19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Equal to Coyle's previous best, September 17, 2003
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.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Skip it, July 31, 2003
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.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Appropriate and Timely, April 25, 2003
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.
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