Well Researched, Occasionally Wandering and Hectic Narrative
There can be no doubt that this book has a huge amount of research put into it, and it is full of information you may not have heard about before and unique viewpoints of the day, however it also suffers a bit from trying to put in too much detail. For instance, while a few people have their stories re-visited throughout the day (a narrative technique I really enjoy), the author also names nearly every person in every anecdote no matter how short - an overload of names that slows down the book and also makes it harder to remember who people are when the book returns to one of the continued stories. The fast pace of the day's events are also sometimes match by quick swapping around locations and view points in the re-telling which can be hard to follow - especially when the author chooses to randomly follow someone's story into the future before coming back to the moment at hand. Grover Gardner does a competent job narrating, but at the same time not doing anything to help the listener follow the hectic writing. The sample provided gives an accurate representation of the whole. Also, you will do yourself a great favour to find an era accurate map of Pearl Harbor to follow along the locations of events and ships. 181MB in 14 chapters: 6@~30min, 2@~65min, 6@<20min Truthfully 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 - listen closely or you may miss information or get lost as to what's going on, but the information presented is worthy of a listen - though not high on my list to re-listen to. While the author interviewed a few Japanese pilots, their stories are forgotten during the actual attack but prove interesting before and after the raid.