Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing & Captivating Book, April 27, 2005
What an amazing and captivating treat it was to read R. Cameron Cooke's new submarine book, "Pride Runs Deep."
As a military and navy history researcher, I truly enjoyed the book and the way Mr. Cooke pulled in multiple layers of submarine history. I especially enjoyed the references to the old S-boats in Manila.
One of the ways I measure a good book is - Can I put it down and walk away?
The answer for "Pride Runs Deep" was no! The character development was remarkable and made you cheer for the good guy and want to punch out the jerk. The story developed around the early days for World War II before our Naval forces were fully replenished with new ships from our home front industrial might.
The story does come to an abrupt end after the major battle and does not give any details on the trials and skill it took to return from Japanese waters to Midway. Nor does the book follow-up on many of the crew post-battle and return. I really wanted to know what happened to those crewmembers I grew to respect. Maybe those details are in the next book! We can only hope.
Cooke's book is a sharp contrast to many of today's modern techno-thriller submarine books that tend to wow us with all the jargon and engineering. These new techno-thriller submarine books seem to be based on somewhat unrealistic or believable storylines and fall short in character and story development.
This is not the case with "Pride Runs Deep." This book gives you the feel, information and knowledge of being onboard a World War II submarine without impressing upon the reader, "I know more than you" syndrome some submarine authors are following in today's sub techno-thrillers.
I truly enjoyed the story, the compelling missions and leadership of the men of the USS Mackerel. More importantly, it reminded me to cherish the memory of those young men in World War II who went deep and still remain on patrol.
Thank you Mr. Cooke for sharing your remarkable gift of storytelling with those of us who will never experience the deep!
|
|
|
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THRILLER AT SEA, February 27, 2005
I've always considered myself a fast reader, but this was the quickest I have ever made it through a book. If I dont like a book from the 1st paragraph, I'll put it aside & not read it. I picked up the this book at 3:00 on a Saturday and was done the next day before 2:00. 11 hours!! Couldnt put it down. No hokey BS catch phrase review here, just a solid & unbelievably entertaining read. Cant wait for his next one.
|
|
|
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable. Has a few flaws., August 6, 2006
Briefly - this is a WW II tale of a Pacific Theater "hard luck" submarine, which is reassigned to be placed under the command of experienced and hard-nosed commander, Jack Tremain. Tremain "whips the crew into top-notch shape" and they "see a lot of heavy action". Pardon all of my quote marks, but there are too many such cliche's in the book, particularly in the early portion.
Possibly this book is better than the 3 stars I rated it at. It seems that there are almost two books here - as if author R. Cameron Cooke was learning how to write in the first half of the story, and in the second half he penned a very good submarine adventure yarn.
In that underachieving opening half, Cooke establishes his characters, which seem to be usually overstated. Example - hero Captain Jack Tremain, that steely-eyed lean-jawed killer of the deep. (On the cold war submarine that I spent five years on we would have simply called this guy a pr----. And the atmosphere would be more akin to The Caine Mutiny). The bar room dialogue was unbelievable (were the participants reading from a book?). Cooke rather neglects the enlisted crewmen. Except for performing tasks, they are mostly unaddressed. (A little attention is given to one that commits suicide).
Although the author earned his own gold (officer) dolphins, apparently engineering was not his forte'. For the mechanically minded, it shows through in the book and is occasionally distracting. For example, arguably the eleven bullet holes (and uh, who counted those?) in a main ballast tank is NOT minor damage to be lived with and remedied by only an occasional blow from the ship's air banks . . . because it's possible that THE AIR LOSS EXCEEDS THE CAPACITY OF THE SHIP'S AIR COMPRESSORS on this WW II boat, which are high pressure, LOW VOLUME units. The bullet holes through the pressure hull described in the book (not sure if feasible, but probably would be on a diesel boat) would easily and effectively be repaired by a ship's diver from the OUTSIDE, but not with shoring from the inside as is done in the novel. I believe we saw the "drain pump knocked off of its foundation" on two different battle occasions. Fix that weak link please. I was often distracted from a very engaging part of the story by one of these technical misdemeanors and sometimes felt like calling out, "Bravo Sierra, Mr. Cooke".
Concerning the technical aspect of the book related to weapons, I'm not a weapons expert, but that analysis of the book seemed OK. By the way - the "jam dive" scenario, as described in the book, would seem to have been been non-recoverable. I believe the author took it overly far for effect, but again, it creates an unrealistc distraction.
On the upside, the book is entertaining, and it does contain a wealth of realistic and accurate detail regarding submarine design and operation. Much more so than one usually sees in this genre'. It starts rather disappointingly, what with the cliche's and flaws that I've criticized - but it seems that once the author established his characters and setting, he warmed to his work and wrote a pretty good tale that ends up as rather a page turner in the last third of the book. The author remains true to the characters he created and they become somewhat "lovable" to the reader. The final battle story is a first-class, white-knuckle tale.
I read all of it, and overall, enjoyed the novel. It could have easily been better with a consulting editor to clean up the technical errors, occasional overcharacterizations, and awkward start.
If Mr. Cooke was indeed "learning as he wrote", I look forward to a superb second novel from him.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, 