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Review ------ “Monumentally researched....A painful yet riveting history, especially valuable for historians and buffs.” - Kirkus (starred review) “The definitive account of the first phase of WWII in the Pacific....This epic yet accessible account sets a new gold standard for histories of the conflict.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review) “In Tower of Skulls historian Richard B. Frank has crafted a sweeping epic of the first five years of World War II in Asia, from the horrors of the Rape of Nanking through the catastrophic attack on Pearl Harbor and the tragic fall of the Philippines. In Frank’s expert hands readers will be transported from the battered Chinese capital of Chongqing to the roaring cockpits of torpedo bombers swarming the skies over Oahu down to the bloody emergency room where a little girl still clung to a jump rope. In this gripping first volume, Frank promises to do for the war in the Pacific what Rick Atkinson did for Europe.” - James M. Scott, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Target Tokyo and Rampage “This magisterial work swarms with events and personalities, which, with masterly deftness, the author marshals into a powerful narrative that never loses momentum as it recounts calamities familiar (Pearl Harbor, the disgraceful collapse of British-held Singapore) and forgotten (Chiang Kai-shek’s breaching of the Yellow River dykes to impede the Japanese advance killed 900,000 people and left 4 million homeless). Vivid, engrossing, and indispensable to an understanding of today’s world, Tower of Skulls gives fresh legitimacy to the shopworn encomium 'epic.'” - Richard Snow, author of A Measureless Peril: America in the Fight for the Atlantic, the Longest Battle of World War II “In this impressive reassessment of the early phases of the Pacific War, Richard B. Frank offers a rare combination of deep scholarship, thoughtful analysis, and compelling prose to illuminate aspects of the war too-often overlooked in Western accounts: China, Malaya, Burma, and Bataan. This is an essential and rewarding work for anyone who wants to understand World War II.” - Craig L. Symonds, author of World War II at Sea: A Global History “Richard Frank’s Asia-Pacific War trilogy is destined to become as much a ‘go-to’ scholar’s source as his definitive Guadalcanal, which has long been invaluable for researchers of America’s first Pacific offensive of 1942. Tower of Skulls is deeply researched, providing fresh evaluation of the political, economic, and scenes of the early years of the Second World War. And yet this book remains highly readable, thanks to an artful blend of personal perspectives and colorful battle summaries” - Stephen L. Moore, author of Uncommon Valor and Pacific Payback “Tower of Skulls is the opening volume of what promises to be the definitive history of the Asia-Pacific War, a gripping account of two wars―one on the Asian mainland, the other in the islands of the Pacific―that conjoined and became a history-changing struggle without mercy or precedent. The is epic and the story has the pulling power of fiction. It is that rare thing: a work of staggering scholarship bound to appeal to a wide reading audience.” - Donald L. Miller, author of Vicksburg: Grant’s Campaign that Broke the Confederacy Read more ( javascript:void(0) ) About the Author ---------------- Richard B. Frank is an internationally accled historian of the Asia-Pacific War. He was an aero platoon leader with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam and is the author of Guadalcanal and Downfall. He is a member of the Board of Presidential Counselors of the National WWII Museum. Read more ( javascript:void(0) )