Rogue Warrior Detachment Bravo (Rogue Warrior)

Rating:
Summary: yet another chance to play "smack tha' rogue.."
Review: Eventhough the Rogue Warrior series has become fairly predictable, i have to say i always enjoy reading the latest installment, and this one was no exception. Yeah, he is always suffering "painfull dings", losing his gun, and having to kill the bad guys single handed, but hey. real life has plenty of "Murphy Moments" too. even if your the toughest navy seal in the U.S. I do think he comes up with some very interesting scenarios for his books, it's just that they all follow the same storyline.

Rating:
Summary: Losing his luster
Review: I have been a big fan of the Rogue Warrior since his first book was released. While much of the books are fiction, there is also a great deal of understanding you can receive on what the military has the capability to do. I read this latest book after the 9.11.01 attack because I appreciate Marcinko's patriotism and desire to create warriors in the military. It seems to be the job of military shoul be to protect and defend, sometimes be being offensive. The two negatives I have towards his more recent books are the increased use of foul language and his use of "insights" of people, places and things during an action sequence in the story.
I understand that the language used in the book is authentic but at what point there seems to be more of it just to reach the number of words appropriate for the book, what's the point? He also spends more time telling background on people or past events during an action sequence that should either be more concise or placed before the sequence begins. I find myself skipping over some of the history of his friends to find out what is happening in the present.
I will look forward to future books, especially in light of the bombings and the American response and hope that Marcinko will return to a more direct type of story-telling that will encourage us to create and support men of war.

Rating:
Summary: Predictable and poorly developed...the worst of the series
Review: Let's get one thing straight right out of the chute: the "Rogue Warrior" series of novels aren't going to be winning Pulitzers anytime soon. These are pure, testosterone-driven, profanity-laced, escapes from reality; they have been a collection of books that have been fun to read. However, after reading "Rogue Warrior: Detachment Bravo", I have come to the conclusion that it may be time for Richard Marcinko to retire to his Rogue Manor.

For starters, the most obvious criticism of "Detachment Bravo" is its utter predictability. It is a trend that started several novels ago and gets worse with each successive book. Heck, even someone who has only read one or two of his books could guess the action and plot. You can ALWAYS guarantee one or more sequences where Mr. Marcinko loses his weapon or runs out of ammo and has to grapple in hand-to-hand combat with a bad guy, will go personally greet and smack around the chief villain in the story, will go meet and smack around his superiors, and - in the climatic battle at the end of the story - will lose his weapon or ammo and kill the villain in a prolonged hand-to-hand combat sequence. Honest to goodness: for a guy who preaches perfection and team support, he is always goofing up, and his teammates - who are there to back him - are never around to shoot the bad guy he's wrestling. Again, I know it's fiction, but it really starts to grate on a reader after a while.

The second criticism is that the plot in "Detachment Bravo" was poor. This series has never been too much about a plot, but he has done better. This one was not well thought-out, seemed disjointed in a lot of places, and was simply poorly developed. Yes, the reader knows who the bad guy(s) are, but it is never fully certain what their ultimate aim is or - more importantly - what they're doing other than trotting the globe on a yacht. What the reader is left with are the usual Rogue Warrior cliches found in every one of his books and the aforementioned predictability.

Readers who want to get Richard Marcinko at his very best should read his first two books: the nonfiction "Rogue Warrior" and the first fiction book "Rogue Warrior II: Red Cell". They launched him to stardom, but he never really held this high level, slowly tapering off until a precipitous decline in quality of his last couple of novels. I rate the book with two stars; it could have easily been a one-star review, but he still wins points for sheer escapism in his writing.

As I indicated at the outset, it may be time for Mr. Marcinko to put the "Rogue Warrior" series out to stud. If he decides to continue the series, this reader hopes that he will take a year or two off and develop a better story. Otherwise, I'm not wasting my money.

Rating:
Summary: Rogue, Twisting in the Wind...
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Marcinko Faces His Deadliest Foes Yet
Review: This is another great book by Marcinko. In this book Marcinko comes up against one of the World's deadliest terror groups, the IRA. To be specific he actually takes on several IRA splinter groups two of which(the Green Hand Defenders and another one called the True IRA) prove to be some of the toughest and best trained bad guys dick has yet faced.
Like all of his books this one is true to life in terms of Counter Terrorist tactics, intelligence gathering and the deadly effeicency of the Irish guerillas. But in the end the bad people all get thier just desserts and Dickey boy saves the day, it is good fun and an exciting read all the way.