Rating: 
Summary: a very exciting yet tragic story
Review: I really don't know how to explain this book. It was pretty much every kind of emotion except sadness. It's not really that sad until it gets to the end. This book is breathtaking, exciting, tragic, anything you can think of. Billy Tyne and his crew acted like they didn't take things seriously except when it came to fishing. They were very serious when it came to fishing, because fishing was pretty much their life. They even sometimes fished in the winter, but they had to because that is how they made their money. They set out on an adventure, the last one of this year, to the Grand Banks, about 200 miles off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts, where their boat the Andrea Gail was docked at. They end up getting in a huge storm, known as "the storm of the century," and their boat gets flipped over. All 6 crew members died including Billy. This book was very exciting and tragic, and I recommend it to all types of teenagers.
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Summary: If it is any consolation, the movie is worse
Review: There was a lot of technical, boring stuff that pertained to fishing boats and meteorology. What could I have expected? Still, the long passages where the intricacies of sword fishing were explained really bored me. I very much disliked the glorification that the author made of the crew members. The fact of the matter is that they were just a bunch of maladjusted men (may they rest in peace). Please do not think of the word "hero" when describing the crew. The only heroes were the National Guard rescue crew, because they did risk their lives in order to save others. Bobby, Billy and company were no heroes (this is the most corrupted word in today's language).I did watch the movie, hoping for some color. Somehow, the storm representations did not have the same vividness in a page than on the screen. The movie has some typical Hollywood defects, like once again the prettifying of the crew, their glorious lives, etc, etc. I liked the map!
Rating: 
Summary: PERFECT STORM: almost perfect reading...
Review: Wolfgang Petersen's cinematic rendering of Junger's PERFECT STORM
does the-article-turned-Best Seller justice.As usual,in my estimate,the book is better.Junger's written explication of technical aspects of a developing monster storm is engrossing and frightening in a way that watching Yuppie Boston Newsroom Weathermen (in the film, cheering-on advent of an apocalpytic catastrophe)is merely repugnant. Additonally:the author's description of a drowning man's last moments is gripping. The other major aspect of the book...Peterson left out of his film undoubtedly due to time/budget constraints...concerns training and deployment of PARA-RESCUE teams. Their regimen, he states,is military to the max, and demands excellence and courage in physical stamina and swiming/scuba skills of caliber exceeding those required of elite SEAL combat squads. These chapters of PERFECT STORM...alone...make the piece exciting, informative, sometimes awe inspiring if not "perfect" reading.
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Summary: Blew Me Away!
Review: The other reviews give more detailed reasons for liking this book, than I will - and you should read them. (Except for the kid who claims the book was like the movie - not! SOMEONE was cheating on his homework!) In my words, the movie was an informed speculation of the details of the Andrea Gail's tragedy - too well done. There wasn't a dry nose in the movie theatre for much of the end of the movie. In a way, this is a tribute to both the individuals who lost their lives and the author who introduced their story, Sebastion Junger. But, to Mr Junger, I owe you a life-changing read. Your book built wonderfully along with the storm, as you had wanted. But mostly, for me, it was the heroism at the end of your book that simply blew me away! I can't imagine anyone reading about the rescuers and not gaining faith that there are people like angels in this world. This is a good book for the cynical to read. Like for me, it might change their whole view of humanity. I've read hundreds, maybe thousands, of books. This is my favorite.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrys review
Review: I think this book is good its not great but its good. I got this book for my english class because we needed to read a book. I have watched the movie so i wanted to read the book to see if it is the same or if it is different.So far it is the same.
Rating:
Summary: The perfect storm
Review: I absolutely love the film "The Perfect Storm". I didn't fall in love with the film until I saw it on TNT earlier this year. What really intrigued me about the story of the missing crew of the Andrea Gail is that I have a brother who used to work on a fishing boat. I recently found a cheap copy of Sebastian Junger's "The Perfect Storm" at a local bookstore. I bought it because I just wanted to see how different it was from the film version. I knew it was going to be different but I didn't know how much so. I found the book absolutely compelling but not as much as the film. The film is more fictional in terms of what actually happened on the Andrea Gail when it got caught up in a hurricane. The one thing I really wish the film had which the book covered was the personal lives of the crew. I had no idea what sort of person Bobby Shatford and his girlfriend Chris Cotter was. Very little was given about William Tyne and the rest of the crew in the film. I think the film focused way too much on the concept of what happened to the Andrea Gail. Sebastian Junger on the other hand gives each person that was in the film, a brief history. Sebastian also goes into details the history of the fishermen of Gloucester, Massachusetts from the past couple centuries. I am glad that I read the book after I have seen the movie. I think the book would have made me hated the film, like John Grisham's "The Firm" did (read the book first, then saw the awful movie). Reading "The Perfect Storm" made me appreciate the risks that fishermen all over the world takes just to feed the world with the fresh fish from the unpredictable and dangerous seas.
