Most helpful customer reviews
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2.0 out of 5 stars
A dissenting view, Jan 16 2002
I know I'm the odd person out here, because virtually all the reviews are favorable & some consider this work a "classic", but, frankly, I didn't like this book. And, mind you, I like war novels & have read many of them. This book is unrelievedly gloomy & depressing & gets more so as the book goes on. There is way too much description & not enough conversation. Contrary to what several reviewers said, I found the character development weak to nonexistent. There were some interesting characters & I would have liked to know more about them, but the characters took second place to endless descriptions of the weather & damage reports. I plowed through it because I thought it was my duty to do so, but really, I found this book disappointing.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A little mentioned classic of Naval literature, Nov 25 2000
MacLean's HMS Ulysses is a classic book of man against man but more importantly, man against the sea. Set in the brutal Murmansk Run, this book is an account of the men of a ship marked out from the rest of the Royal Navy by a resistance to discipline. The crew is rebelling against mindless authority but is still ready to do its duty - along the lines of the great Mutiney of 1797, when ships of the Royal Navy effectively deposed brutal and mindless officers but always maintained that it would up anchor and fight any attackers. The men of Ulysses strike me as linear descendants of the sailors fighting Napoleon's fleet. There is a great cross section of British society in the officers and men of Ulysses; from aristocratic flag officers to gentleman rankers in the lower rates. Petty tyrants and officers one would gladly follow anywhere. MacLean has included them all and made it work to perfection in his tale. THe constant theme is not the brutality of war, or men killing each other, but the constant battle with the sea in all its many forms. MacLean's attention to detail gives an almost 'you are there' quality to his writing. The reader feels he is right there on the bow of Ulysses as it gets underway for one more run to Murmansk, to being on the bridge in her ultimate engagement with the German Navy. You can almost feel the bone breaking cold whenever you are placed out on deck. MacLean puts you right in the middle of it. If any of MacLean's books deserve to be made into movies, this is one that is long overdue. I found this book to be one that I didn't want to put down. I felt the charecters were all extremely well developed, men that were almost real. I don't know if MacLean was in the Royal Navy during World War II, but reading this book, I certainly get that impression. This is a classic in Naval literature.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Torpedo!!, Nov 9 2000
The HMS Ulysses was built for one mission - escorting convoys from Scotland to Murmansk in Russia to deliver supplies Russia needs to keep the Wehrmacht on the run on the eastern front. By 1943, the tide of the war had turned against the Axis on every front but the Atlantic. Worn down by the arctic storms, by constant attacks from German subs, dive bombers and cruisers, by outbreaks of TB and the constant threat of the mighty Battleship Tirpitz, Ulysses is a ship coming apart at the seams. The only thing holding the crew and ship together is there respect for its young and ailing captain and the desperation of the allied war effort. Their superiors in Admiralty would gladly supply less outdated escorts with more experienced crews, or replace their undersized (and outgunned) escort jeep carriers with fleet aircraft carriers - if that were available. But disintegrate the ship does, under attack by u-boats, Hipper-class cruisers, Condor bombers and the ceaseless assault of the Arctic. McLean does a superlative job taking both crew and vaunted ship apart. While he doesn't glorify war, he doesn't stoop at taking cheap shots at those who lead the war-effort either, and those who made critical decisions leading up to the tragedy of convoy "PQ-17" are given their due. (don't worry if you don't know a thing about PQ-17 - McLean gives aperfect intro). Neither does McLean stoop to gory effects. "Ulysses" neither glorifies war nor condemns it with cheap tactics. The horrors of war are enough for that, and McLean's prose do that - sort of like "Private Ryan" at sea....
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