Loved getting to see such a well-trod historical event through a variety of perspectives. Compelling mixture of factual events and imagined conversations and I can't wait to read the sequel about Midway.

Unfortunately, just when we’re about to get to the bombing of Pearl Harbor (which is all I’ve been waiting for), I’m just too burned out on the story to care anymore. Initially, I was totally into this one because it reminded me of my grandpa who was in the Merchant Marines back in the late 1940s. I figured it was giving me a glimpse into what it must have been like for him. And I was really curious about the Pearl Harbor bombing, but there was just so much detail and cheesy narration that I ultimately lost interest.

If you like Wii or pearl harbor books this is a must read. Very well written I recommend for history readers

Always so intricately detailed, like his dad before him, these novels are for those who really want to learn a different perspective on whatever war they're writing about this time. This was a relatively fresh take on the Pearl Harbor events and it kept my attention the whole time (which is saying a lot for historical fiction).

Jeff Shaara is such a master at weaving tales of war. Any history buff would enjoy this book that begins right before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Here is mister Sharra's take on Pearl Harbor through the eyes of many different people. You have the ones in our government, the Japanese government, Yamamoto who is planning the attack but also knows that they will be awakening a sleeping giant. The two friends in Florida who join up before Pearl Harbor and what happens to each one of them. What is happening in the world from Europe, China to the spy in Hawaii that has been taking and sending pictures. To the lack of communication from Washington to Pearl about what is really going on with the negotiations with the delegation from Japan to even MacArthur thinking that nothing will happen and that it is just a lot of talk.
When you get to the start of the attack the author takes you to what most people must have thought was going on that morning confusion, panic, then horror and finally pissed. You get a true sense of what everyone was feeling that day for everyone including medical staff seeing the men that start coming in.
What is really interesting is that when my wife and I took the tour to see the Arizona years ago that with all of the bombs that were dropped if just one had hit the storage tanks off to the side where the submarines were that actually would have done more damage to our Navy than the ships that they destroyed. Those tanks held all of the gas, oil, fuel for the ships for the Pacific Fleet.
Going through the story this way is very different and yet it was good to see it from all of the different sides. Then having the decision made that going to Europe would be the main focus, not the Pacific. That part has always surprised me. When you get to the end of the book the author takes you through the investigations about the attack and the two commanders Kimmel and Short were reduced in rank and held responsibly. In 1999 they would be given back their rank and not held responsible. What has always bothered me about all of the investigations is that MacArthur did not follow with any of the orders he was given about spacing of the planes and other orders yet he did nothing, yet nothing is ever said about him and his arrogance. When you get to the end of the book you still want the story to continue. A very good once again.

I thought better research could have helped this book. Yes, the story is gripping and action strong but if you write historical fiction you need to be accurate when describing it.

Mr. Shaara does not disappoint. One of the most noteworthy military and historical fiction writers delivered a enthralling fictional account of the events leading up to the Japanese attack on the naval fleet in Pearl Harbor. I have read multiple books by Mr. Shaarra and this is one of his best. The historical characters come to life and he pulls you into understanding their point of view. There are some slow spots in the book, but those are used to help the reader understand the feelings and ambitions of the characters. Although in the opening, he acknowledges that he is trying to tell the story from a neutral point of view, historical facts allow us to judge the actions taken by those governments so long ago. I was engrossed with the story of Hospital Apprentice Biggs, as well as the other historical leaders that Mr. Shaara uses to tell this story. Obviously, the big climax of the book is the actual attack on Pearl Harbor, and without giving too much away, it had my heart racing and I could almost feel the heat from the explosions. The narrative of the attack is one of the best action sequences I have ever read. When I read this book, I did not know if this would be the starting point for a series of books about the Pacific campaign, but there were a couple hints given that this is an area that he will go back to and I look forward to it.

I received a free ARC of To Wake the Giant from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Jeff Shaara has done it again. He has taken a momentous event from history and personalized it in such a way that readers feel a part of history. The attack on Pearl Harbor is studied in history courses but the motivations and the ingrained beliefs, the understandings and the misunderstandings, the consequences and the pain are clearly detailed here. Shaara takes real personalities from history and establishes them as individuals. Here he does not only focus on the famous and powerful like Roosevelt and Tojo but also on the ordinary and ill-educated.

Tommy Biggs grows up in post Depression Florida with few prospects. His family is poor and jobs are scarce. He joins the Navy with a friend more for the paycheck and adventure than for any national pride. Sent to Pearl Harbor to serve on the Arizona, Biggs finds that his duty in the sick bay provides him a sense of purpose he has never had. Through his experiences, readers learn about the fateful months prior to the attack and how America and its political and military leaders failed to appreciate the danger that Japan represented. Focused on Germany and its march through Europe, Japan is dismissed as an irritant who lacked the capability to cause the United States problems, especially compared to Nazism. Rudimentary radar and decoding techniques are detailed so readers can truly appreciate the lost opportunities to prevent the attack.

