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joellynsophia's review
5.0
This was probably more of a 4.5/5 only because of some of the jumps in the timeline that left me confused because there were too many years spanned. But now I need to go lie down and cry about hockey.
Though little to no hockey knowledge is required to read this.
Though little to no hockey knowledge is required to read this.
pammyj1883's review against another edition
3.0
I wish there were half stars, because I'm inclined to give it 3.5 stars.
It's a very interesting read -- especially if you're a fan of hockey, or remember living through the high times of Red Wings in the late nineties. The first half is intriguing as it documents the difficulties in getting the Russian players to the US. The second half is a more or less standard account of the Red Wings winning Stanley Cups, and while it has a big heap of nostalgia loaded onto it, the book feels like it looses a little steam.
(Having seen the documentary this book coincides with -- the documentary captures the feel of the era bit better, even if the book goes into more detail about things.)
My biggest issue is the writing style, which is more like a collection of newspaper articles than an overarching narrative. It could have used a better editor. Facts and stories become redundant as the narrative skips around in time, often going over the same thing multiple times. There are times when I wish we could have gotten more details. And there was even an instance when the same two sentences were repeated twice, only in a different format -- clearly someone forgot to delete the original two sentences when revising. The whole thing feels a bit messier than it needed to be.
Overall, though, it's an interesting read, and one I'd recommend to anyone who enjoys stories about hockey.
It's a very interesting read -- especially if you're a fan of hockey, or remember living through the high times of Red Wings in the late nineties. The first half is intriguing as it documents the difficulties in getting the Russian players to the US. The second half is a more or less standard account of the Red Wings winning Stanley Cups, and while it has a big heap of nostalgia loaded onto it, the book feels like it looses a little steam.
(Having seen the documentary this book coincides with -- the documentary captures the feel of the era bit better, even if the book goes into more detail about things.)
My biggest issue is the writing style, which is more like a collection of newspaper articles than an overarching narrative. It could have used a better editor. Facts and stories become redundant as the narrative skips around in time, often going over the same thing multiple times. There are times when I wish we could have gotten more details. And there was even an instance when the same two sentences were repeated twice, only in a different format -- clearly someone forgot to delete the original two sentences when revising. The whole thing feels a bit messier than it needed to be.
Overall, though, it's an interesting read, and one I'd recommend to anyone who enjoys stories about hockey.
deadpandasociety's review
4.0
Amazing to learn more about a team I was too young to remember! but book was great.
beataf's review
3.0
The story here is incredible, and I loved learning the history and context of the Red Wings franchise and the league in the 80s and 90s. It's an astounding story.
Unfortunately, the book itself is rather poor. Most of it reads like columns copy and pasted from the author's day job at the newspaper, except no one did a second pass to take out repetitive passages or even to lightly edit the last hundred pages. The unbelievable, beyond-Hollywood arc of events kind of falls flat in this treatment. The pacing is off and lack of clarity on temporal progress makes it difficult to read (what season is this? what year? who are we talking about?) - luckily for Gave, his subject matter writes the drama itself and the reader leaves the book happy.
Unfortunately, the book itself is rather poor. Most of it reads like columns copy and pasted from the author's day job at the newspaper, except no one did a second pass to take out repetitive passages or even to lightly edit the last hundred pages. The unbelievable, beyond-Hollywood arc of events kind of falls flat in this treatment. The pacing is off and lack of clarity on temporal progress makes it difficult to read (what season is this? what year? who are we talking about?) - luckily for Gave, his subject matter writes the drama itself and the reader leaves the book happy.