The Second Sun

De: P.T. Deutermann

Narrado por: Peter Berkrot

March 1945: After a career of commanding destroyers in the Pacific theater of WWII, Captain Wolfe Bowen is based in Washington, DC, working for the chief of naval operations. Bowen receives an urgent call from the commander of the naval shipyard in Portsmouth, New Hampshire: a German U-boat has been captured and brought to port. But what grabs Bowen's attention is the presence of two Japanese civilians on board, along with the massive size of the U-boat itself. What these civilians know about the cargo of the U-boat, as well as its destination, begins a race against time that will change the course of history.

When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies, Harry Truman ascends to office with no prior knowledge of the Manhattan Project. Bowen is assigned a dangerous mission: discover whether Japan has the technology to produce an atomic weapon, and find out how close the desperate enemy is to deploying it. Working with a small team, Bowen must report back to President Truman with the information that will transform the war—and the world.

Brilliantly imagined and deeply informed by P. T. Deutermann's long history as a navy captain, as well as his family's service in the Pacific theater, The Second Sun is a compelling novel timed for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

©2025 P. T. Deutermann (P)2025 Tantor Media

Thanks, PT

I really, really enjoyed this book. In fact, I've enjoyed all the books I've listened to by this author. His books have told me the story of the Pacific Theater in World War II in a way I would have never gotten.

In this story, the author crafts a story of how the war was coming to an end soon, or so it was hoped, and plans were being put into place to invade Japan. It was generally accepted the Japanese weren't going to surrender and the cost of invasion, in terms of the number of American lives that would be lost would be huge, and a secret bomb project was underway that could possibly erase the need of the invasion. The cost to the Japanese would be horrible and would it be palatable to the rest of the world?

Then it was discovered that the Japanese possibly had their own atom bomb project underway and if they beat us to the punch, they could possibly destroy our entire invasion force, hundreds of thousands of lives lost potentially. Into this scenario comes our protagonists. They are tasked with finding out if Japan really had a bomb project underway and, if so, were they close to using it.

When I started the book I figured it would get to our use of the bomb and the end of the war but the author took it another step forward and took a look at Japan in the aftermath of the bomb and what it was going to take to get Japan on our side in spite of everything that happened in the war and the hatred that ensued. Communism was coming in China, the Soviet Union was going to be a problem, etc. The USA needed Japan on our side going forward.

As I said at the beginning, I really, really enjoyed this book.

Character development

As usual Deautermann took a historical fact and wound a tale to scare you shitless! While many people loosely knew we used “atomic” bombs on Japan far fewer knew how we justified their use, many questioned if we were actually justified in their use, what the cost would have been in Allied lives. Deautermann cleverly wove in a love/technical analysis story to clearly develop our justification with an unexpected “cost” to that justification. The descriptions of the carnage of Hiroshima/Nagasaki clearly lay out the absolute destructive power of those two weapons and why they should never be used again. A great listen that is a bit lengthy but necessary to honestly lay out this story.

Great Historical novel

An alternative version of the last days of WW2. It was totally believable, great characters, well documented historical characters. Great narration

A fine wrap up to WW2 in the Pacific

Drama of wartime relations and moral dilemma. Also, as always with Deutermann WW2 novels, great battle scenes.

Sleepy

Seems like all Bowen wanted to do was sleep. Every move he made he wanted a nap afterwards. I know it's not factual but PT could have done so much better.

Narration

I had to give up on what is probably a good read. I simply couldn’t continue listening to a very poor reading. To much drama not well done.