The Castaway's War

One Man's Battle Against Imperial Japan

By: Stephen Harding

Narrated by: Ian Harding

Length: 7 hrs

Publisher's summary

In the early hours of July 5, 1943, the destroyer USS Strong was hit by a Japanese torpedo. The powerful weapon broke the destroyer's back, flooded her engine room, killed dozens of sailors, and sparked raging fires. While accompanying ships were able to rescue most of Strong's surviving crewmen, scores were submerged in the ocean as the shattered warship sank beneath the waves - and a young officer's harrowing story of survival began.

Based on official American and Japanese histories, personal memoirs, and the author's exclusive interviews with key participants, The Castaway's War tells the entirely unique and very personal tale of Navy Lieutenant Hugh Barr Miller's fight for survival against both a hostile environment and an implacable human enemy.

©2016 Stephen Harding (P)2016 Recorded Books

Lots of prelude and epilogue, very little meat

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would only recommend to someone who had little or no knowledge of WWII naval history (so they would not be too bored) and didn't mind that only about 1/4 of the book is actually the "Castaway" experience.

Would you ever listen to anything by Stephen Harding again?

Maybe. I would check the print version at the library or book store first to be sure there actually was a pony in there somewhere.

Did Ian Harding do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Adequate.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

NO! Now I know there are several other published versions of this story, most written soon after the experience. This one is a sad failure to Lt. Miller's legacy.

Any additional comments?

This book and the publisher's summary are very long on sizzle with only a tiny bit of steak. I expected that at least half or more of the book would be the detailed history of the 40+ days as a castaway, with survival efforts as well as the attacks and such he made. Instead, the castaway portion of the story is no more than 1/4 of the book, with very little detail. There is more content about the time after his rescue than anything else. The author writes about numerous tellings of the castaway tale in publications of the time and gives the impression that they were very detailed. I can only surmise that the author was not able to get the rights to use any of this material in his book. There are tons of irrelevant detail about the ship and the various experiences after rescue. The author seems to be trying to find a way to fill up a book, but with only a little of the full detail about Lt. Miller and his amazing and clearly heroic efforts after the sinking of his ship.

Great story, but reads like Wikipedia page.

It was a great story, but it was written too much like a history book or Wikipedia page. I agree with another user's review that at times, the narrator sounds like he's talking into a bucket. Probably edited audio.

Good book bad read.

Mono tone college drone! The story is excellent but could not take another second of the readers voice.

Slight over-sell

Given the title and summary highlights, I was expected a detailed story of this hero's time on an island. This is a broad biography of the man. There is more time spent on the development of the movie of his adventure that never got made than his time on the island.

The background information on the building and history of the ship was interesting, as was the details of general Navy actions in the area at that time. There was something missing. Like this book was written from archive research and not any personal interviews or stories.

The sound editing was also a little distracting. Sporadically, the narrator appears to enter a tunnel or starts talking into a bucket. Random words seem to be spliced into sentences. It's not terrible, but regularly present.

Soooo.... bad.

after 3.5 hours of this book I gave up and quit listening. the author drones on and on and on and on..... with pointless facts. I get he's trying to build up a background story on how the main character got to where the tragedy happened, but so much of it was unnecessary. the book is only 7 hours long and there's no need to devote so much time to what is essentially just filler.

Oh, and the narrator is awful too. he talks fast, but with a lifeless monotone voice.