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Will Jaeger #2

by Grylls Bear

Drugi tom trzymającego w napięciu thrillera Beara Gryllsa!
Zwłoki nordyckiej bogini odkryte w arktycznym lodowcu... Nazistowska maszyna ukryta w jaskiniach podziemnego jeziora... Dwunastoletnia sierota z Kenii, której podano eksperymentalny wirus... Grupa wyszkolonych żołnierzy planująca zemstę w sercu afrykańskiego kontynentu...
Jakie jeszcze tajemnice skrywa dżungla? Prawdę może odkryć tylko on. Will Jaeger. Myśliwy

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Adventure, Action, Audiobook, Collections

384 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Dannii Elle · Rating 3 out of 5]

HAPPY RELEASE DATE, BURNING ANGELS

I received this book on a read to review basis from NetGalley. Thank you to the author, Bear Grylls, and the publisher, Orion, for the opportunity.

This is the second installment in the action-packed Will Jaeger series and starting this felt like launching straight into the heart of a book. There was no preamble or explanation just action, action, action straight from the first page - and I loved it for that. No moment was dull and the plot was quick-paced and well-executed. The characters were well-rounded and, while playing into the good guy/bad guy stereotypes a little too snugly in places, felt real. I had not read the first book in the series but I garnered enough explanation about the synopsis, as the book progressed, that I never felt lost. There was so much simultaneously occurring in both plot and sub-plot that I was forever second-guessing the motives and the ending and was forever wrong in all of my suggestions.

I knew of the author's background so I was expecting a lot of factual accuracy and it delivered on that front, without digressing into long monologues or explanations of soldierly performances or stalled with in-depth mission particulars superfluous to the plot. You were shown not told, and learnt as the plot progressed.

I was not expecting (shame on me) such beautiful writing from a 'celebrity' author, as this is not his primary profession. There was a passion evident in the writing that leant an urgency, knowledge and compelling element to the novel and really spoke to me as a reader: I could feel the author behind the words. I could find no faults with this novel and, despite it not being in a genre I don't particularity read, enjoyed it immensely.

[Roy Gore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

A fantastic sequel to Ghost Flight. A plot and story that rivals the first with a great build up and comes with an Almighty bang! Fantastic action throughout the book. The ending got my pulse racing and has ended the second book off nicely. Intrigued as to how the third book is going to go. What is to be of Kammler???

[Knigoqdec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Доволна съм от срещата си с тази книга на Беър Грилс, макар че определено звучи доста наивно. По-скоро като книга за деца. Те са лошите, ние сме добрите - взимаме пушкалата, малко бам-бам и всичко е цветя и рози.
Беър Грилс наистина има понятие от нещата, за които говори, доста е подробен що се отнася до хеликоптерите, скачането с парашут, използваните оръжия, поведението на някои животни. Винаги ми е допадало това в него, още от времето на телевизионното му предаване. Затова му давам по-голяма оценка, отколкото възнамерявах и преглъщам липсата на дълбочина в книгата.
С няколко думи - реалистичност има, но в подробностите. Главната идея е за мен доста нелепа. Трябвало е да се съсредоточи в роман от типа "Спасете животните на Африка" или нещо подобно.

[Thomas Sutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great sequel

Read both the Jaeger books now and really enjoyed them. Full of action and an insight to some special forces techniques. Would make great movies, but books are always much better!

[Alex Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t know that Bear Grylls had started writing fictional adventure books; I know him, like everyone else does, from his adventure, survival television shows. This was a bit of surprise, I knew he’d written a mix of non-fiction books based on stuff from his shows, but I hadn’t been aware of this, especially as I’ve jumped on here, which is the second in the series.

The book seems to jump straight into it, continuing what apparently occurred in the first book Ghost Flight. Our hero, with eighties action film name, Will ‘the Hunter’ Jaeger (because having the German for hunter as a name, having the nickname the hunter isn’t overkill), an ex-SAS soldier is on a rescue mission with a group of best friends to save a Brazilian intelligence agent from a terrorist cell that has kidnapped Jaeger’s wife and son also. This seems to have all happened in the first book, and for the most part, it does enough to catch up readers (like me) who missed or forgot about the first book.
Intertwined with the continuing disappearance of Jaeger’s family, is a 60 year mystery revolving around a Nazi experiment with a prehistoric woman found frozen in a glacier that is continuing to this day. Jaeger and his team must now travel to a wildlife reserve in Africa, hunting the people behind his family’s kidnapping and the neo-Nazi plot to release an Ice Age virus.

This seems to be trying to be a mix of two different action/adventure books; both the Chris Ryan military type and the more Special Forces soldier in some sort archaeological expedition but seems weaker than either one.

The plot is pretty standard, a 60-year-old Nazi plot that is about to be unleashed and its up to Jaeger to stop this threat and save his family. While OK, there isn’t anything really outstanding, with the action being a mix of over the top and boring and the same time, levelling out just to be a bit average. The book also seems to meander. There are two scenes in particular that seem to drag on for what I can see little to no reason. The first, Jaeger must go through a whole interrogation test to join the organisation fighting this terror plot. I guessed it was part of an initiation, not that he had been captured by the villains. But this went on for too long, when people used to books like this would have known it’s a fake out, but it still carried on. The other scene, while undercover with Narov; his teammate (a kickass former Spetznaz woman) in Africa, they get dragged into stopping elephant poachers that goes on for ages which has no real link to the main plot. Not having it in, or cutting it into half or less, I believe nothing would have been lost.

