THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER by Tom Clancy (1984)

Narrated by Frank Muller.
Unabridged, 11 audio cassettes (15hrs)
Publisher: Recorded Books (1987) (on cassette only).
ISBN-10: n/a
ISBN-13: 978-1556902420 (library edition)
ASIN: B000JT5NFE

I lovingly converted my copy of this recording (only published on cassette) to MP3.
From audio cassette (Nakamichi Dragon) to CD (Pioneer PDR-555RW) to MP3 (iTunes 8).

Bitrate: ~80 kbps Mono, VBR (medium-high).
140 tracks total, split by sub-chapters, with some shorter ones combined (see titles).

Dolby NR was NOT used. Post-process/equalize to your liking.


This is my favorite best book on tape. Period.
This is the reading that elevated Frank Muller to superstar status.
This is book that introduced the world to the technically detailed espionage and military science storylines of Tom Clancy.
This is the masterly reading of a masterpiece!

The novel was originally published by the U.S. Naval Institute Press — the first fictional work they ever published and still their most successful.

PDF and audio cover artwork (battered) included.

Cheers, FerraBit
March 2009

Links: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunt_for_Red_October 

Originally posted: thepiratebay, demonoid, mininova
________________________________________

Somewhere under the North Atlantic, the commander of the Soviet submarine Red October is racing for the east coast of America to defect, with the newest addition to the Soviet Navy. The Americans want Red October. The Soviets want her back. The hunt is on.

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  FerraBit selected random quotes:
(contains spoilers - I just assume *everyone* read this book back in the 1980's, but...)

   Tupolev had never expected that this would be easy. No attack submarine commander had ever embarrassed Ramius. He was determined to be the first, and the difficulty of the task would only confirm his own prowess. In one or two more years, Tupolev planned to be the new master.


   "Of course," Ramius smiled, "but they will not know where to look until it is too late. Our mission, comrades, is to avoid detection. And so we shall."


  "And your admiral," Parker went on conversationally, "said that you don't fancy flying."
Ryan's hands grabbed the armrests as the Harrier went through three complete revolutions before snapping back to level flight. He surprised himself by laughing. [...]
"What's the flap? I mean, sir, that they turned my ship around. Then I get orders to ferry a VIP from Kennedy to Invincible."
"Oh, okay. Can't say, Parker. I'm delivering some messages to your boss. I'm just the mailman," Ryan lied. Roll that one three times. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrier_Jump_Jet


   The reactor emergency was regulated by physical laws. With no reactor coolant to absorb the heat of the uranium rods, the nuclear reaction actually stopped—there was no water to attenuate the neutron flux. This was no solution, however, since the residual decay heat was sufficient to melt everything in the compartment. The cold water admitted into the vessel drew off the heat but also slowed down too many neutrons, keeping them in the reactor core. This caused a runaway reaction that generated even more heat, more than any amount of coolant could control. What had started as a loss-of-coolant accident became something worse: a cold-water accident. It was now only a matter of minutes before the entire core melted, and the Politovskiy had that long to get to the surface.
   In the control room power was lost to the electrically controlled trim tabs on the trailing edge of the diving planes, which automatically switched back to electrohydraulic control. This powered not just the small trim tabs but the diving planes as well. The control assemblies moved instantly to a fifteen-degree up-angle—and she was still moving at thirty-nine knots. With all her ballast tanks now blasted free of water by compressed air, the submarine was very light, and she rose like a climbing aircraft. In seconds the astonished control room crew felt their boat rise to an up-angle that was forty-five degrees and getting worse. A moment later they were too busy trying to stand to come to grips with the problem. Now the Alfa was climbing almost vertically at thirty miles per hour. Every man and unsecured item aboard fell sternward. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_of_coolant 
http://books.google.com/books?id=W0_BL3_ImDIC&pg=PA73

  It took Shavrov a moment to realize that he had a wingman. Two wingmen. ...
  Fifty meters to his left and right, a pair of American F-15 Eagle fighters. The visored face of one pilot was staring at him.
  "YAK-106, YAK-106, please acknowledge." The voice on the SSB (single side band) radio circuit spoke flawless Russian. Shavrov did not acknowledge. They had read the number off his engine intake housing before he had known they were there. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-15


"Oh shit! Spade Flight, you have four Atolls after you," the voice of the Hawkeye's controller said. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atoll_missile


  Now! He flipped the switch, which deployed half a dozen high-intensity magnesium parachute flares. All four Linebacker aircraft acted within seconds. Suddenly the Kirov was inside a box of blue-white magnesium light. Richardson pulled back on his stick, banking into a climbing turn past the battle cruiser. The brilliant light dazzled him, but he could see the graceful lines of the Soviet warship as she was turning hard on the choppy seas, her men running along the deck like ants.
  If we were serious. you'd all be dead now—get the message?


  The plan was simple enough, just a little too cute. It was clear that the Red October wanted to defect. It was even possible that everyone aboard wanted to come over—but hardly likely. They were going to get everyone off the Red October who might want to return to Russia, then pretend to blow up the ship with one of the powerful scuttling charges Russian ships are known to carry. The remaining crewmen would then take their boat northwest into Pamlico Sound to wait for the Soviet fleet to return home, sure that the Red October had been sunk and with the crew to prove it. What could possibly go wrong? A thousand things.


  In a few minutes he was in the missile room, a vast compartment with twenty-six dark-green tubes towering through two decks. The business end of a boomer, with two-hundred-plus thermonuclear warheads. The menace in this room was enough to make hair bristle at the back of Ryan's neck. These were not academic abstractions, these were real.


  This American is decoying to try to take us away from him. Not too clever, this one. Marko would do better. And he would go north. I know him, I know how he thinks. He is now heading north, perhaps northeast. They would not decoy if he was dead. Now we know that he is alive but crippled. We will find him, and finish him," Tupolev said calmly, fully caught up in the hunt for Red October, remembering all he had been taught.


  "Contact spread way the hell out—instantaneous return, sir!"
"Brace for impact!"
Ramius had forgotten the collision alarm. He yanked at it only seconds before impact.
The Red October rammed the Konovalov just aft of midships at a thirty-degree angle. The force of the collision ruptured the Konovalov's titanium pressure hull and crumpled the October's bow as if it were a beer can. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_hull

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Goof of note: The chapter title "THE SIXTEENTH DAY--SATURDAY 18, DECEMBER" is read (incorrectly) as the 17th.