Customer Reviews

More Than Courage

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

 

 

For those who have enjoyed the previous works of Harold Coyle, More than Courage will not disappoint. Coyle's latest is a strong, compelling story --- a real page turner from the very beginning of the book. Coyle grabs the reader and does not let go. Character development is strong. Coyle excels in his ability to portray duty, honor and courage right next to the anxiety, turmoil and inner conflict experienced by combatants and military planners. All in all, this is a very strong effort from Coyle. In fact, I think that More than Courage in on a par with The Ten Thousand, which I found to be Coyle's best previous work.

I literally could not finish this book; I stopped after exactly 100 pages.

There were too many technical flaws that anybody familiar with the US military and its special operations forces would be able to point out. I felt like I was reading a Hollywood manuscript...that's how technically inaccurate it was.

Sorry, but when it comes to military books, suspension of belief is not in my vernacular. The author obviously did very little research in writing this book. His editor should also be ashamed as I found a couple of proofreading errors within the 100 pages that I read.

Although I feel bad for giving this book a review without even having read the whole book, I cannot bring myself to read a book on military fiction that is technically inaccurate with proofreading errors.

I suggest the author research his material better next time.

We have enjoyed many Coyle novels, starting with Team Yankee and including the several stories relating the military career of Scott Dixon, and even his son. He has done a wonderful job of describing the professional soldier and his (and her) sacrifices to defend the United States. More Than Courage may be his best, possibly excepting The Ten Thousand. In this novel he describes the relationships which develop within a unit and the loyalties between warriors, as well as the travails of prisoners of war in the modern era.
Coyle's prescience is amazing. Published in April, 2003, as the major fighting of Operation Iraqi Freedom is ending, this book eerily describes an environment where US special operations units are operating in Syria to identify and locate chemical and biological weapons sites hidden in Syria as the Saddam regime ended in Iraq. A Syrian patrol happens upon a recon team as it is deployed around a potential site, breaks up the team's operation, and captures several of its members. The story relates the capture, the aftermath for the team members, and the efforts to obtain their release, ending finally with a rescue operation.
In relating this story, Coyle is most critical of the media and the way some of them ignore any traces of taste or judgement in their drive to get a story. He is also critical of the way the media may drive and bias an event in order to generate more drama-assisted by politicians whose major concern is getting in the news.
More than Courage is a good story, and will be still be a good read next year. But the timing of its publication makes it a fitting tribute to POW's returning now, and those still missing. There is no way we can offer sufficient tribute to POW/MIA's. As Bill Fornes, a Korean-era POW, related in telling his story (Walking Through a Spider's Web, 2001), he was prepared to die for his country-he was not prepared to be a prisoner of war.

Harold Coyle should do better research about Special Forces and ABN units before focusing a novel on them. In the past I have toughly enjoyed his novels, but this one was annoying. 1st LTs are not XOs on A teams. Warrant officers fill this role. You have to be a 1LT (P) to even apply to Special Forces. Spec 4s are not on A teams either. These oversights may seem minor to some but Coyle lost his credibility with me in first 20 pages. The rest of the book was painful with more technical oversights and failures in proof reading.

Substandard research from an author who generally does a great job. I have read all of his novels and have a high regard for him and his work, but the preponderance of errors and gross assumptions ruined what could have been a good novel. His story line could have worked but his narrative was fantasy and actually an insult to Special Operations.
-Armored Cav tactics, manning, and equipment are not the same as Long Range Surveillance units or SF A-teams
-TF 160 is an Army unit, not Air Force
-3-75 is at Benning, not Lewis, & idea of OPFOR 1LT getting command of a Ranger company (main effort no less) while other command-experienced CPTs get passed over is ludricrous
-Airborne procedures are inaccurate
-knows the cost of precision guidance kits for bombs but doesn't know the M-60 MG has been replaced by the M-240G
-there are many more problems with the technical details...
For a much better accouting of how a spec ops unit on a LRS mission might operate before, during, and after capture, check out non-fiction "Bravo Two Zero" by Andy McNabb.

The story is thoroughly entertaining and presents a fairly ugly picture of captivity with a non-romanticized version of the dedication to bringing comrades home. Coyle demonstrates many of the practical concerns of a large rescue mission for a handful of men and the some of macropsychology of preparing men for combat. He had a half dozen or so minor spelling errors that slowed down my reading (a little) so that I could make sure I knew what was being said. I might have missed something but he seemed to have flip-flopped two of his characters' ranks or positions (I probably missed something) which also slowed me down for a moment. The two technical things are these: "Task Force 160" as Coyle uses it is not an Air Force organization. It's the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment of the US Army. Number two is this: the US Navy doesn't operate the AC-130 gunship, the Air Force does. Ignore these and the handful of spelling issues and the book is a great read.

I had a hard time believing that this book could have been written by the same author as 'Team Yankee' or 'The Ten Thousand' both of which are exceptional in both detail and story line. Unfortunately, 'More than Courage' starts off with a 1st LT as the XO of an ODA. This has not been the case for more than a decade. He goes on to describe the weapons of the team with 'Those who had connections sported an MP-5, the weapon of choice for special ops types around the world.' This might have been accurate for an urban environment but for a special reconnaissance mission is SW Asia, the team would carry longer distance hardware and ... between the team and weapons sergeants the choice would not be by individual but by mission.

I expected Harold Coyle to have performed much better research about Special Forces and RGR units before writing a novel based on them. When it comes to military novels, I expect accuracy and not the need to suspend my knowledge or belief in order to enjoy the story. Unfortunately it's obvious that the author did no research in writing this book. With the proofing errors added, this book is a play to capitalize on the author's excellent previous work.

Give this book a pass.

I have enjoyed Coyle's books in the past. However, I found too many technical flaws in this story to really get into it. From the start, the make-up and equipment of an ODA (Special Forces 'A' team) are completely incorrect. You will not find an ODA run by a junior liuetenant or captain, nor with Spec-4s as operators. The senior NCO is likely to be an E8 (master or first sergeant) and the other members will be E6s and 7s. Even to such trivial things as the terminology of the M-2 machine gun. It's a "Ma Deuce", not a "Ma Two". Much as I tried to just go with the story, I seemed to find myself saying "Well, that's wrong" about every other paragraph.

I am a huge fan of Harold Coyle but this book reminds me of the junk books that Tom Clancy continues to spew out. I find it hard to believe that Coyle even wrote this! There is little character development and the story line is sporadic at best. Getting thru the first 100 pages can be mind numbing and doesn't get much better after that. This book is a huge disappointment for the Coyle fan and one would hope that whom ever ghosted this book for him goes away and he once again puts pen to paper. Don't waste your money on this unless you plan on using it to start a fire.

I have read almost all of Harold Coyle's books and have always looked forward to them. This book was a tremendous disappointment.

It contains too many technical errors and improbabilities. The Land Warrior system really was an underplayed segue within the story, and the two system experts were both exposed to combat. In addition, the editing job was a disaster. I found four errors, and I am sure there are more.