Chris Ryan (1) (1961–)

There are so many books of this genre out there to read, but most fall apart within just a few pages. I stumbled on Chris Ryan after binge watching Strike Back Season 1 and noting the TV series was based on a novel by Chris Ryan, so I went looking to see what all he had written, and discovered the mother lode of special forces fiction novels. Even so, I've been disappointed so many times and I wasn't very hopeful, therefore I intentionally picked a book at random and not the first in the show more series. Hunter Killer (Book 2 of Danny Black series) was fantastic. Excellent writing, excellent story, realistic characters with everything to love in an action novel including political intrigue, excellent villains (backstabbing politicians, terrorists...) believable weapons and tactics.
Oh yeah, and best of all absolutely **NO** political correctness or pandering. Period. (love, love love it...).

I'm looking forward to going back and reading book 1 in the series (Masters of War) and after that everything else Chris has written. Books of this genre I've enjoyed as much as Hunter Killer include: Levon's Night by Chuck Dixon, Without Remorse by Tom Clancy, Term Limits by Vince Flynn and Fade by Kyle Mills. show less

This is the first book I've tried by Chris Ryan, thinking it was the first book in the Strike Back series since it's shown as Strike Back #1, though I then found out that there was a previous book called Strike Back from several years previously, set in a time before this book.

No matter, I liked the sound of this book and quite enjoyed the story, the characters and the plot. While the foul language, violence and gore didn't concern me I was put off by the endlessly repetitive use of "mucker" show more and the spy boss who calls everyone "Old Fruit" in almost every sentence. Does anyone really talk like that? It just seems like a poorly done and unfunny caricature to me but maybe the author knows weird people that talk that way.

There were a number of abbreviations and acronyms that might make perfect sense to anyone in the forces or who watches military type TV shows but some of them baffled me and had to resort to Google to figure them out. Maybe an initial explanation on the first use would have helped.

I have mixed feelings about the narrator. He was pleasant enough to listen to and did a good job with numerous accents, male and female voices and appeared to pronounce foreign words and locations without difficulty. Sadly he messed up some pretty basic english words and phrases that were quite cringeworthy. For example, he pronounced "op", an abbreviation for operation, as "O.P." and Frigid was pronounced with a hard G instead of a soft G, so FriGid etc. Schoolboy errors that let the narration down.

I hope the next book in the series is improved as I'd like to hear what happens next, though perhaps I'll go and find the earlier "Strike Back" to learn of the character's history first. show less

"As Winston Churchill said, 'If you are going through hell, keep going.'"

I posted about the first 200 pages of this, and finished the book quite soon after, but was absorbed in my move to Wordpress. To recap: we open with a covert rescue operation which has disastrous consequences. Two men survive - John Porter, who is scarred (literally and mentally) by the fiasco, takes to the bottle and the London streets; and Peregrine Collinson (apparently people do have names like that), who rises show more through the ranks and is knighted. When a television darling is kidnapped in Beirut 20 years later, Porter finds an opportunity to get back into SAS life, but is thrown straight back into conflict with Collinson.

Ryan has a real knack for memorable protagonists. Porter is by no means perfect - an alcoholic ex-homeless man with an antagonistic and impetuous rescue style - but his heart is true and he loves his daughter dearly. All through the suicide mission he thinks of her and how he won't see her again.

Hassad is an excellent foil for Porter - a bad guy with morals. He adapts to tricky situations in surprising ways and honours his word above all. Katie (the TV darling) is a bit of a non-character, but then there is no need for her to be very interesting - she is simply the prize to be reclaimed. There's a spot of token combativeness but mostly she wafts about wanly in the background. Collinson is surprisingly absent from most of the story but as we are firmly on Porter's side throughout, that doesn't really matter either.

The plot is fantastic (in the fantasy sense, rather than the amazing sense), as usual, and there are a few too many close escapes from certain doom, but the military/survival stuff is interleaved with interpersonal conflict and uncertainty and deception. The opposition is multi-layered, providing interesting twists along the way and a bit of variation (it gets boring if the hero is constantly escaping from the same enemy). At the end, I thought "oh of course, so obvious..." but I hadn't figured it out until then. Which I think is always a good sign for a book.

I can't say it better than I already did: what I particularly enjoyed about Ryan's writing when I churned through The Kremlin Device and The Watchman back in November is the no-nonsense style, mixed with a dark British sense of humour. There is plenty of weapons and fighting chat, but not so much that it becomes tedious. Daring rescues go wrong. Ryan isn't afraid to let Porter use some un-PC language to carve out his character, and conveys the hopelessness of the homeless very effectively; ditto the shame of a failed soldier.

One touch that I particularly appreciated is the recurrence of a reworked version of Elton John's Someone Saved My Life Tonight - as he did for Princess Diana's funeral, Elton rewrites a much-loved song for a tragic situation in this novel. Porter hears it before he even knows what is going on, and he hears it again in Lebanon - much to the bemusement of the Hezbollah soldiers:

'I don't understand why they play this song all the time,' said Nasri. 'This Elton man, with the funny glasses, is he some sort of religious figure?'

A fun, light read with a heart. show less

Even though One Good Turn was a quick read, it was brutally realistic and gave a harsh insight into the reality of war; in this case Ypres, France, during World War One. This was clearly obvious in the Postscript which stated:

"The whole bloody war was like a scene in the crater. Good men killing bad men. Bad men killing good men. Cowardice and courage. Selfishness and sacrifice. But war is like a big machine that devours everything with equal relish: the good and the bad, the weak and the show more strong. It is only the lucky that get out."

While John Stubbs could only be described as the 'bad guy', Private Chris Ransom was definitely a hero who displayed courage at every turn, giving all for his country and fellow soldiers.

Although I was hoping for a happier ending, Chris Ryan certainly show the savage violence of trench warfare, and his own experiences as a soldier made his writing more believable. I just wish he had finished the book with a sense of hope. Ransom deserved so much better. show less