TLD: I went through most of the Bravo Two Zero books recently.  I'd just read the Chris Ryan version, so reread Andy McNab's account, and found them so different, I decided to read Michael Asher's 'The Real Bravo Two Zero'  The experience left a bit of a bad taste with Chris Ryan especially coming out of it with questionable ethics.  Asher put forward an all too believable theory of why Ryan might have cast Vince Philips in such a bad light.  I have not managed to track down Mike Coburn's 'Soldier Five' yet, but will read it when I can.

Some of these special forces reality books read quite well.  Without looking up the actual titles, there have been readble books about Seal Team Six, How I killed Bin Laden, and American Sniper.

That reminds me, I should have included the Bob Lee Swagger books by Stephen Hunter to may last post.  There's a decent movie featuring Bob Lee Swagger from 2007 called Shooter.  It's one of those movies you can watch more than once.

Geektastic: 

I have seen that film a number of times, mainly to drool over the CheyTac Intervention, a rifle I would dearly like to own.

TLD: I went through most of the Bravo Two Zero books recently.  I'd just read the Chris Ryan version, so reread Andy McNab's account, and found them so different, I decided to read Michael Asher's 'The Real Bravo Two Zero'  The experience left a bit of a bad taste with Chris Ryan especially coming out of it with questionable ethics.  Asher put forward an all too believable theory of why Ryan might have cast Vince Philips in such a bad light.  I have not managed to track down Mike Coburn's 'Soldier Five' yet, but will read it when I can.

markl:

TLD: I went through most of the Bravo Two Zero books recently.  I'd just read the Chris Ryan version, so reread Andy McNab's account, and found them so different, I decided to read Michael Asher's 'The Real Bravo Two Zero'  The experience left a bit of a bad taste with Chris Ryan especially coming out of it with questionable ethics.  Asher put forward an all too believable theory of why Ryan might have cast Vince Philips in such a bad light.  I have not managed to track down Mike Coburn's 'Soldier Five' yet, but will read it when I can.

I haven't read Chris Ryan's book but I've read the others, including Soldier Five. Asher's revisitation of the events around the mission and what went wrong has to be one of the best of these types of book that I've read...perhaps because he's less constrained by any official censorship, or the need to claim some form of fame that perhaps drives many of the others... If you like these type of book, I do recommend Andy McNab's book "Seven Troop" - detailing his time with the SAS, from selection through training and his time in Northern Ireland with more besides. I found it a really good read, and it includes some interesting insights into the psychological makeup of the special forces soldier, along with the effect that service with such a unit can have on a person.

TLD: I read that Chris Ryan actually called out Asher for a fight behind the bike sheds sort of nonsense.  Both Ryan and McNab claim Asher was led by the nose by Iraq stooges, but there was too much evidence supporting the people Asher spoke to for that to be the case.  In a way, I am OK with the stories being embellished, but Ryan makes Vince Philips to be a coward causing huge upset to his family.  Then we hear from Asher that Ryan was passed over to be second in command of the patrol by Vince.

It was interesting to read about what appeared to be jealous behaviour between SAS troops generally.  The banter also seemed to veer towards being OTT, but it was not far off that bad in the lab where I spent most of my working life.  We liked to think of it as character building :-)

The bottom line is that while Asher questioned the accuracy of the two book's contents, both he and the Iraqi witnesses were full of praise for the patrol's bravery and endurance. 

TLD: Just finished Covenant of the Flame by David Morrell.  If it had been written by a lesser author I'd have given up on it — it was so dire it was embarrassing!  Totally OTT dialog that treated the reader like an idiot.  Sort of "Keep still or I'll shoot you with this gun that I conveniently had hidden in my inside pocket".  I had a few more early DM audiobooks lined up, but I'll be passing on them now.