Product Description
The first in an exciting new series from the bestselling author of Bravo Two Zero.

Set both in Afghanistan and the UK, War Torn revolves around a close knit group of soldiers and their friends, families, and loved ones. War Torn has been optioned by the BBC for an eight part television series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Superb
An excellent book. Lots of people write about war and struggle but only Andy McNab can make it feel like you are there. You feel the fear, you live the the war.
He has seen it all, done it all and this book shows it.This book captures life on the front line and ties it in with the loved ones back home in such a way that it feels as if you are reading a factual account instead of a novel.Definitely a must read. ... Read more

Product Description
Danny Watts's grandfather, Fergus, was a traitor. One of the worst sort. An SAS explosives expert who betrayed his country and his regiment for money. Drug money. He was arrested and left to rot and die in a Columbian jail. At least, that's what seventeen year-old Danny is told when his hopes of becoming a soldier are destroyed for ever. But he knows something the army doesn't seem to know. Fergus Watts is alive and in the UK, living in secret under an assumed name - but where? Fergus is Danny's only living relative. Burning with fury and desire for revenge, Danny sets out to track down his grandfather and expose him. In doing so he sets in train an explosive sequence of events which throw Danny and Fergus together on the run from the people who want Fergus, and now Danny, dead. Packed with breathtaking action, SAS procedures, surveillance and survival techniques, this is a fast-moving, action-packed thriller for teenagers. There will be several books in the BOY SOLDIER sequence. TV rights have been sold to Zenith, makers of Inspector Morse, Hamish McBeth and Byker Grove. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Boy Soldier commentary
This book is a very inspiring story about a boy named Danny whose dream is to become a soldier. That dream changes when he is rejected by the British Army RCB Center because his grandfather Fergus Watts betrayed the SAS regiment. Now Danny wants to hunt down the man who ruined his dreams.But how can he find someone who is an expert in covert operations and trained to avoid capture? This is the main plot in the story. You will think of it as a boring book in the start, but as you read deeper into the book it gets more and more exciting and you will never want to put it down until you reach the conclusion. When you reach the end, you will feel a little sad to know that people believe that Fergus was the traitor but he really wasn't. Danny was not able to clear his name and will have to remain in hiding. I would recommend this book to 4th graders and above because I noticed that the characters swear a lot. If you are interested in military stories grab yourself Andy Mcnab books on SAS training. I give this book a 4 star rating.

Great Book!
I love any any book,fiction or non-fiction that is based on military or secret service(aka MI6,CIA).I even like books about the military hardware.Since I'm not a huge reading fan,I prefer video games and movies lol typically.But I enjoy reading from time to time.so the only authors I've read books from that are military based are Tom Clancy(good videogames to),Dan Brown and Andy McNab.

I saw the book "Boy Soldier" in my school library,I knew by the title and "Sgts stripes" on the front cover as well as the snipers view that this book would be military related.So I started reading instantly,and I'm completely glued to it.Since its a fairly long book,I read it from Wednesday to now.I hid it under a book shelf,bookmarked and so far on page 133.I wasn't allowed to borrow it,because in my school you ain't allowed the borrow any books if you have any overdue books,and I owe the library 3 books since July.So today,I actually pinched it for the weekend.

This book is set in England and is about a teenager who is about 17 years old,his name is Danny Watts and has the life long dream to join the Army,he applies and completes the training coarses,even doing more than he has to and even in relaxation time,he avoids alcohol,unlike other candidates who go to the pub for beer in relxation time.But he just has a Diet Coke if he goes.However his application is turned down,not because he failed the training but because of his grandfather,an ex-SAS special forces soldier who won many medals and served in the Gulf War who on a mission in Colombia in about 1997,was thought to have betrayed his country and started dealing drugs in Colombia.The English Media despised him of this and was thought to have died in jail.

Danny,never knew his grandfather that well,all he knew is that he was in the Army and had an old photo of him.Danny is completely set off about this and he too hates his grandfather,but him and his best friend,Elene a star student who got a load of A's in her GCSE's try to discover more about this mysterious legendary soldier.
But on his journey begins to get tailed and watched by operatives of a secret service who are armed and hot on his tail.a sub-contience was bothering him,but nobody believes him.
It looks like I've spoiled alot of it but this is only beginning stuff of the book.

There are some issues though for example Andy was an SAS operative himself once,but I don't think he actually wrote this.some of the gun details are wrong,not most but some of them are.
he desribes the MP5 as an "AUtomatic Machine Gun" when its not precisely that,it actually a selective fire submachine gun.and NVG stands for Night VISION Goggles NOT Night VIEWING Goggles.But he got all the other data right though.

But still great book and I plan to read all of its sequels soon.

OK bye.

