Like most coffee table books, the structure prevents this from being a page turner with all of its breakout sections and imagery. At times, it feels like the book has been thrown together in a pretty haphazard fashion - many of the maps are unclear, and the exploration component of the book reads like a blog post. However, as someone who knew nothing about the Battle of Midway, the book still provided me with an accessible overview of what took place. ( )

The cover quotes the late Stephen Ambrose: "Superb...the best book on the greatest sea battle ever fought." Either Mr. Ambrose wasn't very well read, or he his taste was unusual. I found this book to be an overlong National Geographic article between hard covers.

It's written like the script for a TV documentary: chapters alternate between history and Ballard's search for the wrecks. The history part attempts to be both eulogy and narrative, so if one already knows much about the Battle of Midway, the text can be annoying. It doesn't offer any new (even at the time) information or insight on the battle.

The main reason I borrowed it was for the pictures. These are disappointing. Those of the search expedition are simply uninteresting. I'd have enjoyed them far more if there had been a deck plan of the exploration vessel; but no. There are many historical photos, most of which seem to be practically a requirement for any history of the battle. Illustrations of the battle itself are mostly paintings, which are interesting enough, but are overblown, cramming too much activity into a single painted moment (there's one painting that is followed on the next page by a photo of the same thing as the painting. The painting evokes "Star Wars" scale & speed of action; the photo, seaship & prop-plane scale & speed). And, of course, the entire reason for the book in the first place is to see the sunken Yorktown. Under-freakin'-whelming. No more than two dozen photos, no photomosaïc of the entire wreck (just a couple of paintings that are actually more interesting than any of the photos), and – unbelievably enough – no photos of the flight deck. I mean, it's a freakin' aircraft carrier, for crying out loud. At least one photograph's caption misidentifies its subject (a sunken airplane of a type not in service until after the battle) and associates it spuriously to the battle; and at least one photo is printed in mirror image of the real world.

It's not entirely insipid, but that's not for lack of trying. ( )

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