This audiobook asks what a Major League catcher, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, and a member of one of America’s most famous families have in common? They all participated in espionage to help the U.S. develop the atomic bomb before the Nazis could. While this story is true, it’s also a cracking thriller. Narrator Ben Sullivan does his best, using his deep voice and deliberate style, to entice listeners with the facts, and he alter his voice to denote characters. But while Sullivan delivers every word clearly and paces the book effectively, he fails to infuse enough excitement and emotion to carry the story forward. Better engagement would make the audiobook flow more smoothly rather than simply sounding like spoken words. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
The Bastard Brigade: The True Story of the Renegade Scientists and Spies Who Sabotaged the Nazi Atomic Bomb
Narrated by Ben Sullivan
Sam KeanUnabridged — 14 hours, 37 minutes
The Bastard Brigade: The True Story of the Renegade Scientists and Spies Who Sabotaged the Nazi Atomic Bomb
Narrated by Ben Sullivan
Sam KeanUnabridged — 14 hours, 37 minutes
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Overview
From New York Times best-selling author Sam Kean comes the gripping, untold story of a renegade group of scientists and spies determined to keep Adolf Hitler from obtaining the ultimate prize: a nuclear bomb
Scientists have always kept secrets. But rarely have the secrets been as vital as they were during World War II. In the middle of building an atomic bomb, the leaders of the Manhattan Project were alarmed to learn that Nazi Germany was far outpacing the Allies in nuclear weapons research; Hitler, with just a few pounds of uranium, would have the capability to reverse the entire D-Day operation and conquer Europe. So they assembled a rough and motley crew of geniuses — dubbed the Alsos Mission — and sent them careening into Axis territory to spy on, sabotage, and even assassinate members of Nazi Germany's feared Uranium Club. No theater of the war, from battlefields to laboratories, was considered off-limits, and for good reason: the entire outcome of the war rested on its shoulders.
The details of the mission rival the finest spy thriller, but it's the incredible characters — both heroes and rogues alike — who make this story sing. There's an ex-Major League baseball catcher turned clandestine spy. There's Joe Kennedy Jr., who died trying to out-macho his kid brother, future president John F. Kennedy. There's a Dutch physicist who, while hunting down top German scientists, also needed to save his Jewish parents from the concentration camps. There are Nobel Prize winners like Werner Heisenberg, Albert Einstein, and Irène Joliot-Curie, daughter of Marie Curie. And dozens more. Thrust into the dark world of international espionage, these scientists and soldiers played a vital and largely untold role in turning back one of the darkest tides in human history.
Editorial Reviews
07/01/2019
Science writer Kean (The Disappearing Spoon) switches topics with this sprawling history of the Western spies, soldiers, and scientists who worked to thwart Nazi development of a nuclear bomb, accompanied by helpful cartoon illustrations of the relevant scientific concepts. The chronological account begins by introducing a large cast, including Samuel Goudsmit, an emigre physicist; Moe Berg, a pro baseball catcher turned spy; Boris Pash, a WWI vet who commanded the book’s titular brigade; and Navy airman Joseph Kennedy Jr., who died as part of a failed mission to destroy German missile bunkers suspected of being nuclear bomb silos. The point of view shifts among these and other characters, taking them through various adventures, including the bombing of a Norwegian ferry carrying heavy water for Nazi nuclear reactors and an attempt to assassinate German physicist Werner Heisenberg. Kean often takes a jokey tone, which readers will either love or hate (describing Marie Curie, he writes “the old lioness roused herself and barged into the lab”), and the majority of sources are secondary, leaving it unclear how he reconstructed dialogue. Readers who love spy stories will enjoy this entertaining book, but WWII aficionados and scholars may want to pass it by. Agent: Rick Broadhead, Rick Broadhead & Associates Literary Agency. (July)
NPR Science Friday's Best Science Book of 2019
"A thrilling tale of wartime derring-do meets a richly researched story of postwar intellectual exploitation . . . . Perfect as a first foray into this period, and I defy any reader not to be drawn into the world of unlikely spies and Nazi Nobel Prize winners that Kean paints so vividly and infuses with such energy."—Science
"Thrilleresque science history."—Nature
"An exciting read for fans of World War II history, espionage tales, and the development of nuclear weapons."—Library Journal, starred review