Andy McNab was probably the technical advisor
Having read all of Andy McNab's "Nick Stone" novels, I thought I'd try this YA book and ordered it from amazon.co.uk. I didn't see it in the bookstores here (though the third book in the series TRAITOR is on sale).

The story surrounds 17-yr-old Danny Watts's tracking down of his grandfather, Fergus Watts, whom he has never seen. Both of Danny's parents were killed in a car accident, so he was sent from foster home to foster home thinking he had no living relatives to take him in and care for him. When Danny tries to enlist in the army, he is denied acceptance. He learns his grandfather was a member of the elite SAS and a war hero, who turned traitor for drug money when he was serving in Columbia training their military, was shot and imprisoned, and then escaped to no one knows where. Full of anger, Danny is determined to find him. He is helped along the way by his computer wiz friend Elena who also lives at Foxcroft, a London home for orphans. Danny sets out to find Fergus, not knowing that he is being followed by some very dangerous people who also want to find Fergus and kill him. He meets his grandfather for the first time and that's when the action begins.

I think the book was mostly written by co-author Robert Rigby with technical assistance and name recognition from Andy McNab. If you've read any of McNab's other books, you'll know that they are full of military terms and "letters," as is this one. By that I mean, there are abbreviations for many things and they are used a lot: ERV = emergency rendezvous; FOB = forward operating base; Recce = reconnaissance, etc. This, I think, is where McNab came in. Fortunately, there is a glossary at the beginning of the book to help the reader understand what's being said by the characters.

I don't agree with the previous reviewer. It is still a good story in the vein of McNab's adult thrillers, but toned down for the YA audience. For those who are looking for another Alex Rider type of action/techno-gizmo yarn, you'll be disappointed. There are chases and shootings and bloody parts, but nothing like the James Bond special effects books about Alex Rider, though I do like Horowitz's novels.

Boy Soldier/Traitor
They are the same books under different names (and I bought both!). It is obvious that Mcnab did not really 'write' this one as there are some obvious mistakes such as describing an MP5 as an 'automatic machine gun', which irritates the hell out of me. One does not find the usual high quality material that is associated with the 'Nick Stone' series. Most of the SAS MO is old had have been seen elsewhere. The plot is somwwhat anemic and it appears that Danny manages to screw up just so that there is some shooting. I am personally quite dissapointed with this new series. ... Read more

Product Description
Having proved his grandfather Fergus’ innocence, Danny Watts and hisfriend Elena have now been recruited by the British government fora dangerous assignment. Elena must impersonate a would-be suicidebomber to win the confidence of Black Star, the master computer hackerwho is behind the rash of teenage bombings that have swept the globe.

When Black Star sends Elena to New York, Danny and Fergus comealong to keep an eye on her. But Fergus knows that once this mission isover, the government will have them all eliminated. As Elena begins tofall under Black Star’s spell, it will take all of Danny’s survival training tofind a way out.

Having scored smash bestsellers in Britain with Traitor and Payback, theadventure continues in Avenger with all the authentic Special Ops detailsthat made the previous books stand out. ... Read more

Product Description
"A STUNNING ACTION THRILLER FROM A REAL-LIFE HERO. Kevin Dodds leads a dull, uneventful life. He has a steady job at the bank, a nice house and car. His wife goes to Bingo on a Saturday night, but he usually stays in to save money. But Kevin has spent enough quiet nights in watching TV and decides he'd like a night out himself. And he's not talking about a pint and a packet of peanuts down at the local. He's going to attempt to pull off a daring bank robbery single handed. Kevin is about to take a heart-thumping step into the unknown. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A good short story
This is such a delightful little story and such an easy read. As an avid reader of David Nobbs's books, I noticed an immediate similarity between the hero of this story, Kevin Dodds, and those more famous Nobbs characters, Reginald Perrin and Henry Pratt. That takes nothing away from Kevin's adventure as he steps out of his life as a loyal and boring bank employee into the much more exciting mantle of a bank robber. You'll have to read it to find out more! ... Read more

Product Description
No publicity, no media. We move in silently, do our job, and melt away into the background. If you have the stamina, the willpower and the guts, we’ll welcome you with open arms and you one of us. And if you haven’t, then it’s been very nice knowing you.

Eighteen years in the SAS saw Pete Winner, codenamed Soldier ‘I’, survive the savage battle of Mirbat, parachute into the icy depths of the South Atlantic at the height of the Falklands War, and storm the Iranian Embassy during the most famous hostage crisis in the modern world.

For the first time Pete also details his close-protection work around the world, from the lawless streets of Moscow to escorting aid convoys into war-torn Bosnia. He also unveils the problems of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder faced by many Special Forces veterans, and how he battled his own demons to continue his roller-coaster career. This is his story, written with a breathtaking take-no-prisoners attitude that brings each death-defying episode vividly to life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Get stuck in!
Even with the military acronyms glossary, which I discovered halfway through, this book is barely comprehensible by a non-Brit. While Pete Winners obviously has had a career of excruciating effort and periodic great peril, I had significant difficulty in understanding the context of his service time, largely because the point of view of//SOLDIER I//is taken almost solely from Winner's immediate perceptions and participations.

