Customer Reviews

Black Hawk Down

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
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Black Hawk Down is a fascinating book about an American war against Somali's, that goes terribly wrong. The American soldiers were dispatched from base on a mission that was expected to last only 3 hours, therefore they leave behind most of their equipment. Then once they get there, even before the battle starts, things start going wrong. From then on, event after event, the conditions just keep on getting worse, until a Black Hawk is seen dropping down fast from the sky, smoke coming from the tail. From then on, the American soldiers continue to lose hope, and believe that they will be stuck there forever, without their necessary supplies and equipment.

The 486 page long book, written by Mark Bowden, is an amazingly true story about a modern war taken from all aspects of the soldiers in the war. The book is written in 3rd person omniscient, and literally uses each soldier in the war as a character. In this book you will get to hear the war happening, and everything that each soldier is thinking and shooting. But there are many characters (emphasis on many) in this book, and to fully enjoy it, I would recommend re-reading it so that you can understand each character. In some points of the story the book does get slow, talking about some soldiers lives before the war, but in the long run, it helps you understand the behaviors and characteristics of each soldier, making the book that much more enjoyable.

Black Hawk Down does use some terminology that is war related and sophisticated, but you most likely won't need to be going into a dictionary to discover the meanings of their code words and weapon terminology. The novel is somewhat gory and graphic, but not extremely horrible. Ages +14 should be able to handle this book of a true war story.

Overall this novel is a great insider story on modern war. It shows what actually happens in wars, without the Hollywood effects added in. And since there are plenty of characters in this book, you should definitely be able to relate to one of them, and see how you would do in a war situation such as this. Therefore I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars (I would give it 4.5 stars, but there is no option) because of its honesty of war, and its great detail in which it immerses you into the story with.

Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden is an intense book about a U.S. military mission that started out as a seemingly easy assignment, but went terribly wrong. This story concerns events that actually happened during two days in October 1993 in the sandy desert city of Mogadishu, Somalia. The main mission for the members of the Rangers and Delta Squad was to capture two important Habr Gidr clan members, and possibly the warlord, Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Instead, the troops found themselves involved in a bloody battle with Somalis determined to eliminate the soldiers.

Black Hawk Down is a very engrossing book. Mark Bowden does a great job making the reader feel as if they were right in the action. The book is occasionally gory, especially with the descriptions of gunshot wounds, but shouldn't be too bad for most readers at and above high school age. There wasn't a moment in the book when I wasn't rooting for the soldiers to survive against the odds. The book follows many individuals. The differences in each character's point of view on the action gives the reader a better look into modern warfare.

I recommend this book, since it is one that will keep anyone on the edge of his or her seat. It opens a portal into the horrors of war and doesn't go soft for a single sentence.

this was the singal greatest story of war i have evr read. He describes the situation in Somalia and how the soldiers deal with it. This is a great buy and you will not be able to put it down once you start.

This is a very entertaining and engaging account of the (in)famous attempt by US soldiers to "arrest" two Somali warlords in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993. The mission went terribly wrong and this account recreates, in vivid detail, the encounter from multiple perspectives.

Bowden has clearly thoroughly researched his subject and manages to write a coherent narrative despite the sometimes confused and manic manner in which the incident unfolded. While clearly sympathetic to the US 'men on the ground' I think he is generally balanced and fair in his approach to all involved parties.

But most of all I just found this book so interesting it was hard to put down. I'm now looking forward to reading other Bowden books in future.

If you've seen the movie, you need to read the book now to flesh out the ill-advised, ill-conceived and ill-fated military arrest raid into Mogadishu. If you haven't seen the movie either, watch it, then read this book. Mark Bowden did tons of research in order to piece together the events as they happened on that day. The Rangers and Special Forces (Delta Force) operators involved in that arrest raid and subsequent SHTF firefight experienced combat at a level of intensity and ferocity probably unseen by American foot soldiers since the Tet Offensive or, more likely, the Korean War. Bowden's investigative reporting, collected into one cohesive narrative, brings to mind Cornelius Ryan's work on famous operations of WWII. The overlapping point-of-view of multiple participants in modern battle is similar to Hell and Gone (though this is non-fiction). Why our armed forces were in Somalia is just as valid a question as why our troops are in Iraq now. But this is not a book about policies and politics...it's about men in combat.

You also should read The Longest Day: The Classic Epic of D-Day (non-fiction).

Henry Brown is the author of TEOTWAWKI aviation adventure The Delayed Blitz(Krieg), as well as the military thriller Hell and Gone. He is the columns editor at New Pulp Fiction, and does some blogging of his own at the Two-Fisted Blogger.

I was particularly pleased that this book provided multiple perspectives, such as the views of American service personnel and also perspectives from Somali fighters. A message I got from this book is how ferocious combat can be, and that it should only be exercised as a last resort.

Nicholas R.W. Henning - Australian Author

from the first page until the very last paragraph you'll find a taut action thriller..you'll almost feel the bullets whizzing by in this Somalia saga..and it's all true...what started out as a humanitarian rescue effort eventually escalated into a botched attempt to capture a warlord with Al Qaeda footprints all over the resistance effort before most Americans had ever heard of Al Qaeda..what could aptly be described as the first big battle of the war against terror..