Customer Reviews

Violence of Action

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

It's aptly named; violence is all it's about. There is none of the finesse, characterizations or political subtleties that made the previous Rogue Warrior novels, co-authored by John Weisman, so entertaining and - yes - uplifting.
Marcinko is a bona fide warrior - a BTDT whose two non-fiction books, Leadership Secrets, and Strategies for Success, are permanent installations in my home library. His original book, Rogue Warrior, the autobiography, is another keeper - one of the most inspirational and motivating I've ever read.
Unfortunately, Violence of Action makes a mockery of all that went before. It's cartoonish in its simplicity, gratuitously violent without any redeeming qualities, and mouthily preachy without being the least bit inspiring. When one of Demo Dick's teammates died, in prior books, you really cared... about them, their families, the SEAL community. Not so in Violence of Action; I kept wishing someone would shoot either the characters or me and put me out of my misery.
I am crazy about Commander Richard Marcinko. I have the utmost respect for all that he's accomplished, all that he's survived, and the kind of life he's lived. Yes, he's rough around the edges and I probably wouldn't want to bring him home to meet my mother, but he also has the courage of his convictions, which is rare today.
Please don't judge his abilities by this book; it is NOT a good representation (although a lot of his detractors would say it is) of the Rogue Warrior character. There is none of the self-deprecating humor found in the earlier works.
It begs the question whether Mr. Weisman was the driving force behind the other bestsellers.

I was surprised when I found out that there was another Rogue Warrior novel coming out, since John Weisman had replied to an e-mail I had written him, stating that he was not going to write any more novels in the series. Apparently, he had been doing the vast majority, if not all of the work on the previous novels, with Marcinko simply giving feedback and approval, which would explain why Violence of Action is so different than the rest of the series.

Although Violence of Action is lacking in plot intricacy and character development, it makes up for it somewhat in the action department - which is literally non-stop and definitely lives up to the book's title.

As for the people who complained about the torture that occurs in the book - they need to realize that there are situations where such measures, however distasteful, are absolutely necessary and justified. Especially when you're talking about millions of innocent lives. Consider the fact that the individuals being interrogated were guilty of conspiring to murder hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians for the sake of starting a race war, and that timely intelligence was essential to prevent that from happening. If you had loved ones trapped in a city about to be nuked and their lives depended on you obtaining that information as fast as possible, what would you have done? If you'd have spared a terrorist rather than try to save those people, you need to seriously examine your ethics, because frankly, they're irrational.

I eagerly awaited this book, anticipating that Marcinko would give us some insights and wisdom on the new world of terrorism that we face. Instead, we get gratuitous violence, less than credible leaps between events, a silly plot and ending, and a poorly written book. It's time to move on, and if you're a fan in need of a Marcinko fix, go back and read the early classics such as Red Cell, or any of the 'color' team titles...those were great books. This one seems like everyone--the author, the publisher, and maybe even us as fans--want to recreate the past greatness, and, based on this effort, it's not happening.

Yes, I know I'm Brit & female but oh dear! Will the real Richard Marcinko Please stand up? This book ignores everything RM preaches about being true to your convictions etc. Not only is much shorter, minus Mr Weisman but it's about as funny as root canal. Yes the previous 9 books were basically the same story, but what made them brilliant was the great characters/sidekicks and RM's wonderfully self-mocking humour that showed he was first to send himself up. This has NONE of either of them - it's po-faced, played straight and utterly dull. It gives the impression RM was under pressure from his publisher to churn out another Rogue Warrior book so he just cobbled together a patch job from previous manuscripts - assuming he wrote the thing at all, which I am suspicious about given the sudden & dramatic drop in quality (unless that quality actually came from Weisman). The 1st 9 are laugh out loud funny rollicking reads - this one is a waste of time. Let's hope with #11 he brings back Weisman, the sidekicks and the wit.

Weisman isn't a co-author of this book so it has a different feel to it than all the other books in the Rogue Warrior series. This one is a bit more graphic in its descriptions: see Chapter 8 (the interrogation) to understand what I mean, but for true fans of the series, it'll be SSDD as compared previous books in the series and the extra gore will be welcome. Other minor differences are that the "Ten Commandments" and almost all of the characters of old are gone. This makes me wonder if Marcinko doesn't fully own the copyright on them which means that he couldn't use them. Oddly enough, the chapter intro quotes range from everyone from Napoleon to Sun Tzu to...Pink!

Regardless of how its format diverges from previous books in the series, the story is a good: a stolen pocket nuke being used to terrorize Portland, President Bush and other White House staffers hang him out to dry, etc. However this time around, he's shooting and looting while on a presidential pardon which gives him carte blanche to do what he wants. Ah, finally!

As other reviewers have remarked, the story length is a bit short, which is ironic considering the self-professed size of his, uhm, uh...you know. After ten novels, the series is starting to run out of steam, but it's still quite enjoyable. Now UNODIR, go and read this book!

