Book Review: The Band that Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

There have been countless shipwrecks over the course of mankind, many fascinating stories that will forever have people searching, wondering and remembering. For all these shipwrecks there has never been one more legendary than the Titanic, a disaster that has piqued the interest of millions of people for almost 100 years. One of the many interesting stories involving the Titanic was the story of 8 men who were playing music for the guests as the Titanic was sinking. Through chaos and a certain death, there they were playing a hymn that who knows how many souls it touched as people faced the end of their lives.

In the book, The Band that Played On The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic by Steve Turner we are presented with the stories of these 8 men that went down with the Titanic. In an attempt to capture how these men lived for them to perform this touching act Steve Turner goes deep into their history to find out who they are and where they came from. Steve Turner does go deep, and the information that he has dug up is astounding. You could tell he has gone through great lengths to get as much information as he could on these men and so we are presented with what feels a bit like a research paper/history book.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I received this book, perhaps I was hoping for more of a narrative view that reads more like a story and less like a history book. As I have seen movies about the Titanic and read articles/stories my perception is somewhat clouded to a romantic view of this disaster. The book does a good job in providing a lot of history, but falls short into turning it into a narrative that makes it easy to read.

If you are a history buff, especially of the Titanic, this would be a great book to add to your collection. But if you are looking for a historic narrative type book, this may not be of interest to you. For me, I struggled to get through parts of the book as I was expecting more of a story.

This book was given to me free by Tyndale house publishers for my review.