Shaara presents the planner of the attack, Admiral Yamamoto, as someone who views success at Pearl Harbor as just a momentary delay in Japan's inevitable defeat at the hands of the giant, America. He perceives that the natural resource limitations and small population of Japan will eventually spell doom when placed against the larger, wealthier, and more resource rich America. His attack plans require a great deal of secrecy and luck, both of which turn in Japan's favor.

The strongest part of this book is the actual description of the attack and Biggs' struggles to survive in the oily waters of the harbor. Severely burned, his experiences are painful to read. Multiply his experiences by thousands and the true horror of the attack comes through.

Historical fiction, especially well-researched and focused works like Shaara's, provide a personal view of history. His books provide multi points of view which then allow readers to understand the foundations of the events and the consequences. A thrilling read.

#NetGalley #ToWaketheGiant

“It’s the admirals, sir, playing with us like this is their own big-assed bathtub and we’re just toys.”

Jeff Shaara has written some of the best war stories ever published, and he’s done so for almost 25 years. I have read every last one of them. When I was invited to read and review his new novel about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor by Random House Ballantine and Net Galley, I was delighted, but also slightly apprehensive, because even after all these years, the subject remains an incendiary one; I needn’t have worried. This may be Shaara’s best book, and that’s saying a lot.

I’ll share a brief note about my own biases going in. My father was among the last men called to serve during World War II; he never left the U.S., however, where he was tasked with training new recruits to the still-new U.S. Air Force. But I grew up hearing about Japanese atrocities, and many of the bizarre stereotypes and misconceptions based on pseudoscience were told to me as fact. When as an adult I announced that I was about to marry a Japanese citizen, I sounded the waters with my family to see if there was resistance. I was told that my parents “still remember Pearl Harbor.” Meanwhile, my husband’s father also served during World War II—in the Japanese army. The topic was never raised by his parents around me, or at all as far as I know; but I asked my spouse a few questions to help me understand the Japanese perspective about this horrific conflict, and then I understood exactly how erroneous most of what I’d been raised to believe actually was.

So I was primed to read this book, and also a little afraid of what I might find. My internal map of Pearl Harbor was studded with emotional landmines, and at the book’s conclusion, none of them had been tripped.

Shaara tells this story primarily through the eyes of three people: Cordell Hull, U.S. Secretary of State under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt; Admiral Yamamoto, the Japanese architect of the invasion; and Tommy Biggs, a 19-year-old naval recruit from an impoverished Caucasian family in rural Florida. Shaara faithfully incorporates a character from the rank and file in every story; he does this even if there is nobody on record that he can report on, and so often, he is forced to create a fictional character based on experiences and characteristics from several people. When I saw no such disclaimer in any of his notes, I grew curious and wrote and asked him whether this is the case with Biggs. He replied that this time there is a Tommy Biggs (though the name is not the same), but that he did add the experiences of others in order to flesh him out. So this time, each of the three chief characters is based on an historical figure.

I learned a great deal. Though it’s well known that this attack profoundly crippled the U.S. Navy, sinking or badly damaging most of the fleet, I had never considered it from the Japanese perspective. Looked at in that way, it was not only audacious, it was immaculately planned and wildly successful. I also had never considered what a blunder it was on the part of the U.S. military to leave its equipment, ships, planes, and more so unguarded. In the fallout after the attack, we learn that the Navy considered security to be the job of the U.S. Army and vice-versa. What a colossal bungle.

Japan had emerged victorious from the Russo-Japanese War, and its leadership was suffused with overwhelming confidence. Japanese racial superiority would lead to Japanese dominance throughout the China, Indochina, and across all of Asia, they claimed, because they were meant to dominate their portion of the globe. Japanese leaders were convinced that the U.S. would not seek retribution following an attack on its soil because American isolationist sentiment was so strong. They genuinely hoped that this attack would result in an end of the U.S. embargo that crippled Japan, and which existed in order to halt Japanese expansion and force Japan to withdraw from its alliance with the Axis powers. Americans, the Japanese brass told one another, were too big, too slow, too lazy to retaliate. There were voices of dissent, however:

“For any of you who believe the Americans are not worthy of a fight, that they do not have the stomach for blood, perhaps you are familiar with the American Civil War? In the 1860s, they divided and fought each other in the bloodiest war in their history. They did not require any enemy to inspire them. They fought each other. Are you familiar with football?”

Meanwhile the U.S. military, press and popular culture treated the Japanese as a bad joke. One myth dressed up as science suggested that Japan would never be able to build an air force because of an inherent defect in the inner ear of all Japanese. It was physically impossible for them to become pilots! The condescension was rife, everywhere one turned. Hollywood depicted the Japanese as ridiculous, rodent-like creatures with minds that didn’t function properly. The Chicago Tribune stated that for Japan to attack the U.S. was “a military impossibility.” Japanese were said to be too myopic to be effective against a military target. And it goes on.

