I think the biggest issues with this book is the narrator who tries hard to give personality to the crew, but has the wrong interpretation of the story. That said, while not being typical Maclean, it is an exciting story and he paints a narrative of pure hell, pulled from his own naval experience it seems, and creates a great tribute to some very interesting times. I jumped on HMS as it was the 'good one' that I never read as I heard it was 'different,' and was the authors first major published book, so I knew it would not be typical. Granted I read many of them as a much younger kid growing up in South Africa, but they were always exciting and so I was thrilled when they finally released the audio books here on Audible. I have read most of Maclean's works and really enjoyed most of them. One doesn't get to know the eventual survivors in any detail. The characters are never more than caricatures. Even a plot like that might not be a big obstacle, but the events described during the escorting mission are far worse than anything experienced in reality by a convoy, even PQ-17 which was almost entirely destroyed. Perhaps that is the reason that this book was never filmed. As soon as you develop an affinity with a character, the story line changes. However, readers will probably realize that HMS Ulysses falls into the 'everybody dies' category. I don't want to give any spoilers which makes describing the rest of the book difficult. A mutiny on a Royal Navy cruiser during the war? Everyone involved would have been severely punished. Almost from the beginning though the story of HMS Ulysses felt not real. I was looking forward to a thriller about the arctic convoys in WWII, which is a subject I'm somewhat knowledgeable about.

Hms ulysses book