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Summary: A modern day Moby Dick!
Review: When I started this book, it grabbed me, and I couldn't put it down. Fortunately, it's a relatively short book and can be read in a few hours. Sebastian Junger introduces the reader to the world of long-line swordfishing off the Grand Banks. One comes to know the occasionally wild and sometimes desperate captains and crewmembers of the fishing boats. Junger minutely details the work done and dangers faced by the men (and women) who go to sea (his work as a freelance journalist for Outside and other magazines comes in here). In this book, Junger gives a "true" account of the Andrea Gail and her crew facing and ultimately losing to the storm of the century in October 1991. He used interviews with the surviving associates of the crew and other research. He then made educated guesses as to what happened when the ship actually sank, since there were no survivors to tell, so that part is historical fiction, if you will. I heartily recommend this book as a quick exciting read. It made a round-trip flight from Denver to Boston and back pass quickly and saved me from the in-flight movies. I have not seen the movie based on this book, so I cannot pass judgment on the cinema version.
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Summary: Near perfect entertainment
Review: Junger's books does not tell a perfect story, but it is certainly great. The setting is the Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles off the Eastern Seaboard where three Fall storms converge to create one catastrphic "perfect storm." Several ships, mostly deep sea fishing vessles, are caught without warning and are forced to ride it out. The action is intense as howling winds and enormous waves break boats apart and the Coast Guard and other ships race to save the crews of boats that cannot handle the conditions. It is an excellent adventure story, on par with Into Thin Air or any story about The Endurance. Junger, however, also does a superb job explaining the technical details of deep sea fishing, Coast Guard rescues, and the science behind weather systems and waves. Though I was unfamiliar with each of those topics, I was never confused because he is very clear and uses layman terms to describe complicated topics. It added wonderful some intriguing lessons to what was already very a good book. I would recommend "A Perfect Storm" to anyone who likes a well written, fast paced, adventure story. It can be read and appreciated by people of all ages and should be read by anyone who has seen the movie so they can learn about the whole story, rather than one small part of it.
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Summary: A vivid cliffhanger recolection of a real disaster at sea
Review: On October 1991 a tropical storm collided with another storm in northern USA and Canada. The effect was the creation of a monster "Mother of All Storms", which wreaked havoc in the North Atlantic. Sebastian Junger, a gifted journalist undertook the task to present us what happened to the lives of sailors, fishermen and heroic Coast Guard rescue pilots indelibly touched by this monster storm. Junger takes us step by step in the chronology of events as the storms unfolds its terrible power and introduces everyone touched by this disastrous event. You will get to know the lost fishermen of the "Andrea Gail" from Gloucester, Ma., their colleagues, relatives, girlfriends, and the people of Gloucester, Ma, and each one of the members in the rescue team of the Coast Guard.
You will not be able to stop until you finish the book, undoubtedly one of the best in the last 20 years. You will not be disappointed, even if you saw the film...
Rating:
Summary: the imperfect storm
Review: In this one the story follows the crew of the swordfishing boat Andrea Gail. As the movie opens they arrive at their home port of Gloucester, Massachussets following a month of poor fishing. The captain, Billy Tyne is getting a bit desperate. He hasn't had a good catch in a long time. It's the end of the season but Tyne decides on a quick turnaround to get one more trip in. His crew grumbles but with the exception of one man headed south for the season, they go along. Tyne quickly adds a replacement and they take off. Luck is still not with them though and Tyne decides to leave the Grand Banks for the more difficult Flemish Cap to try and turn things around. It works and they have a huge catch. Unfortunately the ice machine breaks down meaning so they must head home immiediately or risk losing it all. The problem is that a hurricane is heading up the Atlantic behind them. They decide to go for it not knowing that the hurricane has collided with two other storms to make a meteorological monster of previously unknown preportions.
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