Rating: 
Summary: Never really understood the format
Review: Summary:
The book is a combination of a personal history of Carl Stiner, the apparent co-author, and a look inside the history of the US special forces and several of their operations, both botched operations and successful ones (though ironically I don't seem to recall any real successful ones).My Comments:
I am fascinated by the US special forces. As a result of this fascination I like reading spy novels and novels about special forces groups. But this isn't a novel. This is a very loosely arranged conglomeration of special forces history and personal anecdotes by Carl Stiner. The organization of the material never actually makes sense. It jumps around from talking about some of the forerunners of the special forces to recountings of actual missions and then back to other seemingly unrelated events and then to personal anecdotes. If there was an organization I somehow missed it entirely. This was hands down the biggest problem with the book and actually, for me anyway, made it rather boring to listen to because I never knew if I was going to be listening to a complete story (the events of a mission for instance) or if I was going to be hearing about stuff from Ranger training or the special forces handbook. What's more, when Clancy does recount the events of special forces operations he does so without any real suspense involved. He pretty much tells you what the result of the operation was, then tells you everything that happened as it was pieced together afterwards for the official reports and not from the perspective of the special forces operatives involved - there is no suspense at all. Overall, if you are looking for a suspense-laden Tom Clancy novel, this isn't the book for you. If you are looking for a personal history of Carl Stiner, you'll be disappointed. And if you are even looking for a coherent history of the special forces, you still won't be satisfied. Clancy tries to accomplish a lot of things with this book, but being clear didn't seem to be a priority. He should stick to fanciful novels where the good guys always win and stay away from actual historical accounts - he has no clue how to write them in order to make them interesting and coherent for the reader.
Rating: 
Summary: You want details.....you've got SOG details out the wazoo!
Review: Clancy's immaculate attention to detail comes to life in this non-fiction look inside the Army Special Ops divisions. Great book for military history buffs and those wanting to understand the politics of incusions and counterops. The book reads like a Carl Stiner biography.....but what better way than to read it Clancy-style? Way too deep for a non-history buff.
Rating:
Summary: Long on detail but still a good read......
Review: The Special Operations forces are those in the military rarely talked about and almost never noticed. For the missions they are asked to perform and places they have to go, it's probably better this way. To get an understanding, though, of how they came to be and what is entailed in their training and ideology, we have Tom Clancy's Shadow Warriors. Beginning with World War two and moving through successive decades, a picture is painted of the evolution of Special Operations including various units such as the Army's Green Berets and Rangers, the Navy SEALS, Air Force special operatives, and other elite teams. In conjunction with this, readers are given descriptions of various high profile missions conducted over the years to include Operation Just Cause in Panama, Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada, the aborted hostage rescue outside of Tehran, Iran in 1980, and the Achille Lauro cruise ship hostage situation. At just over 500 pages long, Shadow Warriors does a credible job in describing portions of Special Operations that many aren't aware of but if you're an avid fan of this topic, you'll probably be left wanting for more. As with many Tom Clancy books I've read, he relegates many passages to overly-detailed information that almost lapses into mediocrity. Once you get past these areas though, the book then continues to carry itself well once again. Although maybe not for everyone, Shadow Warriors is still an engaging and quite interesting look at those military personnel that do a job that others don't want and others can't do considering what the missions entail. This book is also a fitting tribute to all those who died over the years giving everything they had when it was needed most.
Rating: 
Summary: Very in-depth and detailed
Review: I enjoyed this book, but I'm not so sure I would recommend it to the casual reader. Clancy gets very detailed in the book and, at times, too much emphasis is placed on hammering out every little detail at the sacrifice of easy and interesting reading. "Shadow Warriors" gives a good in-depth look at US Special Forces and the career of retired General Carl Stiner. Recommended for those who really want to get deep inside the Special Forces (probably deeper than you really want to go). Not recommended if you're looking for light reading and edge-of-the-seat page-turning.
Rating:
Summary: Overall A Very Good Read
Review: Tom Clancy seems to write non-fiction as well as he does fiction. This look into the Special Operations units of the U.S. military is a fascinating read and anyone who enjoys such topics will enjoy this. However, there was one problem. Too much of it is not really about Special Ops. While the stories about Lebanon and the career of General Carl Stiner (Retired) are interesting, especially the Lebanon one, they are in no way stories about our Special Ops forces. Not to say that those stories are not present, because some are and they are what the whole book should be about. Overall, though, most who enjoy the true-life adventures contained in our military history will certainly find this a worthy purchase. I would recommend it wholeheartedly.
Rating:
Summary: Should Have Been 300 pages Shorter
Review: This book had a few decent stories, mixed into pages upon pages of mindless fluff. There are far better books about special forces out there, books that actually tell a compelling story and keep the reader interested (Black Hawk Down is one). Skip this one.
