Ralph Pezzullo

I received the four SEAL Team Six books Hunt the Wolf, Hunt the Falcon, Hunt the Scorpion, Hunt the Jackal on the same day and I binge read them one after the other. Other reviewers will tell you the details of the plots, but I want to write about the series as a whole.

Although I tried to read them in order, the e-editions I received did not clearly indicate the sequence, even on the OTHER BOOKS BY list. I took a guess and read them Falcon (3), Scorpion(2), Wolf (1), Jackal (4). It didn't matter much, though, there are some timelines of injuries, deaths, and traumas that run across the series but the books stand alone pretty well. The quality of the text is not even across the whole, however, with Jackal being more choppy than the others. I wondered if one of the writing partners put less effort into that one.

The world of these books is not like the one I inhabit, and I don't say that because I am not a SEAL running all over the world chasing bad guys. I need to sleep, I need to eat, and when I sprain an ankle or break a bone, it takes weeks and months to heal. Not these guys. Thomas Crocker tells us every book how many days a year he is on assignment and away from his family - 200, 260, 300 days. These guys don't have circadian rhythms, I guess. Jet lag, no worry. Sleep deprivation, no worry. Let's go. Let's go. Gunshot wounds, broken bones, sprains, torture, emotional trauma, all the standard ordeals of action thrillers, no worry. We are SEALS! We bounce out of the hospital onto a plane to the next assignment. It's exhausting just to read. And what's with the diet sodas? I would have thought these guys would need to pack calories to maintain this schedule. They even skip a meal now and again. Never knew soldiers to do that.

The texts are charmingly exact about technology and technological jargon, telling us the complete names of many pieces of equipment and operations protocols, and carefully adding the abbreviation in parentheses. As the Squad Leader, Crocker barks seemingly redundant and trivial orders to his guys, even though he runs them through the same drills every day. Not sure how this works in the military, in the business world he would get in trouble for talking down to his staff.

These are fun books but I imagine that my capacity would be about 6, especially if the writing quality remains at the lower level of book 4. Also, since they are written in supposed real time, the authors run the risk of getting ahead of current events.

I received review copies of Hunt the Wolf, Hunt the Falcon, Hunt the Scorpion, Hunt the Jackal by Don Man and Ralph Pezzullo (Mulholland Books) through NetGalley.com.… (mere)

I received the four SEAL Team Six books Hunt the Wolf, Hunt the Falcon, Hunt the Scorpion, Hunt the Jackal on the same day and I binge read them one after the other. Other reviewers will tell you the details of the plots, but I want to write about the series as a whole.

Although I tried to read them in order, the e-editions I received did not clearly indicate the sequence, even on the OTHER BOOKS BY list. I took a guess and read them Falcon (3), Scorpion(2), Wolf (1), Jackal (4). It didn't matter much, though, there are some timelines of injuries, deaths, and traumas that run across the series but the books stand alone pretty well. The quality of the text is not even across the whole, however, with Jackal being more choppy than the others. I wondered if one of the writing partners put less effort into that one.

The world of these books is not like the one I inhabit, and I don't say that because I am not a SEAL running all over the world chasing bad guys. I need to sleep, I need to eat, and when I sprain an ankle or break a bone, it takes weeks and months to heal. Not these guys. Thomas Crocker tells us every book how many days a year he is on assignment and away from his family - 200, 260, 300 days. These guys don't have circadian rhythms, I guess. Jet lag, no worry. Sleep deprivation, no worry. Let's go. Let's go. Gunshot wounds, broken bones, sprains, torture, emotional trauma, all the standard ordeals of action thrillers, no worry. We are SEALS! We bounce out of the hospital onto a plane to the next assignment. It's exhausting just to read. And what's with the diet sodas? I would have thought these guys would need to pack calories to maintain this schedule. They even skip a meal now and again. Never knew soldiers to do that.

The texts are charmingly exact about technology and technological jargon, telling us the complete names of many pieces of equipment and operations protocols, and carefully adding the abbreviation in parentheses. As the Squad Leader, Crocker barks seemingly redundant and trivial orders to his guys, even though he runs them through the same drills every day. Not sure how this works in the military, in the business world he would get in trouble for talking down to his staff.

These are fun books but I imagine that my capacity would be about 6, especially if the writing quality remains at the lower level of book 4. Also, since they are written in supposed real time, the authors run the risk of getting ahead of current events.

I received review copies of Hunt the Wolf, Hunt the Falcon, Hunt the Scorpion, Hunt the Jackal by Don Man and Ralph Pezzullo (Mulholland Books) through NetGalley.com.… (mere)