Chernobyl 01:23:40
The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster
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Chernobyl 01:23:40
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Narrated by:
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Michael Page
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Written by:
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Andrew Leatherbarrow
About this listen
At 01:23:40 on April 26th 1986, Alexander Akimov pressed the emergency shutdown button at Chernobyl's fourth nuclear reactor. It was an act that forced the permanent evacuation of a city, killed thousands, and crippled the Soviet Union. The event spawned decades of conflicting, exaggerated, and inaccurate stories.
This book, the result of five years of research, presents an accessible but comprehensive account of what really happened - from the desperate fight to prevent a burning reactor core from irradiating eastern Europe, to the self-sacrifice of the heroic men who entered fields of radiation so strong that machines wouldn't work, to the surprising truth about the legendary "Chernobyl diver", all the way through to the USSR's final show-trial. The historical narrative is interwoven with a story of the author's own spontaneous journey to Ukraine's still-abandoned city of Pripyat and the wider Chernobyl Zone.
©2016 Andrew Leatherbarrow (P)2016 TantorYou may also enjoy...
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In 1945, the Soviet Union controlled half of Europe and was a founding member of the United Nations. By 1991, it had an army four million strong, 5,000 nuclear-tipped missiles, and was the second biggest producer of oil in the world. But soon afterward, the union sank into an economic crisis and was torn apart by nationalist separatism. Its collapse was one of the seismic shifts of the 20th century.
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A phenomenal history of the dissolution of the USSR
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Written by: Vladislav M. Zubok
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Black Earth
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- Written by: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
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Overall10
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Performance9
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “[Timothy] Snyder identifies the conditions that allowed the Holocaust—conditions our society today shares. . . . He certainly couldn’t be more right about our world.”—The New Republic A “gripping [and] disturbingly vivid” (The Wall Street Journal)...
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dry
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The best Chernobyl history to date - very accessible
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Fantastic!
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The narration makes it hard to listen to. The over (and incorrect) pronunciation or Russian and Ukrainian names by and English man is embarrassing and hard to listen to. At best you could make a drinking game out of this audiobook. “Drink every time you cringe” or “drink every time he takes two minutes to butcher another language”. It takes away from the feeling of the book.
I am glad to see the narrator has changed for Andrew’s new book. But this one ruined it for me.
Decent content with bad reading.
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This book was put together by an amateur author and revised continually after comments from experts, journalists, and people who were there. It consequently feels undeniably genuine. Leatherbarrow sold his belongings and borrowed money from his parents to fund a trip to the site so that he could inform his exposé with on-the-ground experience. The effort pays off.
Some of the discussion of the physics and engineering redundancies that failed are yawn-inducing - and much of the book (disappointingly) reads like a Travel Blog - but Leatherbarrow largely generates a complete, unbiased documentary that puts readers in the control rooms and in the communities surrounding Pripyat, Ukraine on April 26, 1986.
Michael Page has a growly timbre that can get irritating , but thankfully isn't burdened with voice-acting responsibilities in this recording (he's terrible at accents). Tantor Audio did a nice job casting a professional like Page to read the book. His diction, pacing, and tone are spot-on. This project is creditably narrated.
Altogether, I rate this audiobook 8 stars out of 10. The Travel-blog aspects of the book are moderately annoying (I don't care what the author's feelings were when he went for a beer with fellow tourists 'Danny & Katy'), but the book otherwise provides what I was expecting when I bought it. It was definitely worth the $6.50 CDN I spent when I got it on sale (it's actually worth a Credit).
Like most works of History, the story will require revision as facts come to light - but this book (written with literally NO agenda) will tell an average listener everything they need to know.
'Chernobyl: 01:23:40' is a great option for a long drive or a boring night shift.
Most Complete Discussion Available (So Far)
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