Marcinko's latest Rogue Warrior book was a major disappointment. I have read all of Marcinko's books and have been a big fan. I had a real hard time buying the change in Marcinko's character. This book was definately NOT written by Marcinko. If so, I don't know what happened to him? I would prefer having the old Dick back...

I can only add my hearty "Aye-Aye" to the reviews given here regarding Demo Dickey's new book. In a word, it sucks!! I've read all the other books & thoroughly enjoyed them. They were a mix of wry asides, thoughtful contemplation and nut-busting action, leavened with a crew of not-so-forgettable companion characters who Dicky really seemed to care about. Predictable?? Yes. Trite?? Sometimes. Fun to read?? You bet!! Want to read the next one?? Definitely!! The key difference between this book & the others is the absence of John Wiseman, his co-author in the other adventures. And what a woeful absence it is, too! Wiseman's editorial hand must have been what added some of the humor, the witty asides, and the oft-times helpful glossary in the back of the book. Most times it didn't change from book to book, but it did enough to make it always fun to look through.

The current volume has none of the above at all. What it has in profusion is gore, guts, blood and torture of the most graphic, gut-churning, ball-aching kind. Was it really needed? I'd say not. Marcinko is a better writer than this, I feel. If anything, he seems to be pandering to the worst in his audience. If Dicky is trying to see if he can gross his readership out, he's succeeded. His attitude that the ends always justifies the means if it is in the service of the US of A & for the good of Dickey is simplistic at best. Do we really need to be just like the enemy to succeed? I don't have answers for these immortal questions but his ranting in this book makes me think not. He seems to have given up the mantra of his earlier books of bringing everyone back alive; now both friends & enemies alike, save one or two, are fodder for the mini-gun grinder. His early chapter tales of killing animals for the joy & practice of it is plain disgusting. I hunt and have hunted but I don't kill things for the sheer fun of it. That is cruelty at its height. He says he doesn't like fuzzy animals; I do, even if I hunt them, and if someone who loves animals is out there, they'd best not read this book.

All in all, this book is a failure. It has some interesting plot twists. It has baddies galore, of a whole different, disgusting level. It has a hook at the end that leaves the door open for more of the same from Demo Dickey. For my money, I will not be reading it unless his co-author Wiseman is invited back to leaven some of the more dreadful aspects of his writings. Recommendation: If you haven't read Demo Dickey before, DO NOT start with this book or you will not want to read more. Pick up his first book, The Rogue Warrior or Red Cell. Much more interesting & inspiring, and certainly better written. If you have read his other books, don't buy this one. Wait until you find it in a used bookstore for a dime or someone gives it to you free. That's about all it's worth. Sorry, Dickey, you flopped on this one!!

I have read all of the Rogue warrior series books to date and I was excited to get his latest book. What a disappointment. The plot stinks. The characters are shallow. It dosen't follow along. There are serious leaps of faith required to wade through this pile of dung. Not only that but he completely igored a major knife wound to the arm and kept on as though it never happened. Anyone foolish enough to read this should pick up on that medical error. Did anyone edit this? Do we really have to embellish every religion, ethnic group and gender type to market a book these days? Save your time and money. There's more action and intrigue in the Oprah Magazine.

This edition follows the character and his exploits/style well, but the plot is shaky (re: white supremacists), and he beats the 'navy screwed me' issue to death...the briefcase nuke object of story was a good choice, but when he mentions terrorists accessing/collecting medical rad sources, and scraping radium off clocks, (rather than, say, buying off russian scientists or shipping truckloads of rad sources from kazakhstan) I think he should beg weisman to come back, or hire andy mcnab

The Rogue Warrior novels are predictable sure, but they have a quality that makes them difficult to put down. At least they used to.

This installment is not all that bad compared to other spy/spec-op fiction, but not when compared to previous RW novels.
Here Demo Dick, Fearless Shark Man of the Delta, has been reduced to a cartoon character and not a very interesting one.
The end result is that as you read you really don't care about any of the characters. The story line is adequate but the detail, the spy craft that makes all the other novels work is missing. It's been replaced with descriptive gore and a focus on matters that are uninteresting, making this a tedious read.

True RW fans will just have to see for themselves no matter what they see in these reviews. Anybody new to the work of Marcinko would best start off with Red Cell or Rogue Warrior and never touch this novel. Like most of the other reviewers I hope the next installment brings back some familiar characters and gets away from the "I must be getting old" musings of the Sharkman.

One of the great things about fiction is that heroes never have to grow old, weak or frail. To those of us who look up to the Rogue Warrior as a larger than life hero Demo Dick will always be THE toughest hombre on the planet, always able to out muscle, out shoot and out think any bad guy that's dumb enough to cross his path. Marcinko doesn't seem to appreciate that his character in his novels has the potential to be as enduring as James Bond. Let's hope we see the RW we all know and love make a triumphant return in his next adventure.