Mr. Kennedy tried to use repetitive flashbacks during a weeklong examination for suspected effects of PTSD as a way to move his readers from episode to episode of Mr. Winner's service time. He has succeeded, to some extent. However, the almost complete lack of connecting events and living circumstances makes this a read of limited human interest, and while I am glad to have read it I will not trouble to reread it.

Some of the action, such as the battle at Mirbat and the Iranian Embassy rescue, make//SOLDIER I//worth reading for those interested in the subject of the SAS and its efforts for the free world. Col. Stirling would be proud of Pete Winner and I have the utmost respect for him, myself. Unfortunately, this piece of writing, unlike its subject, is lacking in professionalism.

Reviewed by David Sutton ... Read more

Product Description
Recuperating in Switzerland after a job that cost the life of one of his closest friends, ex-special forces soldier and deniable operator Nick Stone has only one thing on his mind: the girl who left his bed this morning without saying goodbye. And when she fails to reappear, Nick knows the honeymoon is over before it has even begun.

Her trail leads him to Africa, and the deep end of a very dirty Congo war — where it isn’t long before the past comes knocking at his door, and Stone finds himself catapulted once more into the dark and brutal world he’d tried to leave behind.

As one bloody twist leads to another, his apparently simple quest becomes a journey to the heart of a chilling conspiracy, to which he and his beautiful quarry unwittingly hold the key… ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Maybe it's time for Nick to retire to a small cottage in Cumbria
RECOIL, the latest of 9 or so books about the adventures of ex-SAS soldier Nick Stone against bad guys around the world is, I think, one of the weakest. Maybe I'm just getting tired of the same-old-same-old formula that McNab has been using to move Nick from one tight situation to the next from book to book. This time Nick leaves the comfort of Switzerland to fly to Africa following the trail of his girlfriend, Silky, who up and left him for who knows what reason. He eventually learns that she is in The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Why did she go?

I wasn't interested in Nick's efforts to locate her, primarily because Silky wasn't really a well-developed character and not at all likeable. Why would he bother in the first place? The usual stumbling blocks and shady characters are thrown in the way of his quest to find her and win her back. As Nick says, "I didn't have a home, not even a camper van or a tent. I had nothing in the world except a cheap ring and a beautiful German girl, and maybe I didn't even have her any more." Is this the stuff true love is made of? Does he really love her? I never got the feeling that he did. She certainly didn't seem to love him if she left for no reason and didn't even bother to leave a "Dear Nick" note.

The earlier books in the series (REMOTE CONTROL, CRISIS FOUR, and FIREWALL) were better written and held my attention. I genuinely liked the early Nick Stone and his relationship with the young girl Kelly whom he took under his wing after her family was murdered. There was the need for Nick and Kelly to get away from the evil guys who wanted to kill the people we cared about that's missing from this and the later novels. Too, there didn't seem to be the tiresome in-depth description of all the weapons used. McNab generally fills his books with technical jargon that gets in the way of the story, I think.

Some of McNab's fans will be less than pleased with this review, I know. It seems that people like to read glowing reviews and then rate them favorably. When a reviewer writes something other than what they expect, they give it a "thumbs down" and may even add a comment about how the reviewer probably "didn't even bother to read the book." Well, I did read the whole book (all 447 pages) and was not impressed. That's why I gave it a 3 star (C grade) rating. I'll stick with well-written thrillers by British novelist Stephen Leather from now on and skip Andy McNab, thank you.

Great REad
Kept me on the edge of my seat. This guy takes nuclear sub on unbelievableadventures. Great characters developed, good plot. Enjoyed the heck out of this.

fave so far
I have read all of the Nick Stone books (in order) and I have to say I like this one the best. The first person narrative really puts me inside Nick's head and gives him a distinct personality. I find his descriptions of what he sees to be very entertaining. Probably it's the British military slant. Also, his description of weapons and tactics feels natural and nevers seems to veer military over-description.

As others have written, the story is pretty good and all of the characters are fairly well developed. I agree that Silke could have been more detailed. Unfortunately, much of the detail was a previous book.

It's a little faster read than some of the previous books. To me that means he didn't stretch it out just to add more pages.

So, below is the biggest reason I liked the book. I'm sorry to say that I have to insert a

SPOILER ALERT!!!

It seems like in all the previous books, main characters that I developed an affection for all died in the end. Comrades-in-arms, both military and para-military, the daughter of his best friend, the list goes on. It seemed like each book had to have Nick alone (again).

In recoil, none of the main characters die. It felt right when I was done and didn't cast a pall on the rest of the story.