There’s all sorts of blame to spread around. Nobody in Washington, D.C. had told the top brass at Pearl Harbor, Admiral Kimmel and Lieutenant General Short, about the project named Magic, which intercepted and broke Japanese code. They had no idea that Japan was rattling its sabers to such a degree. And these two men appear to have been lazy, bureaucratic fools that ignored what little intelligence came their way. For example, shortly before the attack, the man on watch sees a Japanese sub in the water. Kimmel immediately assumes that the guard has seen a whale, and he goes back to bed.

There are three aspects of this novel that keep the pages turning for me. The first, of course, is my interest in military history. Shaara’s research is meticulous. The book is historical fiction at its best, which is when the contours of the story, even fairly detailed aspects of it, are correct, but the fictional genre is chosen so that dialogue and inner monologue can be added. Second is Shaara’s perceptive nature, and it’s this that permits him to choose the best details to include and cut what is inessential so that pacing never flags. And finally, his capacity to develop a character so that we feel we know him is matchless; in particular I bond to poor Tommy Biggs, a guy that can’t catch a break, until he can.

Nothing I can say will serve as well as what Shaara says himself. Get this book, even if you have to pony up full cover price. This is hands down the best fictional representation of Pearl Harbor on sale today. Believe it.

To Wake the Giant tells the story of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It begins about a year before the attack and follows the story of three main characters - a Navy sailor, a Japanese Admiral, and a high-ranking White House official - leading up to the day of the attack. Historical figures dot the book and Shaara’s great story-telling makes the characters compelling. A very easy and enjoyable read. Shaara writes in a fashion that focuses on telling a good story and allows casual readers to enjoy reading about historical events.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Jeff Shaara truly has a gift of making history come alive.

Over a year ago, I went to the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredricksburg, TX. Now, I have read a LOT of historical fiction in my life and more than my fair share of WWII books. But as I walked through the museum, I realized just how little I know about the Pacific Theater of WWII. Because I'm me, I immediately started searching for historical fiction set during that time and also went to Jeff Shaara's website to see if he had anything on that topic. Lo and behold, just a few days before he had posted that he was working on a book that covered the events leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the bombing itself. I have been anxiously awaiting this book ever since.

And it was everything I hoped for. As I mentioned on my review for Gods and Generals, Shaara has a masterful way of telling multiple sides of the story. And instead of choosing to tell the story from Roosevelt or a general's point of view, Shaara made the decision to follow 19-year-old enlisted Tommy Biggs who is stationed on the USS Arizona (giving insight into the daily life and perspective of an enlisted sailor before the American part of the war began), Secretary of State Cordell Hull (which gives insight into the "peace" negotiations with the Japanese Ambassador), and Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (giving insight into the Japanese thinking and planning that we typically don't hear much about.

There is also a long Afterward giving further details on the characters and research into the "was there a conspiracy and did someone in American know the Japanese were going to bomb and say nothing?" I appreciated the thoroughness and research in this section. It also sets up the next book in this series that will cover The Battle of Midway. (That to be honest I remember being a huge and important battle and a whole room dedicated to it at the museum, annnnd that's all I remember. So I'm looking forward both to the book and a museum revisit.)

If you have any interest in learning "the other part" of WWII, I highly recommend this book. The characters are interesting and fully-fleshed, the pacing is mostly great (if you're used to fluffy novels [hey, it's me!], this will definitely feel a little slower, but the pacing leading up to Pearl Harbor is really good and the battle itself is masterfully told), and I learned so much.

Content: while it's not violent and descriptive for the shock factor, war is hell and during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Shaara does not shy away from the horror and destruction. It was heart-rending in the way to make you understand and feel what was happening. The bombs, the fires, the oil spilling into the harbor. It was awful and you feel that. But be warned if you get squeamish reading about death and destruction.

