If you enjoy naval history, WWII history or stories about the heroism of men in the face of incredible circumstances, you will probably enjoy this book.

The authors provide a solid background to the events leading up to the typhoon which strikes Third Fleet on December 18, 1944. They recount the early setbacks of US naval forces in the Pacific, the turning point at Midway, the Halsey-Spruance rivalry [full disclosure: I am a Spruance partisan and I think, in the words of Capt. Marko Ramius in 'The Hunt for Red October', 'Halsey acted stupidly'], Halsey's controversial actions during the Battle of Leyte Gulf/San Bernadino Strait, and Halsey's relationship with Gen. MacArthur. The authors also introduce us to the ships and their crews that will be hardest hit by the typhoon.

Then they give the reader a near hour-by-hour account of the formation of the typhoon and Third Fleet's blundering into its path. As the typhoon lashes the ships of the fleet we hear some truly amazing tales of the destructive force of the storm and the efforts of the ships and their crews to survive, not always successful.

I withheld a star in my rating of this book because I felt like the authors should have provided a little better explanation of how storms such as this form. They provide some explanation but I think they presume more knowledge of such things than the average reader is likely to have. The same goes for the explanations of nautical navigation and ships' structures. A diagram or a few pages on the main structures in these ships would have helped me greatly. In the end, these are relatively minor failings and didn't dampen my enjoyment of the book very much at all.