generally an enjoyable book - a lot of historic trivia for the area. The author tries to tie it altogether in the last chapter America's Burden - while thought provoking, it's a bit too slick. Also too slick are the aha iki. Do read them as there are a few more tidbits embedded in them, but for the most part are too clever. ( )

As the subtitle says, this is a history of the North Pacific, and although the subject interests me a lot, I found the book almost unreadable -- I read the last 2/3 very, very fast, so fast it might not have even technically qualified as reading. This book is long, with a "cutsiness" (I can't think of another word for pretend colloquies starring the author and the major personalities of the book) that makes it seem even longer than it is. And the reader will get a new appreciation of the phrase "excruciating detail."

But, in the interest of fairness, the book is thorough and well documented and the author obviously knows his stuff -- someone with different literary tastes could rate this much higher without argument from me. ( )