J. Renton

The whole battle with a British Perspective

Revisado: 09-09-20

James Holland is an excellent writer of popular
Military history. The war comes alive with his emphasis on personal anecdotes that are used to illustrate his larger points: 1) The British Empire forces were well led and had good equipment and were well organized 2) Germans had little chance by this point in the war, fought well on a tactical level but were strategically and operationally inept. 3 The Americans had amazing arms production 4 Airpower supremacy was a decisive factor. 5 French Resistance: brave but ultimately more of a political rather than particularly militarily useful. 6 Disagreements between British and American leadership have been over-emphasized and the ones that did occur were more often due to personality type conflicts rather than national prejudices

There is little emphasis on the landings themselves , with the exception of the airborne paratroopers. Much more on the aftermath . More stories about Brits and Canadians than Americans or Germans. Now, I’m not saying this is unfair or uninteresting, I suspect that’s where Mr. Holland has more of his primary sources.

At any rate, well worth a listen.

An aside on the narrator, John Sackville. When he started, I felt like he was narrating a sad fantasy story. I didn’t like him at first, and I sped up the playback. But I relaxed, turned the speed back to normal and discovered he was an excellent voice actor who could do many dialects, which is VERY helpful in an audiobook when quoting dialogue.

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Not Just About Air Battles

Revisado: 07-10-20

The cover is a bit misleading...it's not just about Spitfires and Me-109s. It has a broad scope, so it includes not only the Naval & Land Campaigns, and there includes detail about both political and domestic detail on both sides.

I have been reading - seriously - about the conflict for decades now, so I didn't I gain a whole lot of new information, but the narrative is sprightly and full of detailed nuggets of information that brings the conflict alive.

The narrator Shaun Grindell does a nice job too, and he brings a nice spirit to the work. I feel like I would enjoy a pint with him.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has any interested enough to read this review so far!

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Starts slow,,,gets really fun later on

Revisado: 07-19-10

Jack Vance is a great author, and helped create the fantasy genre with his Dying Earth series. This was written in his later period, and it is rich with both noble and mendacious characters and meandering, cynical digressions which can either drive you crazy or laugh with delight. With my 5 star rating you can safely count me in the later group.

Suldren's Garden is the first of the Lyonesse trilogy, & it takes a little while to get going. Stay with it, and by the end of the book, you can' wait for the next one.

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Well, it's about Princesses and Elves and stuff...

Revisado: 10-31-05

I like SciFi and some Fantasy, but I don't live and breathe it.

The ratings for this series are incredible, so I took a chance and listened to it. It's just another Fantasy series, folks - it seemed a little underwritten to me, but maybe it picks up in later books, I don't know. I'm not going to spend the money to find out.

If you REALLY like this sort of thing, go for it. I was bored.

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Good Naval Fiction

Revisado: 10-27-05

If you can't get enough of Forester's Hornblower and O'Brien's Aubrey/Maturin series, the Alexander Kent Bolhito Novels are a great addition. I would describe the series as more soapy than Forester's Hornblower series, but with about as much action. Not nearly as much historical and romantic meandering (which has its own charm, of course) as O'Brien's series.

Although new to Audible.com, I listened to this recording as a Book on Tape several years ago, and I am thrilled to see its arrival.

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You still won't know much!

Revisado: 06-05-03

As a history buff, perhaps I am the wrong person to review this text. You see, I like to read history, and so I have found this text not full of fascinating facts, but rather, a dull book in question and answer format.

Furthermore, and disturbingly, I found that whenever I was listening to a part of American History that I knew well, I came upon errors, or at least questionable conclusions.

I wish I could quote them here for the purposes of this review, but unfortunately I can only go by memory, as these are spoken books. A couple of examples:

In the Civil War section, there is a comment about Grant earning his sobriquet, "Unconditional Surrender" for the battle of Vicksburg (he earned it earlier for the Fort Donelson campaign). Later on, there is a comment about Sherman starting a campaign in "Sheridan" (surely, Meridian??).

The WWI section is miserable, and over simplifies an admittedly complex situation. It is too easy on Imperial Germany's responsibility in starting the war, and implies the atrocities the German army committed in Belgium and France in 1914 are mere stories. Great Britain was not strictly obligated to join in the war. This is all a very complicated subject, and I have to wonder why it is even included in the book, which is about American History after all.

In conclusion, the Q&A format lets the author pick and choose what questions to answer, and by no means do you get a complete story. Perhaps that wasn't his point, but you have to wonder what it was (besides making money, that is).

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