I read Ryan's book right after completing Marcus Luttrell's book, Lone Survivor. Ryan's escape took place in Iraq after he along with seven SAS colleagues were inserted on one of the first days of the invasion of Iraq in1991. Almost immediately things went wrong and while trying to escape to Syria, Ryan lost contact with the others and had to walk alone across 300 kilometres of desert without food and limited water. This is an amazing tale of survival but also a lesson on how things can go awry when there is poor planning and poor intelligence gathering. For his exploit, Ryan was awarded the Military medal by Queen Elizabeth. ( )

After reading 'Bravo Two Zero' a couple of years ago, I decided I needed an antidote to that gung ho tale.
The author doesn't spend much time with heroics (or false heroics) and fear is the dominant emotion evident; not excitement. Self-awareness and not a litte self-criticism also mark this one out.
The book does have its high points and a dash of humour, and the author doesn't stick the boot in quite as much as he could (with regard to planning, logistics and the like which seem desperately inadequate). ( )