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Seven Troop (2008)

by Andy McNab(Favorite Author)

3.93 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0593059506 (ISBN13: 9780593059500)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Bantam Press

review 1: I listened to the audiobook of this. Was well done - I didn't spend the whole time laughing at the narrator.I was a mega-fan of Andy McNab's work in high school, but I eventually got tired of the "Nick is okay, but someone he cares about dies" plot line, so I haven't read any of his stuff for years. Seven Troop is non-fiction, but the plot is much the same. Which actually helps me understand (or at least, think I understand) WHY his fiction work went the way it did.The style of writing is very much what I remember of Andy's work - sort of detached and dry, but in an entertaining way - to me it actually felt a lot like coming home. Hearing a familiar phrase such as "good style" actually brought back some really good memories for me, and I found myself laughing on severa... morel occasions. But I cried too.Seven Troop is basically a summary of Andy's time in the SAS and a few years afterwards. It follows the lives of the guys that he was in Seven Troop with and the ways in which they reacted to different situations - war, peace, relationships, mourning, stress, success etc. And PTSD. I'm probably projecting, but I felt like this was his attempt to muddle through why things might have happened the way they did.Bit of swearing, as per usual, but for some reason the "souf London" accent (if that's what it was) of the narrator somehow rendered it less offensive.Is basically chronological, so a bit of a time-travel through the Troubles, Thailand, Cambodia, Afghanistan when Osama was a good guy, Colombia, first Gulf War... Wraps it all up with a blurb about PTSD and the way in which the military handles it (or doesn't, as the case may be).I liked it. I would probably consider listening to it again eventually.
review 2: It was an interesting book; different than the first two he wrote about his time in the SAS [Bravo Two Zero and Immediate Action]. This book focused more on his relationships with his friends and former squad mates in the SAS; most of his close friends from when he served have died and it seemed like he wrote this book as a means of processing their deaths and how their deaths affected him. I found it especially interesting that two of his squad mates were Christians; one of the men was quite vocal about his faith and ended up leaving the SAS to continue his 'Search for Significance' [for lack of a better word]. The other Christian was their leader and he led a quite life [as much as a soldier can]. It is a bittersweet book that frankly discusses issues that arose in their line of work and how it affected the men and those around them. McNab does not apologize for serving in the military [and neither should he], but he points out we civilians [and the politicians who send soldiers off to war] owe more to these brave men [and women] than casting them aside once they have been used up and are broken after spending their lives in defense of their country. One thing I took from the book was that it is not a sign of weakness to ask for help; it is a sign of inner strength and the mindset that asking for help is weakness needs to change in order for these brave men and women to be able to seek and receive the help they need. less

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