Rating:
Summary: Ask Yourself If Clancy's Name Was Not On This Book Would You
Review: Buy It? I doubt it! I bought this book because Clancy had his name on the cover but don't be fooled... Shadow Warriors is not what it appears to be; Mainly focusing upon the higher level military officers and politicians, the author(s) never gives us a chance to look behind the scenes at the covert ops and the true Shadow Warriors. Personally I would have preferred a story about the men in the trenches. The problem with this book is the focus of the story. It's not really about the Shadows Warriors, nor is it a biography of General Stiner. It's hard to tell what this book is really about. General Stiner's life story is interesting but the book never really succeeds as a biography. We are never invited into Stiner's thought processes nor given a glimpse of his life and the decisions he faced. The one bright spot is Clancy's and Stiner's sections regarding Panama and Manuel Noriega. They were fascinating but hardly worth the purchase price. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy high level discussions about troop movements and military policy decisions. The history lessons about the true Shadow Warriors (i.e., the men in the field) are for the most part anecdotal and without any depth. Also, a word of warning. Don't read this book unless you are adept at military-speak, seemingly on every page there is a new alphabet scrambled acronym for some agency or command center. I admit I don't enjoy stopping all the time to figure out what CINC, CENTCOM, EUCOM or TRADOC means.
Rating:
Summary: Illuminating look at quiet professionals
Review: To most Americans, the Special Forces are an enigmatic group that never gets any significant press, and thus, their attention. That's part of the reason that they have been so successful, and why this book does a lot to reveal what the world of the Special Forces is like. Tom Clancy crafted a very readbale book on the inception and inevitable growing pains of the U.S. Special Forces. He does this mostly by relating the career of Army Special Forces General Carl Steiner, and illustrating the text with well-written accounts of highlights in the evolution of today's special combat forces. From missions involving terrorism, in combat during the Cold War and its present employments worldwide, the special forces have faced enemies abroad and at home, as the book notes opposition from "traditional" commanders opposed to sharing resources and losing some of the best soldiers. Overall, the book jumps from example to background, to example, and it does not detract from the story whatsoever. Since Clancy has started his examination of military leadership, he has written surprisingly well, given his fictional focus before. Readers will easily come out of this book impressed with the operators he describes, and better understanding of the special challenges faced by the men and women of the Special Forces.
Rating: 
Summary: Orients One to True Special Forces
Review: The longtime image of SF is the rambo, ready for a firefight type warrior. Here, one in the know for many years, Gen. Stiner shows us this is not the evolution and future of our SF. Recapping an amazing career and showing the evolution of SF into what they are today, this is enlightening to say the least. What admiration and pride we should have in these well trained servicemen. The need to be well-rounded, balanced and skilled in so many areas and disciplines makes these probably the most important warriors in our country's arsenal. The representation they bring to our country abroad is amazing, e.g. the transfer of the water buffalo, the treatment of the Kurds, it goes on and on. The intellectual and compassion of these warriors is truly something to be thankful for. What does concern one though is the infighting among the branches, and the distrust of the SF that even was evidenced in Desert Storm. Possibly we are seeing this resolved in Iraqi Freedom, let's hope this is so. Finally, the story of the SF in a hide site in Iraq in Desert Storm and his instant decision not to kill several decision due to his Christian beliefs, eventually placing him and his group in harm's way was a great read, and the event's outcome simply amazing. Well worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: Way, way inside
Review: Far be it from me to say that Tom Clancy's writing (his "Guided Tour" series, his "Commanders" series, etc.) has become formulaic. But while his earlier book with Chuck Horner, "Every Man a Tiger," was described to me as one of the best looks yet at air combat in the (first) Gulf War, this title struck me as much longer than it needed to be and at times more than a little dull. Like Clancy's other "Commanders" co-authors, General Carl Stiner is a fascinating guy with a lot of interesting stories to tell (or, at least, stories that would probably be interesting to typical Tom Clancy readers). In this book, however, his autobiography is combined with a history of the US Army special operations units (the subtitle of this book is "Inside the Special Forces," but this book is mostly an Army affair), a look at modern Special Forces tools and training, and more. The level of detail is frequently numbing, and I often found myself skimming, or skipping entire pages to get to the end of the story being told. Readers looking to get a better understanding of how special forces units operate, while still getting a good dose of Clancy's military-techno prose would probably do better to star with his "Guided Tour" book "Special Forces." Then, if you're really into true-life stories and even greater detail, come to this title. But if you're not interested in, or ready for, nearly six hundred pages of reminiscences, you can probably do without it.
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