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HMS Ulysses
- Narrated by: Jonathan Oliver
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
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The Guns of Navarone
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Twelve hundred British soldiers isolated on the small island of Kheros off the Turkish coast, waiting to die. Twelve hundred lives in jeopardy, lives that could be saved if only the guns could be silenced. The guns of Navarone, vigilant, savage and catastrophically accurate. Navarone itself, grim bastion of narrow straits manned by a mixed garrison of Germans and Italians, an apparently impregnable iron fortress.
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From the acclaimed master of action and suspense. The all-time classic. Millions of pounds in gold bullion are being pirated in the Irish Sea. Investigations by the British Secret Service, and a sixth sense, have bought Philip Calvert to a bleak, lonely bay in the Western Highlands. But the sleepy atmosphere of Torbay is deceptive. The place is the focal point of many mysterious disappearances. Even the unimaginative Highland Police Sergeant seems to be acting a part. But why?
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The classic World War II thriller from the acclaimed master of action and suspense. One winter night, seven men and a woman are parachuted onto a mountainside in wartime Germany. Their objective: an apparently inaccessible castle, headquarters of the Gestapo. Their mission: to rescue a crashed American general before the Nazi interrogators can force him to reveal secret D-day plans.
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Darting back and forth across the icy North Atlantic, Compass Rose played a deadly cat-and-mouse game with packs of German U-boats lying in wait beneath the ocean waves. Packed with tension and vivid descriptions of agonizing U-boat hunts, this tale of the most bitter and chilling campaign of the war tells of ordinary men who had to master their own fears before they could face a brutal menace - one that would strike without warning from the deep.
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Heros
- By Kindle RBW on 2018-11-04
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Almost before the last echoes of the famous guns have died away, the three Navarone heroes are parachuted into war-torn Yugoslavia to rescue a division of partisans and fulfil a secret mission, so deadly that it must be hidden even from their own allies.
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love allistair maclean. never disappointing
- By James E. King on 2019-03-05
Written by: Alistair MacLean
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A sunken DC-3 lying on the Caribbean floor. Its cargo: $10.25 million in gold ingots, emeralds and uncut diamonds guarded by the remains of two men, one woman and a very small boy. The fortune was there for the taking, and ready to grab it were a blue-blooded oilman with his own offshore rig, a gangster so cold and independent that even the Mafia couldn't do business with him and a psychopathic hired assassin.
Written by: Alistair MacLean
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The Guns of Navarone
- Written by: Alistair MacLean
- Narrated by: Jonathan Oliver
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twelve hundred British soldiers isolated on the small island of Kheros off the Turkish coast, waiting to die. Twelve hundred lives in jeopardy, lives that could be saved if only the guns could be silenced. The guns of Navarone, vigilant, savage and catastrophically accurate. Navarone itself, grim bastion of narrow straits manned by a mixed garrison of Germans and Italians, an apparently impregnable iron fortress.
Written by: Alistair MacLean
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When Eight Bells Toll
- Written by: Alistair MacLean
- Narrated by: Jonathan Oliver
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the acclaimed master of action and suspense. The all-time classic. Millions of pounds in gold bullion are being pirated in the Irish Sea. Investigations by the British Secret Service, and a sixth sense, have bought Philip Calvert to a bleak, lonely bay in the Western Highlands. But the sleepy atmosphere of Torbay is deceptive. The place is the focal point of many mysterious disappearances. Even the unimaginative Highland Police Sergeant seems to be acting a part. But why?
Written by: Alistair MacLean
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Where Eagles Dare
- Written by: Alistair MacLean
- Narrated by: Jonathan Oliver
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The classic World War II thriller from the acclaimed master of action and suspense. One winter night, seven men and a woman are parachuted onto a mountainside in wartime Germany. Their objective: an apparently inaccessible castle, headquarters of the Gestapo. Their mission: to rescue a crashed American general before the Nazi interrogators can force him to reveal secret D-day plans.
