Customer Reviews

The Unit: Seek and Destroy: Seek and Destroy

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

 

 

Being a huge fan of The Unit, I immediately picked up this book at the PX when I spotted it and got down to brass tacks. Seventy pages into it, I had to put it down. I wasn't going to be able to tolerate much more of it.

The good is that there are plenty of dialogue moments that fit with the characters. I can hear Haysbert, Foley, Patrick, Martini, and Irby in my head when their characters begin to speak.

That's about where the good falters and the bad prevails. There is far more telling than showing, and the descriptions are incredibly bland. The content also seems to be dumbed down, which works if you're a member of the general populace that knows nothing about military weaponry, but for those of us who know better, it's painful to read. I mean, I fail to acknowledge that a Unit operator wouldn't know that a Minimi is essentially the same thing as a M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, given the amount of weapons training and foreign weapons familiarization these men do in real life.

Also...how many times do we need to be reminded that the protagonist is Sergeant Major Jonas Blane? How many times does Patrick Andrews have to remind us that we're following "Bob Brown-alias Ted Durant?" It's incredibly redudant and annoying.

It's a shame that I couldn't even finish this book due to its dry prose, but I suppose you can't win them all.

I'm a fan of THE UNIT. I was drawn to the show immediately because I like covert ops/military tales. If they're done well. The television episodes are great, a good mix of military tech and human drama.

Sadly, a lot of that is missing in this first novel of a paperback series.

The biggest thing missing out of this book is any drama including the wives. They're barely even mentioned, and even then it was in a sophomoric way, as when Bob Brown reflected on the fact that there wasn't time for a good-bye quickie. It made it sound like he was going to work at McDonalds rather than getting dropped into a jungle in the African Congo where he had a good chance of getting killed.

I don't know what the exact demographic is of the watchers who follow the television series, but I know I enjoy the stories about the wives. They keep everything real, and they remind us of the way of life and the people Blane and the other Unit members are fighting to keep safe. After I saw that they were MIA, I figured this book was just for the boys.

Somewhat disappointed, I settled in and turned my "boy" mindset up to full. If the book was written for the "Guns & Ammo" crowd, I could handle that. Growing up in southern Oklahoma around peace officers and military guys, I'm very familiar with that mindset.

Patrick Andrews is technically and geographically savvy. Military training and travel show in his writing. Unfortunately, those things show too much at times. The pages are liberally drenched with heavy public info spots that really get in the way of the story at times. Backgrounds of characters are dropped in bio bombs.

In fact, the Unit itself seems almost playing second-fiddle in their own story. Much of the novel revolves around the French Foreign Legion guys working for the shadow Consortium and the domestic soldiers trying to fight of the mercenaries. Jonas Blane, played so expertly well by Dennis Haysbert, is given short shrift throughout the book, and that was a shame. In one section, Blane even forgot that military vehicles don't have keys - they just have starter buttons so they can be moved quickly and efficiently.

Bob Brown got some exposure at the beginning, and a little at the end, but he promptly vanished in the middle as well. Lance Matoskah got a lot of backstory about his Indian heritage and beliefs, then just faded.

One of the main kinks facing the Unit was the friction between the military and the CIA. That subplot is played up for a while, pushed toward what seems like will be a head, then dealt with almost as an afterthought at the end.

The action scenes often made me feel like I was in the middle of a role playing game. The sequence of action and stats rolled continuously. I could have drawn the game maps, complete with target areas and troop movements. But I couldn't have told you how any of our heroes were feeling about facing such odds. The emotional link that's so critical in the show's success is missing for the most part.

The book cover is absolutely beautiful, and the plot had some great potential. Hopefully the second book in the series will nail what makes THE UNIT so cool.

I bought this book because I loved The Unit. Unfortunately, the author can't write his way out of a paper bag. While he shows signs of being a Q Course grad and is fairly knowledgeable about the way an ODA (Operational Detachemant Alpha, a "A" team) operates, his characters are wooden to the core. Worse, he pays little attention to how the "Unit" characters are portrayed, giving his version of "Jonas" a 10th grade vocabulary and making "Mac" out to be a cartoon hillbilly.

