Immediate Action by Andy McNab Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Immediate Action
Book Review: Bogus Book: No info, poorly written, and no insight whatsoever
Summary: 1 Stars
The top of the book states, "The controversial book the British Government tried to supress!" Let me be the 1st to say this is bunk. There is absolutely no information in this book that is controversial in any sense. In fact, any reader can get more information about SF, SAS, or any other force via the Freedom of Information Act.
Also, this book is poorly written. It skips timelines, does not develop any characters (only mentions them), does not finish sequences, and has a plot so thin, it only has one side.
Do yourself a favor. Save your money. Buy another book if you want to learn about the SAS or any other special force, or if you are hung on McNab, purchase Brave 2 Zero instead.
Book Review: Certainly no Immediate Action here...
Summary: 3 Stars
As a recent fan of modern special warfare bios/memoirs I naturally turned to the SAS, the ancestors of Delta Force. So far in the few that I have read on the SAS I have found that they generally never go in to any detail about any of their operations. Immediate Action follows this same trend, instead being a Hinted Action or Almost Maybe Action.
You follow his life from a young lad to that of his SAS career through and up to the Persian Gulf, which is where he stops. We are treated to a brief yet descriptive first couple of conflicts in Ireland in the Infantry, seeing his first military death as well as becoming a blooded soldier. The Regiment is up next and the Selection is one of my favorite parts of the book. McNab goes through a rigorous selection process of long grueling hikes, of evade and escape, of timed hikes with 100 lb begrins on. It takes a special type of person to be able to endure selection and move on to the Regiment, and McNab in no way diminishes the travails that not only he had to endure but the men around him as well. Oftentimes this critical part of a special forces soldier's life is not talked about, so I greedily took in every part I could.
That being said his life in the Regiment was glossed over and described in such a way that you did not get any detail whatsoever. In fact the bulk of what he wrote about were training exercises, border patrols, training guerilla troops and armies, intelligence operations and more training. The very limited amount of detail was on some terrorist activities in Ireland: a bomb scare that resulted in one dead terrorist and one dead SAS, and a hostage situation that detailed the lead up to the rescue more than the rescue itself. In fact more often than not McNab only described the mistakes, let downs and call offs, leaving you wondering if they ever went on any operations at all.
They of course did. In many of the countries that he talked about, Belize, Oman, Batswana and so on, they were there and he pointedly did not talk about operations, which actually hint that there were operations, just not any that he would or could talk about most likely due to government restrictions. The one and only major operation was in a "certain Latin America country" in which he was training a police force to fight drug lords, and ultimately led a small force to take down one drug lab. Aside from that, which was the last few pages of the book, there is very little and next to no Immediate Action, which is a very huge let down considering how the book is billed on the front and back cover. A recommend after other special forces books have been read if for only the insight on selection and some of the training the SAS went through.
3 stars.
Book Review: Excellent Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Very entertaining. I could not let it go. Reads very powerfully and realistic. I highly recommend it.Book Review: Excellent!
Summary: 5 Stars
MacNab's book "Bravo Two Zero" was outstanding in its' own right, however "Immediate Action" is in a class by itself. Being a former infantry soldier in the U.S. Army and having trained with the British army, I can entirely relate to MacNab's early experiences of pomp and circumstance and general work for work sake in the armies of the world. (Seems like all armies have something in common.) However, as far as the special forces go, these men are the quintessential professional soldier. I developed a respect for the british soldier and their professionalism at the lower level, and I now have an even higher respect for the SAS. I entirely related to the long marches with heavy gear and time constraints MacNab had to pass in order to be allowed to go to the next phase. For those people who have never done even a fraction of what all Special Forces candidates go through, try it. Put on a 60 pound rucksack, army fatigues and combat boots and try to move cross country for 12 miles in under three hours. I would recommend this book to anyone thinking about trying out for special forces. MacNab gives excellent advice and strategies for passing requirements. I can understand why the British government was not too keen about letting this book released to the general public. There is plenty of information available for those unfriendly to the U.K. to utilize against them. However I'm glad the book was published. Finally thanks to Amazon for selling this book online, because I could not find a copy of this book in regular book stores here in the U.S.Book Review: Fantastic read from beginning to end
Summary: 5 Stars
After you've read this book you should have a try at some of the selection routes. Get yourself the UK OS map for the Brecon Beacons, Wales, find Pen Y Fan, Fan Fawr, Ystradfellte, Torpantau and go for a walk!!