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Title details for The Far Reaches by Homer Hickam - Available

The Far Reaches

#1 in series

by Homer Hickam
Mark Deakins
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
The year is 1943 and World War II in the Pacific rages on, with Americans engaged in desperate battles against a cunning enemy. Coast Guard Captain Josh Thurlow is on hand at the invasion of Tarawa, as the U.S. Navy begins the grand strategy of throwing her marines at island after bloody island across the Pacific.
As blood colors the waters around Tarawa, Josh flounders ashore through a floating graveyard of dead men and joins the survivors, determined to somehow wrest victory from disaster. Critically wounded, Josh expects to die. Instead, Sister Mary Kathleen, a young Irish nun, nurses him back to health, and then shanghais Josh, sidekick Bosun Ready O’Neal, and three American marines to a group of beautiful tropical islands invaded by a brutal Japanese warlord. Josh and his little band must decide whether to help the Sister fight the battle she demands, return to Tarawa and the “real” war, or settle down in the romantic splendor of the South Seas.
Hickam expertly weaves the adventures of these hot-blooded characters tighter and tighter until the Sister’s secrets and sins are finally revealed during a horrific battle in the lair of the warlord. With an incredible eye for historical detail and the talent of a master storyteller, Homer Hickam delivers another tour de force.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Josh Thurlow

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 12, 2007

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781415940525
      • File size: 332157 KB
      • Duration: 11:31:59

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      After being wounded at the bloody battle of Tarawa in 1943, Captain Josh Thurlow is shanghaied by a determined Irish nun into a private war of her own with a crazed Japanese commander. Struggling to get back to the "real war," he finds himself in a different kind of battle, one he could never have imagined back home. Mark Deakins's narration pulses with all the excitement and tension of a war story that alternates between the war's viciousness and the complex human dramas it creates. Without slipping into stereotypes, he captures the rich voices of a full range of characters--from Sister Kathleen's thick Irish brogue to the rough pidgin of the island natives. This is a picture of the Pacific Theater never before seen. P.E.F. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 19, 2007
      This is Hickam's third WWII action saga featuring Capt. Josh Thurlow, an officer exhibiting military insight and preternatural fighting abilities. The book opens in 1943 as an American fleet assembles off Tarawa, and the Marines prepare to land. Observing from the deck of a transport, Thurlow points out flaws in the attack plan and predicts the disaster that follows. Although only a spectator, Thurlow cannot resist the lure of battle; he leaps into a landing craft, struggles to shore and rallies the few surviving Marines until reinforcements arrive. Wounded during the melee, Thurlow loses consciousness only to awaken in a caravan of outriggers with a beautiful young nun, a dozen Polynesians and three nondescript Marines. The nun and her flock had endured the invasion as prisoners of the Japanese and are returning to the Far Reaches, their home islands, now occupied by Japanese troops. The nun has near-impossible plans in mind for Thurlow and a painful secret of her own; fans of the genre will know what to expect. Hickam (Rocket Boys
      ; The Ambassador's Son
      ) keeps the stakes high and the tension taut in this fast-moving historical.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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