Written by: Alistair MacLean
-
The Cruel Sea
- Written by: Nicholas Monsarrat
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Darting back and forth across the icy North Atlantic, Compass Rose played a deadly cat-and-mouse game with packs of German U-boats lying in wait beneath the ocean waves. Packed with tension and vivid descriptions of agonizing U-boat hunts, this tale of the most bitter and chilling campaign of the war tells of ordinary men who had to master their own fears before they could face a brutal menace - one that would strike without warning from the deep.
-
-
Heros
- By Kindle RBW on 2018-11-04
Written by: Nicholas Monsarrat
-
Force Ten from Navarone
- Written by: Alistair MacLean
- Narrated by: Jonathan Oliver
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Almost before the last echoes of the famous guns have died away, the three Navarone heroes are parachuted into war-torn Yugoslavia to rescue a division of partisans and fulfil a secret mission, so deadly that it must be hidden even from their own allies.
-
-
love allistair maclean. never disappointing
- By James E. King on 2019-03-05
Written by: Alistair MacLean
-
Fear Is the Key
- Written by: Alistair MacLean
- Narrated by: Jonathan Oliver
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A sunken DC-3 lying on the Caribbean floor. Its cargo: $10.25 million in gold ingots, emeralds and uncut diamonds guarded by the remains of two men, one woman and a very small boy. The fortune was there for the taking, and ready to grab it were a blue-blooded oilman with his own offshore rig, a gangster so cold and independent that even the Mafia couldn't do business with him and a psychopathic hired assassin.
Written by: Alistair MacLean
Publisher's Summary
The novel that launched the astonishing career of one of the 20th century's greatest writers of action and suspense - an acclaimed classic of heroism and the sea in World War II.
The story of men who rose to heroism, and then to something greater, HMS Ulysses takes its place alongside The Caine Mutiny and The Cruel Sea as one of the classic novels of the navy at war.
It is the compelling story of Convoy FR77 to Murmansk - a voyage that pushes men to the limits of human endurance, crippled by enemy attack and the bitter cold of the Arctic.
What the critics say
"A story of exceptional courage which grips the imagination." ( Daily Telegraph)
"It deserves an honourable place among 20th-century war books." ( Daily Mail)
" HMS Ulysses is in the same class as The Cruel Sea." ( Evening Standard)
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What listeners say about HMS Ulysses
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Nina Hewitt
- 2019-04-26
Probably the best of Alistair McLean
this book is one of the best books i have ever read (listened to). it is so well written that while listening to it i felt physically cold. McLean is know for his great books and i think that this is his best. phenomenal and unmatched by others of this genre.
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- Kindle RBW
- 2018-10-26
The literature of war.
War is the most senseless thing men do. This outstanding novel demonstrates why. It also demonstrates how a mutinous crew of mem become more than they or any but their officers have ever thought they could me. The Ultsses is a cruiser with the ultimate responsibility of taking a merchant ships a cross the Arctic Ocean to Murmansk. You will live with these men as they battle a monstrous storm, desdly ice, days without sleep, submarines, air attack and bore as they battle there way to heartbreak and destiny. Don't miss this constantly action filled novel that challenges The Cruel Sea and Mutiny On The Bounty.
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- Jonathan
- 2018-08-19
Cold, so very Cold.
This book really makes you feel what those men and boys went though in WW2.
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- Brian67
- 2017-04-15
Amazing but heartbreaking and sad.
One of the most heartbreaking, saddest books I've ever read. The novel has stuck with me for over 50 years, reading it first at the age of 15 and now as an audiobook. I am fascinated by the nature of leadership, heroism, and our human response to extreme physical and psychological environments. Amundsen, Shackleton, and Bligh come to mind in listening to MacLean's imaginary Captain Vallery of the HMS Ulysses.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Morton T Saunders JR
- 2018-10-21
Riveting
I have listened and read many of Alistair MacLean’s books and this one tops it for character development set in a harrowing environment and time in history. Worth every second listening.
