Customer Reviews

Submarines UP CLOSE (Up Close (Sterling Hardcover))

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The idea is a good one: take kids for a tour of engineering marvel that is a submarine. Here, however, the author and publisher use the "up close" concept and the promise "actual size photographs" to merely separate the consumer from a little bit of their money.

The entire affair is poorly done.

The photographs are a hodge-podge of ancient and contemporary submarines, most of them carrying little or no information about what they depict. In other words, if you don't know what you are looking at, the photos alone won't tell you. It would also help the uninitiated if they identified the submarine pictured as one from the 1930s, since modern nuclear submarines are also pictured.

Precisely what the expression "actual size photograph" means is never really explained. I didn't see any photographs that I could be sure depicted the actual size of the objects shown.

The text is an unconnected series of descriptions of submarines, their operations and capabilities. There is little actual content, almost everything being described in generalities. Some of the items are not factual or are unnecessarily vague. For example, nuclear submarines are repeatedly described as spending months at sea. This is true, but why not point out that the typical cruise is 90 days? In another instance, one of the few where a photograph has a caption, the author describes a Balao class submarine as capable of supporting a crew of "10 officers and 65 men for a three-month patrol". It goes on to state that the sub can carry 24 torpedoes "each of which holds 600 pounds of "torpex", a high explosive". The author fails to point out that this was a WWII submarine, the very last of which sailed in 1975. Instead, they show one tied up at a museum - and don't even identify the museum and its location for the curious.

Young kids will not notice all the shortcomings of this book. But knowledgeable adults will. While the book is inexpensive, the author obviously did not spend significant time on learning about submarines and even at the low price, I felt cheated. Great photos of subs are widely available, but few of them made it into this book.

As I said, the concept is good, but the execution is very poor. Suitable for very young kids for a read or two, but that's about it.

Jerry

This book arrived in just a couple of days and in perfect condition. The condition was very important since this truly is a memento. We discovered this book in our local library and in glancing through the book, discovered pictures of my husband while assigned and on duty on the USS Alabama. This will have special meaning and it arrived rapidly and in mint condition. Thank you.