Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book seems to try to cover all aspects of the submarine cold war, without a lot of detail on any particular subject. I found the coverage of the Cuban crisis particularly interesting, but somehow felt as though I had to read between the lines, which was true with all the other subjects covered.
All in all, an intersting book, but not in the league of Blind Man's Bluff.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Intro to sub info
Review: This is the first real sub book I have read. The historical appendix is really good covering The Russian Navy. There are many facts in here that are amazing to someone new to the genre. This may not be the best book, but it is worth a reading. The info on the Kursk and K-19 were informative and cleared out all the nonsense you get from Hollywood movies. Very informative about Soviet Naval Culture.
Rating: 
Summary: Wet blanket effect
Review: Unlike many of the recent books about cold war submarines, this one isn't a gripping read. Books like "Blind mans bluff", "October Fury", "The Silent War", "Dark Waters", etc. have pretty much all been excellent. This one never seems to get exciting. Much of the book is devoted to non-Soviet topics (e.g.: a long introduction of the history of submarines and the German U-Boats), or non-Submarine topics (e.g. the very long appendix one which is a "cliffs notes" style commentary on Admiral Gorshkovs view of world Naval history and Russias place in it.)Much of the book features stories already detailed in other books, so if you've read some or all of the books I listed above you've already covered a lot of the book. I was particularly disappointed that the book failed to get into any sort of techinal detail. I saw a TV show with interviews of Soviet sub commanders who talked at length about the problems with the nuclear reactors etc. I was hoping for details about that sort of thing -- e.g. the twin hulls of the typhoon subs, or the methods used to manufacture the alfa's titanium hull, etc. This book pretty much avoided technical details beyond simple explanations like 'engine trouble'. It's not a _bad_ book, it's just not a _great_ book. A lot of the recent books in the genre have been really good and this one disappointed. The biggest problem is that just as something might start to get exciting the story ends and switches to a different story. The "Wet Blanket Effect". Instead of a book that is hard to put down, it turned into a "must read to get my $26 worth out of it".
Rating:
Summary: Does Not Lift All Boats
Review: When I first started on the book I found that it captured my interest right away. The authors had a confidence that came through in the writing that made you believe everything they were saying. The book attempts to tell the story of the Soviet Unions submarine fleet from its start pre World War Two through the cold war. In order to do this they used both written works and a number of interviews with former sailors that where there when the action was going on. For the most part they cover the interesting events like crashes or major exercises or events. They spend time on the Cuban missile crises that provided me with some interesting and before unknown details about what the Soviets were doing with their subs during the event.
The problem I had with the book is that that the authors did not good a very good job of covering any aspect of the book. They almost did not touch on the life of a navy man in the USSR or how they got into the subs. They also did a poor job at covering in any detail USSR verses USA cold war action. The events that they covered the most outside of the Cuban missile crises had a distinct USA tint to the reporting. The details of the crashes was not in any sort of order, it seemed like they threw them in here and there. Plus the detail of the crashes was somewhat lacking. They did not do any of the events justice. The book ends with a review of the Krusk event and again they did report some interesting info from the Russian side, but it was diminished by the overall skimming of the story.
Overall I thought the book was just average. The writing was good and the authors come across like they know what they are talking about. A number of the stories are interesting, it is just that as a full history it is lacking. I do given them a little slack, given the USSR / Russia's view toward public viewing of military information, the authors probably did the best they could at times. The disappointing thing for me is that I have read other books on some of the events covered in this book and a lot of the missed detail in this book is in the public arena.
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