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4 people found this helpful
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- John W. Snell
- 2021-02-11
Magnificent...
Very pleased with this grand gift to myself. Look forward to listening again--soon... The narrator a true master of his art...
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2 people found this helpful
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- Alec Drumm
- 2017-09-13
Suspenseful but bleak and unrealistic
I wanted to enjoy this book. I was looking forward to a thriller about the arctic convoys in WWII, which is a subject I'm somewhat knowledgeable about. Almost from the beginning though the story of HMS Ulysses felt not real. A mutiny on a Royal Navy cruiser during the war? Everyone involved would have been severely punished.
I don't want to give any spoilers which makes describing the rest of the book difficult. However, readers will probably realize that HMS Ulysses falls into the "everybody dies" category. As soon as you develop an affinity with a character, the story line changes. Perhaps that is the reason that this book was never filmed.
Even a plot like that might not be a big obstacle, but the events described during the escorting mission are far worse than anything experienced in reality by a convoy, even PQ-17 which was almost entirely destroyed. The characters are never more than caricatures. One doesn't get to know the eventual survivors in any detail.
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2 people found this helpful
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- F.D.P.
- 2020-05-31
Tepid military soap opera suffused with melodrama
Who knew there could be so much hand-wringing and pearl-clutching in a naval yarn. Elmore Leonard advised against starting a novel with the weather. This one never stops.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ben Strandberg
- 2019-11-15
great book
The only complaint I have about this book is that at times it was hard to keep track of some of the characters.
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1 person found this helpful
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- katharine potter
- 2019-08-27
outstanding exposition of human frailty and resilience
rather than an arctic war adventure story, this is an examination of human beings under extreme circumstances, their frailties and courage. characters live and breathe, fail and rise above failure with fascinating motivations, clearly described with great understanding.
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1 person found this helpful
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- John
- 2019-06-07
Strong Book, Excellent Narration
I read this book back in 1985 and remembered liking it. I was a big MacLean fan back in those days. This book didn’t disappoint. I really enjoyed it and particularly think the narration was excellent. Highly recommended.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Douglas Richardson
- 2018-07-20
It will stick with you...
I have read most of Maclean's works and really enjoyed most of them. Granted I read many of them as a much younger kid growing up in South Africa, but they were always exciting and so I was thrilled when they finally released the audio books here on Audible.
I jumped on HMS as it was the "good one" that I never read as I heard it was "different," and was the authors first major published book, so I knew it would not be typical. It wasn't.... That said, while not being typical Maclean, it is an exciting story and he paints a narrative of pure hell, pulled from his own naval experience it seems, and creates a great tribute to some very interesting times.
I think the biggest issues with this book is the narrator who tries hard to give personality to the crew, but has the wrong interpretation of the story. He reads many characters in a feeble tone of melancholy and characterizes the captain in a way that sounds like more like Margaret Rutherford of Miss Marple fame rather than a seasoned captain of war Granted he is ill and aging -but he's not delicate and with the melancholy hanging on every line of his and other characters, it taints the story in a way it shouldn't. These were tough people in hard conditions and they should be read as men and not as the disapointed crew of a pleasure cruise gone wrong.
Maclean does a good job of keeping the story pounding along and the tension mostly unrelenting but does digress at times, taking long character breaks that interrupts the tone. He assumes a fairly good understanding of naval ships of the time and various nautical terms that may lead the modern reader to hit Google. There are many pulse pounding scenes however that are described in such detail that they will stick in your minds eye long past the end of this book.
I wish there was a different narrator, but this is a good atypical Maclean adventure that will leave you breathless at times and sets riveting scenes making it well worth a listen outside of the usual context of his typically exciting and purely fictional thrillers.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Fred Simpson
- 2017-10-08
Misery personified. INCREDIBLE story.
War was only half the battle. If you're looking for an engaging gem about WWII, this is it.
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1 person found this helpful