Thanks to Netgalley, Random House and Ballentine Books for allowing me to read this advanced electronic copy of To Wake the Giant by Jeff Shaara in exchange for an honest review. In his familiar style Shaara tackles the World War II attack on Pearl Harbor. Although others are also included, the story is told primarily through three real life characters, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, Admiral Yamamoto, and nineteen-year-old Seaman Thomas “Tommy” Biggs on the USS Arizona. Through Hull we get the views of President Roosevelt, members of his cabinet, and chief US military leaders. Hull is also the person meeting with the Japanese ambassador and through him we get the political viewpoint from Japan. The US had cracked the Japanese diplomatic codes and were able to see the communications with their embassies. This top secret system was codenamed “Magic”. From the book we learn that the US relied too much on the Magic intercepts, not taking into account that these diplomatic communications did not include the plans of the Japanese military. Shaara covers that primarily through Admiral Yamamoto, who planned the Pearl Harbor attack. There was a conflict between the Japanese navy and the much more radical and aggressive Army. Yamamoto wanted to avoid a war which he knew Japan could not win, but realized that with the Army in charge war was inevitable. The Pearl Harbor attack was never intended to permanently cripple the US or lead to a Japanese victory, Yamamoto saw it as a way to delay any US reactions by six months which was the only way to allow the Japanese to complete their planned occupation of the Philippines and Pacific. And it worked for the purpose that he designed. My favorite viewpoint was that of Seaman 2nd Tommy Biggs of Florida. He came from a very poor family and saw the Navy as a way out of poverty. He was assigned as a hospital apprentice aboard the USS Arizona which was a dream come true. He was also an outstanding baseball player and played on the battleship’s baseball team. It was interesting seeing shipboard life and shore leave of an ordinary seaman, and of course, provided a vivid account of the fate of the Arizona and his shipmates on December 7. This book provides a good perspective on the year leading up to the Pearl Harbor assault, but the movie “Tora, Tora, Tora” covered almost all of the key events from the book. The advantage of the book was that it provided more background and details. I think the main thing I got from this book was a much better understanding of the mindset of both the American and Japanese governments and military. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a good understanding of the events leading up to Pearl Harbor and the war in the Pacific

Jeff Shaara has brought the tragedy of Pearl Harbor vividly to life in this wonderful work of historical fiction. Weaving actual and fictional characters, the story is told chiefly from the perspective of 3 actual and key figures - Secretary of State Cordell Hull; General Yamamoto, the man who planned the attack; and Hospital Apprentice Tommy Biggs on the USS Arizona. President Roosevelt also makes several appearances, of course. Thoroughly researched, this is an excellent look at how and why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. It includes the context of Japan's other acts of war prior to this attack, and the reasoning that kept America out of WWII prior to this attack. Written as a novel, it's very readable and very informative - I thoroughly enjoyed it, and learned a lot. I particularly enjoyed the postwar update at the end on many of the characters mentioned in the book. Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine for the e -arc. If you like historical fiction, you should love this. 4.5 stars!

To Wake The Giant by Jeff Shaara- The dawn attack on Pearl Harbor has been told many times, and I've read the other accounts, Walter Lord's, Gordon Prange's, and others. If you are interested in the event, this is a very comprehensive telling from three different perspectives about what happened and why. Shaara, working this story like so many of his successful histories, brings an immediacy to the proceedings. Rather than a dry reading, he forms the narrative-like a work of fiction, after diligent research into each person's background and character, to breath life into the story. The build up to December 7, 1941 is a slow but involved and tension accelerated journey toward the inevitable attack. One of the main participants is serving on the battleship Arizona, and during the attack he is put through the worst hell of war that can be imagined. After the attack, we see the reactions from both sides. A very complete look at the famous or infamous happening. Thank you Random House and Netgalley for the ARC.

Jeff Shaaras' book, To Wake the Giant, covers an event well chronicled, an event that most of us may believe we know all we need to know about. This book proves that such an assumption would be mistaken. This book must be read because it not only covers Pearl Harbor from an exhaustive prospective and retrospective aspect, it is also a novel that you simply cannot put down until you learn what happens to its compelling characters, characters who are on both the Japanese and American sides.
Many historical novels provide the facts, the events and the historical figures. This novel accomplishes that as well but as importantly, it fully develops and shares the stories of characters you learn to care more about than the well known figures we all recognize by name. Can't wait to read more from this great writer/story-teller.

I really liked this book! It was well-researched and had a lot of history in it. This is one of my favorite times to read about in history and this book did not disappoint!

It's a day by day thriller of the events leading up to the Pearl Harbour attack. Shaara puts together a gripping thriller going through the history of the tragedy. I enjoyed the book.

Jeff Shaara has done it again! He has given us a masterful, suspenseful, exciting, and easily readable book. I have read all of his books, and believe that this one may be the best of all. Covering the runup to the war against Japan, he makes it feel like you are there, in the room (or ship) witnessing the conversations. Whether Roosevelt, Hull, Yamamoto, or any of the other characters, Shaara excels in putting you into the scene. I literally could not put this book down! It was fantastic! This one will go into my "favorite reads" folder!

Thank you to Netgalley for the oportunity to read and review this book. As always, Jeff Shaara presents an enjoyable take on an aspect of history and gives it depth not otherwise known. His in-depth knowledge of history is unmatched and his writing flows without error. There are many theories as to the lead up to America's involvement in World War Two. Shaara discusses the conspiracy theory that Roosevelt knew of the attack on Pearl Harbor in the afterword but does not bring it up in the book. My only problem with this book is that Shaara tends to be a bit wordy when telling about situations or the thinking of characters.