The Guns of Navarone

By: Alistair MacLean

Narrated by: Jonathan Oliver

The classic World War II thriller from the acclaimed master of action and suspense.

The guns of Navarone, huge and catastrophically accurate, embedded atop an impregnable iron fortress in the Mediterranean Sea.

Twelve hundred British soldiers trapped on a nearby island, with no hope of rescue from Allied ships, waiting to die.

Keith Mallory, world-famous mountaineer, skilled saboteur. His mission: to lead a small team of misfits and silence the guns forever.

Reaching the island and scaling the sheer cliffs undetected will be hard enough; defeating the German forces and destroying the massive guns all but impossible. And as for getting out alive when there may be a traitor in the team…

©1957 Alistair MacLean (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

‘Could hardly be bettered.’
Sunday Times

‘Its strength comes from the speed of its narrative, its vivid creation of tensions and its power in handling descriptions of action.’
Evening Standard

‘Action sustained at a high pitch. From the outset there is a feeling of suspense: a problem that can only be solved by action involving danger and demanding courage … an insistently gripping tale.’
Scotsman

Love the story but narration is strained.

Narrator is trying too hard to make the character voices unique and it comes out strained. It's not bad but it made me feel stressed.

Feeling my age

I read every Alistair Maclean novel ever written when I was young. Seems dated now, but still a god story.

good movie...better book

great performance worth listening to again in the future over a drink, next to a fire

Overall entertaining

Narrator makes Andrea sound like a Yiddish Tailor rather than a Greek partisan. And Miller’s voice may have been even less convincing (though the silly “American” dialogue doesn’t help.)

Mallory is the worst secret agent in history. Kind of hilarious really.

Despite all of these things, the story is overall entertaining.

Better Than Movie

I have seen the movie numerous times, but had never read the book before. While the movie is partially true to the book, I found the book to be much better and the narrator good for this story.

amazing and adventurous!

classic adventure tale! so good. nothing better then blowing up some Nazi's. highly recommended for all who like the genre.

really good book

this is the first time that I've read anything from Alistair McCain. I found the story riveting up to the last part of it and it kind of ended abruptly in my opinion but other than that it was a really good story and I would highly recommend the book

amazing 👏

great story and performance. I enjoyed the book more than the movie which says alot I think because the movie is one of the best.

Another good 'read"

Alistair Maclean movies are among my favorites, but it's interesting how they are so different from the books - and often so disappointing; I've said many times that I prefer to watch a movie first and THEN read the book ... because there's so much MORE to the book. So though I see familiar actors in my head, the novel's more to my liking.
A stirring tale, and an exemplary narrator! Glad to see there were more of his titles on Audible; looking forward to listening to the next ones.

wonderful reading!

the guns of navarone is a classic, but I didn't realise how well it suited being read out loud. there are lots of conversations and the reader does a brilliant job with these.