While the characters from the Unit show up, they play second fiddle in the story. Without the show, at least the books can keep the characters alive. For this series to make it though, a new author needs to be found that can restore the true series elements and not give us lessons on modern warfare. I feel like this book was about showing what the author knows.

I wasn't expecting anything great with this book due to the lack of positive reviews. The Unit character's, with their stilted dialogue, bared little resemblance to their tv counterparts. Additionally, the hodgepodge story was pretty bland and didn't give you ANY twists or surprises. The weak plot basically consisted of two small armies running around the jungle doing dumb things like: let's attack the base to see how big the enemy's size is and then later, let's do a hit and run on that same base. Also, when the men get into trouble lets magically have the cavalry arrive because the author can't think of an interesting way to get them out of their predicament. On top of the bland characters and weak story one of the most important things that was left out from this book was the exciting action scenes. I mean if you can't give me some great characterizations instead of a "Oh, yeah I forgot." at least give me some badass action. I would recommend "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrell for some real Spec Ops action, hell even the latest Richard Marcinko books are better than this book (and that is saying a lot as he has since gone way down hill). Also, there were multiple times where you would read what happens and then characters would report back to other characters what you had just read --talk about redundancy. I swear it felt like the "author" was owed a favor and someone let him write this book. I'm a diehard fan of The Unit and this book left me thoroughly unimpressed. Skip it and buy a different book or go to a library or a book trading website if you think you must read "Seek and Destroy".

Easy reading...portraying the CIA officers as enemies of the Unit added nothing to the book. An unnecessary portrayal. But the reading is easy and each of the Unit's soldiers exhibit their skills and professionalism throughout the book. "Condition Red" situation a little cheesey; I think the author could have written a better exit strategy for the situation, one that depended on the Unit's superior soldiering and leadership skills.

Not alot of "extras" and home life in the story, but just as in real life Sp.Ops., there sometimes is not time to say goodbye.

I am not going to give the story line away, just going to say that it reads like an "op plan", get in, get done, get out.

If you want a "Sp. Op. guide/handbook" it is a good read, if you want a "soft as a tissue" book, it will not be a good fit.

Another boyfriend buy. He loves the show as well as the book. It showed up in Perfect shape with no marks or anything. The seller said new but the used plane ticket in the middle gave it away, no complaints though. My boyfriend even liked the plane ticket touch = ]

At Fort Griffith, Missouri, Commanding officer Tom Ryan orders the "Unit" to report to the Cave immediately. The five operatives (Sergeant Major Blane, Master Sergeant Gerhardt, Staff Sergeant Brown, and Sergeants Grey and Matoskah) arrive immediately because they understand whatever the assignment is they will deploy immediately.

Ryan introduces his team to CIA Controller Munger, who the guys know as a desk jockey interfering with missions, State department Booker Cartwright who acts like Munger's lackey, and Congolese National Army Captain Edward Tshobutu. The mission is to work with Tshobutu to prevent a mercenary group headquartered in Italy from taking over the Democratic Republic of Congo. The mission is difficult enough, but Munger demands they also attempt to win the hearts and minds of those locals who joined the European mercenary force.

The story line is fast-paced and filled with plenty of action as the Unit due to the competence of Tshobutu and his strategic planning and his squad's execution battle the enemy. Readers will enjoy the split between those back in DC ready to whine to Congress and those in the field risking their lives to achieve the mission. The lack of a CIA operative in country or even a State Department suit appears unreal and the mercenaries lacking a strategic on site leader to run their operation seems counter intuitive to how well they set it up. Still although everything goes too smooth, fans will enjoy Patrick Andrews' fine military operations battle in the Democratic Republic of Congo but especially between the soldiers in the field and the suits back home.

Harriet Klausner