submarine was to be brought up in one piece, as nearly every story written about it has stated, how then does one pull a 300+ foot-long sub up through an opening of 199 feet, which was the length of the "moon pool" in the bottom of the Glomar Explorer. A very good docu-story.

This book is sooooo poorly written, it defies normal standards for authors. It reminds me of the junk i would turn in at the last minute when i was in 9th grade english class, only i would not be proud of it. However, there is an upside to this - one can easily read the entire book in one day.

Burleson, besides (poorly) attempting to cover the actual story at hand, also launches into sheer bravado, taking upon himself the task of documenting the history of the CIA, as well as other off-topic subjects that a novice such as himself would really be better off not trying at all. These tangential topics don't belong in the book, and are better covered elsewhere. It's quite apparent that he has no real writing experience.

There are also more severe problems, including his nasty habit of raw speculation (just because other possibilities have either been ignored or deliberately downplayed). Statements are constantly repeated, it is difficult to follow the timeframe of the book, and logistically passages are out of place relative to one another. There are even spelling and grammar errors throughout the work.

However, the actual story that he is attempting to relay is so fascinating by itself that the book does keep you reading, through no merits of the author. There's the very real problem that there is only one other book out there that covers this epic tale, so if you are interested in reading about the Jennifer Project, this is about all that's out there. My advice - get it out of the library and save yourself ten bucks.

This book is a literature search with speculation. The literature referenced is wildly speculative.

The Jennifer Project tells the whole story. It's the only source I've located that takes the project from the initial legal issues, which almost killed it, through the actual sub recovery and the subsequent exposure of the mission. How he got all this info must be a tale in itself.

I was on the crew of the Glomar Explorer but I also agreed not to dilvulge details. This is a poorly written book but does have some truth in it. I would like to know how he got away with printing it.