Detachment Bravo

As a Brit female, I approached RW with caution, especially after watching those SEAL documentaries on Discovery and noting a definite lack of black and Native American faces..maybe they all had flu, that week...but I doubt it, so giving more money to prejudice supporting ex-Seals wasn't something I was hot on. Plus all the swearwords, which are only usually used by people who have nothing worth saying... BUT I salute RM, cos I liked it..lots! Just like the "Sten" books (you'll love em boys), silly things like character development are sacrified for a breathless, headlong dash of a plot that has no mercy for pointless waffle. There's loads of action, blowing things up and male bonding, done with suitable stiff upper lip Britishness by Mick and square jawed Yank machismo by Dick (unfortunate names there, RM, Mick & Dick sounds like a Morcambe and Wise sketch). of course it's the same book the 9th time with a few minor alterations, but it's so well done that it's highly enjoyable, with plenty of humorous asides - it knows not to take itself too seriously. I heard of these through Suzanne Brockmann's Alpha Squad seal romances (sorry, boys to use the r word) and I would not only read another one but I'llkeep it for reference as I'm a writer - if I want to utilize some "gun words" but don't want more than surface details, I can bang in the MP5 HK room broom with confidence! If your male partner won't touch the written word, the RW series is the place to start, as it's Boys Own all the way, and there is no actual depth to it - like Brockmann, RM addresses no real issues like sexual harrassment of female military personnel or persecution of same for their sexuality in the US Armed Forces, it's a straight rollicking adventure swashbuckler! The one part I strongly agree with is their views on authority - I know what it's like when them Above ingore the advice of them that actually does the work, and who has to clean up the mess...? RM and JW deserve every penny they've grafted out of this series, though I'm curious to know what real SEALs think of these and Brockmann et al.. Well done and let's have a few more!

My wife takes it as evidence of something profoundly wrong with me that I've read every one of Dick Marcinko's books. But then ... she can hardly be expected to understand anything about the joys of Rogue Fiction. Yes, sure, this is formula writing at it's most extreme: Marcinko has gotten rich writing the same book nine times. And, worse than that, if you think it's bad, I suspect he delegates all the work to co-author John Weisman, confining his own contribution to probably not much more than his name, Rogue persona, and the ugly mugshot they print on the flyleaves of these books. But Marcinko fans don't care about any of that, and in fact we admire him all the more for his self-interested Rogue cunning. Moreover, we like to think that he has more important things to do with his time - especially now - than sitting around like some kind of wonk in front of a keyboard typing out entertainment for us chair-bound tadpoles. Detachment Bravo has all the classic Marcinko plot motifs. It opens with a fast action scene in which Dick and his squad of oddly-named heroes take down a band of Tangos (terrorists for those unschooled in Rogue lingo), foiling their bloodthirsty plans. But, as always, there's no gratitude for Dickie. By flaunting the rules and showing up the incompetence of pencil-pushing military bureaucrats, he's brings down their vengeance instead. He and his loyal boys are forced out on the lam to unravel the vast Tango conspiracy, of which the opening attack was only a small manifestation. Relying on the limited protection of one True Warrior who has somehow survived in the military high command, and supported by his dwindling and embattled network of old-salt chiefs and other kindred sprits still scattered around in various places, Dick and his team go to work. They head off to various parts of the world and for several chapters engage in global high-tech sleuth work. They soon uncover evidence of a degenerate billionaire somewhere who is funding and masterminding the terrorists. Dick quickly tracks the guy down and, while not having enough evidence yet to take him out, nevertheless initiates an up-front-and-personal confrontation with him (i.e., slaps him around) just to let him know who's on the case. ... There is, of course, at least one detailed and slow-motion account of hand-to-hand combat between Dick himself and one of the unfortunate tangos, who meets his just end inevitably with something gruesome like a crushed skull. To anyone who has read even one of the books in this series, all this should all sound very familiar. Not that Detachment Bravo, like the others, doesn?t have it's own unique wrinkles. The degenerate billionaire, for example, here is actually two degenerate billionaires, a couple of twenty-something Irish brothers who have made it as (what else!) dot.com entrepreneurs. Who says Dickie can't stay current with the times? The novel also sports all the trademark stylistic devices: half a dozen or so 'f' and '

I have read most all of the Rogue Warrior series, and I must say, this is among the best. As a library administrator and ex-Marine I can recommend this book because it is at the top of its genre. Sort of the manly man's version of what women refer to as "light summertime reads", this novel is full of what action novels should be. I recommend it to all fans of action and suspense.

Not quite as good as Echo Platoon, or previous works, but still a decent read.The basic gist is that Dick has been exiled to running a joint counter-terrorist operation in England/N. Ireland with Mick Owen and soldiers from various services. They're hunting the True IRA, a group that in Real Life is laughably incompetent but suddenly has an infusion of funds that they're using to do some really unpleasant stuff. Things go wrong, Dick gets his face in the news, again, and he gets an assignment to hunt down a splinter group, the Green Hand Defenders, and to eventually get their backers, a pair of Irish dot-com billionaires.Several themes stand out. First, the Rogue Warrior (R) is getting really old. He misses stuff he would've picked up on three books ago, stuff that's blindingly obvious to the reader. His network of support is retiring, and his patron, General Crocker, is taking his terminal leave.There's also more of a focus on Dick this time. In past issues, his supporting cast was a lot more involved. This time, though, it seems like they're just...there. Even Mick Owens barely does anything all novel long. Oh, they do stuff, it's just more glossed over than anything else.Finally, the opposition...just doesn't have any caliber to it. The dot-com billionaires are really rather pathetic, and none of the hired hands stand out as worthy opponents. The method the tangos were going to hit Target # 1 with was impressive, to say the least, but that was it. I'd really've liked somebody for Dick to fight who I could be truly worried would win.This is, of course, a good novel. It's entertaining, informative, and downright humorous at times. It's not quite as good as those that have come before, though.

I have read and own every one of Marcinko's books. I have been reading his stuff since his autobiography and am still enjoying them. As always the book was blunt and expressed good views about politics and the military. As for the plot the book was written as always in his way of non-Hollywood fakes but realistic not to mention creative way. He shows what having a military especially such a highly trained one is for and how it should be used.... not how it should be managed like we see to much these days.