Andy McNab joined the infantry in 1976 as a boy soldier. In 1984 he was badged as a member of 22 SAS Regiment. He served in B Squadron 22 SAS for ten years and worked on both covert and overt special operations worldwide, including anti-terrorist and anti-drug operations in the Middle and Far East, South and Central America and Northern Ireland.
Trained as a specialist in counter terrorism, prime target elimination, demolitions, weapons and tactics, covert surveillance and information gathering in hostile environments, and VIP protection, McNab worked on cooperative operations with police forces, prison services, anti-drug forces and western backed guerrilla movements as well as on conventional special operations. In Northern Ireland he spent two years working as an undercover operator with 14th Intelligence Group, going on to become an instructor.
McNab also worked as an instructor on the SAS selection and training team and instructed foreign special forces in counter terrorism, hostage rescue and survival training.
Andy McNab has written about his experiences in the SAS in two bestselling books, Bravo Two Zero (1993) and Immediate Action (1995). Bravo Two Zero is the highest selling war book of all time and has sold over 1.7 million copies in the UK. To date it has been published in 17 countries and translated into 16 languages. The CD spoken word version of Bravo Two Zero, narrated by McNab, sold over 60,000 copies and earned a silver disc. The BBC's film of Bravo Two Zero, starring Sean Bean, was shown on primetime BBC 1 television in 1999 and released on DVD in 2000.
Immediate Action, McNab's autobiography, spent 18 weeks at the top of the bestseller lists following the lifting on an ex-parte injunction granted to the Ministry of Defence in September 1995. To date, Immediate Action has now sold over 1.4 million copies in the UK.
McNab is the author of seven fast action thrillers, highly acclaimed for their authenticity and all Sunday Times bestsellers. Published in 1997, Remote Control was hailed as the most authentic thriller ever written and has sold over half a million copies in the UK. McNab's subsequent thrillers, Crisis Four, Firewall, Last Light , Liberation Day , Dark Winter , Deep Black and Aggressor have all gone on to sell equally well. The central character in all the books is Nick Stone, a tough ex-SAS operative working as a 'K' on deniable operations for British Intelligence.
McNab's fiction draws extensively on his experiences and knowledge of Special Forces soldiering. He has been officially registered by Neilsen Bookscan as the bestselling British thriller writer of the last year.
This book was just equally amazing as well! I wish there was a sequel. The ending was great but not that great. Because, I think there will be a sequel. I have not seen a sequel yet
I really liked Dropzone Terminal Velocity, though the beginning seemed a little boring and confusing at the end. Though Andy Mcnab has beautifully written this book, there are a few confusing parts that I didn’t get. When I let my friends read it, they weren’t really interested as they found it boring. In my opinion, I like to read these kind of books as they’re challenging and extend my vocabulary.
Dropzone Terminal Velocity is about a newly formed skydiving team on a secret mission. The story is about them going on another mission. In the end, it tells a bit about the sequel to this book which makes you want to read it.
The main characters are Ethan, Kat, Luke and Johnny. The words that describe these characters are beautifully written though Ethan’s personality was a bit hard to understand. Overall, the characters are nicely used in the book.
Overall, Andy McNab has beautifully shown his writing skills and I look forward to reading many of his books in time. I would not recommend this book to young readers, about 10 or younger, as the words that are used in this book are not their level. I would highly suggest this book to teenagers that like fiction and are willing to read action / adventure stories.
Overall, this book is good and I would like to recommend it to teenagers and young adults.
Not bad. For me I did not think it was as good as the first book. It actually seemed a bit slow getting going. I love Andy McNab's writing style and the way he explains things I also enjoy the training. But for some reason this time it didn't quite do it for me.
I was also not overly enamoured with the storyline. The primary mission was an illegal cage fighting but with teenage boys as the fighters, because it is not illegal for adults as it is a sanctioned sport. High roller bets are taken on the fights with it being either to the death or the loser being executed. The target was actually the person running the ring who has been linked to other crimes.
In a way you could sort of tell that this being set up not to finish and I am guessing would have been an on-going storyline and would end up being the baddie they would chase for the series (however, as of yet there has been no additional books in the series). But somehow for me it just did not quite work.
3.5 stars rounded down to 3 stars. I initially rounded up but I have changed my mind as I don't think it was good enough for the 4 stars so have rounded down instead.
Andy McNab’s Dropzone: Terminal Velocity is a masterclass of a thriller that explores physical and mental resilience, trust and teamwork in a high stakes covert skydiving team. The book follows the raiders a team made up of Ethan Blake, the main character, Johnny, the comedic but serious relief, Kat, the computer geek and pretty athletic woman, Luke, the one who makes sure everything is safe and sorted, Natalya, mysterious Krav Maga expert, Sam, leader of the team and expert skydiver. Their goal originally is following Sam's orders with military training but then get given a mission from M15s Gabe to infiltrate and gain intel on an illegal flight club to bust Mr X, its leader that smuggles weapons as well as running it. Fresh off grueling, body-breaking training exercises designed to teach them how to withstand enemy interrogation, teammates Ethan and Johnny are pulled into active service by their MI5 handler, Gabe. The team's ice-cold leader—an ex-SAS explosives expert—tasks them with investigating a disturbing rash of violence where homeless teenagers are being systematically beaten to death and dumped on the streets. The investigation takes a sinister turn when a single surviving victim reveals the existence of a brutal, underground cage-fighting ring run by organized crime and orchestrated by a faceless mastermind known as "Mr X". Because the victims are well-fed and highly trained before being forced to fight to the death, and standard law enforcement faces an impenetrable wall of silence, MI5 realizes they need an operative fluent in hand-to-hand combat who can blend into the youth demographic. As a result, Ethan is sent deep undercover into this ruthless ring, pushing his specialized combat skills, survival instincts, and psychological endurance to their absolute limits in the most perilous mission of his young career. The book succeeded due to the constant action through the ever changing nature of what is going on ,immersive setting through amazing world building such as the cage, high stakes fighting like Ethan fighting in the cage. One issue with the novel though is the open ended ending leaving readers wondering what happens to the raiders in catching the chief and Mr X next and despite it being written 10 years ago has no book to finish off the trilogy. Overall, this novel has got me back into reading again and I recommend this to 14-15 year old teens as well as young adults. interested in special forces operations and enjoy military type content.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Dropzone:Terminal Velocity is an extension of Dropzone so if you havent read Dropzone you probably wont undrstand what is going on.
During Dropzone:T.V., the newly formed group The Radiers are coming back from there competiontion in France. After a few weeks of rest the group is recalled and they are being prepared to be sent on another mission by MI5, the mission requires the new boy Ethan Blake and the Raiders to train in SAS surivavl skills and Ethan also has to learn also some Krav Maga(Israilian self-defense) for self-defense during this mission. The mission is to infitrate and gather intel on the arena and "dungeon" of nitorious mastermind Mr "X". Ethans mission turns out to be harder than he thought and he ends up having to fight for Mr "X" and also get him some blood money. Whilst Ethan is in "Hell" his team mates are thinking of a plan to rescue him but fortuanly for them Ethan gets out saving them time and hassel also allowing them to destroy the liar quickly. In the end they successfully destroy the ficilaty and also end up saving some of the children stuck in it.
Overall this is a wonderful book and i would recomend it to alot of people
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
fairly good book about a skydiving club who actually do secret missions, it goes in to detail about the skydives they do and there's a quite good training exercise, but then they go into this mission thst seemed pretty cliched and not a very good ending to the book.