Weaving the stories of 4 to 5 men Ambrose tells a story about the Pacific battles of World War II. We get to see the various aspects of these men, the battles and conditions they faced and how war changed these men forever. ( )

I started to read this book with Steven Amborse's 'Band Of Brothers' in mind. And maybe that was a mistake because 'The Pacific' is not - in my humble opinion - on par with 'Band Of Brothers'. The storyline in it is not as clear and 'linear' as in the latter.
But - on the other hand - Steven Ambrose was a storyteller par excellence and hard to match by anyone. ( )

While I can admire Hugh's vision, and do understand why he wrote this book, alas, he is not the writer his father was. Was disappointed in it overall. ( )

I am also reading Leckie's and Sledge's books. This book is rough read for anyone new to accounts of this theater of the war. Other 2/3 star reviews of this book on this site give good descriptions of the specifics that make this book difficult to read: a choppy and often stiff narrative style, factual errors, poor maps, no indexing, sloppy editing, etc. Adding my voice to advise potential readers who are just starting to read about the Pacific war that this book is a discouraging choice for military history newbies.

This readable account promised much & only delivered about 60% of what it promised. I wonder why Robert Leckie was left out of this volume & I can't help but think that he was seen as "not being brave enough" by the author. The author, unlike his father, who is the most obvious comparison, seems bogged down in Unit numbers & positions making this at times a difficult proposition to follow in order to work out orders of battle & where units are. Not a bad effort but if you want something that is more limited in time period covered but broader in scope then i think I would recommend Max Hastings book on the pacific war over this ( )