"Bastard Brigadeis as entertaining as it is fascinating. Kean's colloquial expressions and metaphors provide levity to the gritty history of a world at war, with the survival of freedom, and possibly humanity, hanging in the balance. He never lets the reader forget what was at stake. . .Kean's page-turner about a still too-little-understood chapter in history deserves a prominent place in WWII collections."—Booklist, starred review
"An exciting history of the battle for atomic supremacy during World War II. . . Throughout, Kean eschews erudite fastidiousness for consistent action and brio. Beginning with the title, the narrative is an engrossing cinematic drama. . . Vivid derring-do moves swiftly through a carefully constructed espionage thriller."— Kirkus
Praise for Sam Kean:
"Riveting.... Kean has a knack for distilling chemistry to its essential elements, using stories and humor.... this is a dose of fresh air.—Library Journal
"Richly informative.... Once again, Kean proves his mettle as one of science literature's most gifted practitioners."—Booklist
"Entertaining... with sly wit and boyish wonder"—Discover Magazine
"Compelling stuff, written with verve and in a style that veers between simple lightheartedness and open jocularity.... Eminently accessible and enjoyable."—Robin McKie, The Guardian
A "lively tome"—New York Post
"Science is made fun whenever best-selling author Kean...is narrating."—Susannah Cahalan, New York Post
"Kean's real knack is for digging up strange details most textbooks leave out....More than an assortment of trivia, the book is an engaging history."—Allison Bohac, Science News
"A science journalist with a flair for words...[Kean's] language is fluid and accessible, even for the science-challenged."—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
"Kean is one of America's smartest and most charming science writers, and his new book could be perfect for summer readers who prefer some substance with their fun."—Michael Schaub, National Public Radio
This audiobook asks what a Major League catcher, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, and a member of one of America’s most famous families have in common? They all participated in espionage to help the U.S. develop the atomic bomb before the Nazis could. While this story is true, it’s also a cracking thriller. Narrator Ben Sullivan does his best, using his deep voice and deliberate style, to entice listeners with the facts, and he alter his voice to denote characters. But while Sullivan delivers every word clearly and paces the book effectively, he fails to infuse enough excitement and emotion to carry the story forward. Better engagement would make the audiobook flow more smoothly rather than simply sounding like spoken words. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
2019-05-26
An exciting history of the battle for atomic supremacy during World War II.
The core mission of the quasi-military group called "Alsos," part of the Manhattan Project, which was led by colorful scientist Boris Pash, was to determine the extent of Nazi efforts to produce an atomic bomb and to thwart it by any means possible. The Reich, after all, had world-class physicists like Nobel laureate Werner Heisenberg. The Allies, too, had considerable talent, most notably Enrico Fermi. Science writer Kean (Caesar's Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us, 2017, etc.) enlists several supporting players who had largely incidental, though dramatic, parts in the effort to deny the Germans' attempts to create an atomic bomb. There was Moe Berg, a spy and professional baseball catcher, who had the chance to capture or kill Heisenberg—but he was uncertain. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. perished in a nutty scheme to destroy what was thought to be a delivery system for nuclear weapons. The cast of characters, all well delineated by the author, include Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot, Robert Oppenheimer, Wernher von Braun, and Gen. Leslie Groves. "Known as a brilliant but ruthless manager—simultaneously the best construction foreman and the biggest asshole in the military—Groves was in charge of all army construction within the United States and on offshore bases at the war's outset," writes the author, who helps readers keep other characters straight with amusing descriptors: A colonel at Rennes was a "big swinging dick"; a "babbling" Neils Bohr "was simply incapable of keeping his trap shut." Throughout, Kean eschews erudite fastidiousness for consistent action and brio. Beginning with the title, the narrative is an engrossing cinematic drama, not an academic text. (Spoiler: Hitler, who was never much interested in science, lost.)
Vivid derring-do moves swiftly through a carefully constructed espionage thriller.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940173627728 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Hachette Audio |
| Publication date: | 07/09/2019 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 406,955 |
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