Blood and guts,
The only McNab I had read before this was his first biographical book which I enjoyed as the story of a very brave if not an attractive man. Stone, Mcnab's hero has his unattractive side too but beneath the tough soldier's exterior it seems there is a soft heart too. I think what you get with McNab is very much a reflection of the author himself. You sense he has used all these weapons.he is an expert in the field not in mere theory. he is not though an expert in personal relationships, except for soldier to soldier.

It is a gripping read set in the darkest heart of Africa. It is one long battle to survive against the odds and not many do. There is much blood and more use of the f word than I like to read but I guess that is the language of the ex-S.A.S. and their ilk. A happy if unrealistic ending. The romantic comes out in the author in the end.

Andy Mcnab: Recoil
Probably the best Mcnab fiction I have ever read. Lots of military action, which is Mcnab's forte as compared with espionage. Very detailed and authentic technical descriptions that other authors can only dream about. No unnecessary exaggeration or bragging as far as the main character is concerned in an attempt to convince the reader of his background (like some others do to make it look real). The most captivating thing about Mcnab's book is that one never knows whether he is writing his own experience or fiction! ... Read more

Product Description
In 1983 Andy McNab was assigned to B Squadron, one of the four Sabre Squadrons of the SAS, and within it to Air Troop, otherwise known as SEVEN TROOP.

This is Andy McNab’s gripping account of the time he served in the company of a remarkable group of men — from the day, freshly badged, he joined them in the Malayan jungle, to the day, ten years later, that he handed in his sand-coloured beret and started a new life. The links they forged then bound them inextricably together, but the things they saw and did during that time would take them all to breaking point — and some beyond — in the years that were to follow. He who dares doesn’t always win . . . ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Insightful
I found this book a great read. I enjoy McNab's books as he is very matter-of-fact and describes events well. This book is insightful and describes the bonds that those who work so closely together and under extreme stress develop. I subsequently went on to read the books written by some of his other soldier friends - they too were excellent reads, though very sad due to the fact that some took their own lives. A review I have read here describes this book quite negatively and I do not share that person's deductions. This book is about real people who had/have real struggles and McNab shares realistically and intelligently about his and his friends' experiences as special forces soldiers and their lives post army.

Great Read
I have read hundreds of books by SF people.Some fiction, some non-fiction.This one captures the look back of a mature adult reflecting on past events.McNab doesn't have a "pity party" as another reviewer states.The whole point of the book is to bring PTSD and related afflictions into the light.McNab is one author I would like to share a beer with.

Beneath the skin of British special forces
Immediate Action was McNab's story of his life and introduction into the SAS and this book does cover much of the same ground, although with additional focus on McNabs colleagues.
In this, we start with his introduction into Seven Troop and the assorted characters and as we move through Andy McNab's SAS career, we see what then happens to some of these characters.Now it has been a long time since I read Immediate Action and I have probably read close to a 1000 books since, so I didn't mind the re-hash which includes a brief description of the famous Bravo Two Zero event.
But as we move through his career we start to get to know the other guys as well and by the time the author ends his story, there are not many of them left, with assorted KIA and a couple of rather sad suicides.
But you do feel the bond and it is surprising how many of these elite soldiers can't cope with real life, the cause might be PTSD or just their inability to cope when not out there doing their stuff.
But I found it interesting to see the way the band of brothers style switched into a reality where most of them fall by the wayside.Not comfortable reading but still compelling stuff.

Don't waste your money.
After reading McNab's first two books (Bravo Two Zero & Immediate Action) I thought this might be as good. Two things. First, this book is a disaster of a pity party McNab has about three friends sad fact they could not handle life when they were not killing people. One killed his girlfriend and was sent off to prison. Another committed suicide by jumping out of a private plane without a parachute. The other suicide was by a teammate who supposedly found God. Well, he obviously did not understand God because he placed himself squarely into hell by taking his own life. Second, I am tired of seeing McNab's face blacked out after all these years. Chris Ryan and many other SAS soldiers have shown their faces but not sissy boy McNab. McNab continues to say it is because he is still in danger after not being in the Army for over 10 years. Don't buy this book ever, ever, ever. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

He served his time in Hell.
Lofty has written an outstanding book about his service in the British Army from the Korean War until the 1970's.He goes into detail about his capture by the Chinese Communists as a young man along with details about life as a POW. After being released by the Chinese, he resumes his military career in which he laters joins Britains elite SAS.
Lofty is a "man among men" because he has a can do attitude and would let nothing come between his goal of becoming one of Britain's elite soldiers even though he suffered a crippling wound to his arm during the Korean War.May the good Lord bless the likes of Lofty Large. ... Read more

Product Description
A terrifying new drug is threatening to destabilise society: who is behind it? The British security services must find out before a global threat is unleashed. ... Read more