Customer Reviews

Last Night Another Soldier...: Quick Read (Quick Reads)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A very good read. No Hollywood heroes, just soldiers doing what they do best, looking out for one another and trying to survive.If you are an Andy McNab fan this book will not disappoint.

I found this book okay as a story, some times over descriptive. But being fair it was a decent read.

This is easily the best of the modern wartime selection from the Quick Reads short stories series. While Reilly's Hell Island, and Lewis' Desert Claw make might make a watchable cartoon if turned into one, or a B grade Hollywood type action movie, neither seem very realistic. McNab's Last Night Another Soldier, is the complete opposite. Through eighteen year old David Briggs' eyes, the experience for the reader is like you are right there. Both on the front lines in the poppy fields in violent conflict against the Taliban, as well as back at camp, where we get to know what makes a soldier want to be there, why they joined up, and why they will do anything to get back on patrol even when injured so they don't let down their mates. This is so well written that you really feel for David Briggs when he loses mates in action, gets injured or just has to put up with his mother's carrying on when he's on the phone home to her. The book if nothing else certainly gives you a much healthier respect for those who are serving over there and in other wars on the front line.

McNab himself was in the SAS between 1984 and 1993 so that's probably why his stories seem so realistic. If you haven't read any of Andy McNab's full length novels, this is an ideal taster for his work, being it's only 108 pages long. McNab does have another book in the Quick Reads series but it's not really representative of his usual style or even high quality writing to be honest. That one's called The Grey Man if you're interested, and is about a loser type guy who works in a bank and decides to rob a few safety deposit boxes.

If you're unfamiliar with the Quick Reads initiative, they are books published to increase literacy levels by encouraging those who don't like to read beyond magazines and comic books, to try fiction through cheap priced (current Quick Reads all sell of the rack for under two pounds in the UK) short story length fiction and non fiction.