In terms of characters, Jaeger is…meh. He is kind of a boy scout (fitting as Bear Grylls is ambassador for the Scouts), he doesn’t really have a dark side or do morally questionable stuff; he’s a one dimensional hero. Serviceable but not memorable. The others in the book, and Jaeger's link to them are similar. Narov, the super Russian sexy assassin with autism, Raff; the New Zealand former SAS who’s great at Rugby. Everyone’s good at their job and the villains are moustache twirlingly bad. Jaeger’s grandfather was an SAS Nazi hunter and his uncle, his son’s friend’s dad is a super hacker. it all seems a bit much.

Overall, the book is alright but isn’t as good as books from Chris Ryan or Andy McNab in the action genre or the adventure type books from Andy McDermott. Looking for an easy action/adventure read this will do, but don’t go in expecting anything special.

[Kate]

Time to admit defeat on this one.

[Daniel Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book in the Will Jaeger series and after having read and enjoyed the first one I was looking forward to reading this too.
Although very well written I feel that Bear Grylls isn't as professional as some other authors are but he is very much on his way to being one. Considering fiction writing isn't his main occupation this is very much a huge compliment.
Full of fast paced action, great characters and an excellent storyline i thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to the third in the series next year.

[Jill Deschuytter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second story wasn't bad at all but there were some parts that were repetitive. I think you'd need them if you read book 1 and 2 in a long period of time but for me it wasn't necessary. I still knew what was at stake from book 1.

I do feel that he went over the 'big problems' rather fast in the end but all in all it wasn't bad at all.

[Sujith · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars because the first book was better

[Jennifer Pirie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not really an action person, but even the technical bits were enjoyable. Well worth reading for something different

[Book Addict Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite a couple of dud reads, I have been lucky enough to read some absolutely fantastic books recently and one of my favourites has been Burning Angels by Bear Grylls. I read and enjoyed Ghost Flight last year but Burning Angels was just in another league to that and is probably one of the best thrillers that I have ever read simply because of it's phenomenal storyline and the amount of story packed into the pages. I just did not want it to end and the only disappointment I felt reading this book was when it did end. I am already looking forward to the third Will Jaeger novel.

Will Jaeger is back, and so too are some of the most memorable characters from Ghost Flight such as Irina Narov who I love. I am not even going to attempt to summarise the storyline because when I read the blurb I wondered just how all of what it reveals could possibly be connected, but connected it is and in the most brilliant of ways. Essentially somebody is trying to destroy humanity, all apart from one small section of it, and it is down to Will Jaeger and his team to put a stop to the worst act of evil the world has ever seen since Adolf Hitler. Bear has based the story on recently discovered material from his grandfather's military days and, as my own grandad recently passed away, I almost felt like this helped me to connect with the author and the story on an emotional level and felt that the fact that this wasn't a completely fictional tale just gave it the kind of depth that is usually missing in this genre which is littered with throwaway reads.

Burning Angels is an action packed read. It sounds like such a cliched thing to say but it really is. So much happens and the reader is barely given time to pause for breath. The reader follows Jaeger and his team across the world in their attempts to stop this act of evil from being carried out. Those who have read Ghost Flight will know that Jaeger is haunted by the fact his wife and child were kidnapped, and he has been taunted in the past by those who kidnapped them. Unsure of whether they are even alive, their disappearance plays a huge role in what unfolds in this story and as Jaeger begins to grow close to a certain female character in this story, I was left wondering just what would happen as more secrets started to be unfolded. Jaeger and Irina Narov spend some time alone in this story as their quest leads to the two of them having to infiltrate the villain of the story's lair. It was some of these scenes that were my favourites in the story because these two characters are endlessly fascinating to read about and there are some thrilling twists and turns revealed along the way, not least about the history of these two characters. I want to say too much but already I think I've said enough.

Will Jaeger is the perfect character to feature in a thriller such as this and as I said in the past I picture him as a cross between Ross Kemp and Bear Grylls himself. The adventure element, as you would expect, is brilliantly done and Jaeger and his team survive and look after themselves (and get one over on their enemies) in some very inventive ways and I loved the detail that Bear went into about some of these survival skills. Jaeger is an easy character to like, and whilst part of me would normally roll my eyes at a potential romance happening whilst someone's wife and child is missing, it is done here in a very natural and believable way. As the pages started dwindling the pace is turned up to full throttle, and as it was already pretty fast paced by that point my heart was soon beating extremely fast. The closing pages of this story were just brilliant, everything wasn't tied up in a predictably neat fashion, instead we are given some kind of a resolution to the story but at the same time the scene has been well and truly set for the next Will Jaeger novel and I already cannot wait to read it. This is one of the best adventure thriller series out there at the minute and I highly recommend it to those who are yet to discover it.

[John Nixon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Burning Angels was a real disappointment, but I did read it through to the end without throwing it across the room, so there must have been something good about it. What?

Parts of it were exciting, and there was a mystery of sorts that I wanted to see unravelled. But there was also a sort of horrible, professional fascination in reading it to spot all the mistakes of craft and all the mistakes of fact.

The protagonist is called Will Jaeger, nicknamed Hunter. There are literally paragraphs spent explaining how he got his nickname, but at no point does the narrator or any character in the book comment that “Jaeger” means “Hunter” in German. This is even more bizarre given the apparent knowledge of (Nazi era) German language held by several of the characters.

Given Grylls’ background in the British military’s SAS, and given the hard-boiled ambitions of the book, I’m prepared to accept the accuracy of the book’s descriptions of weaponry and other military equipment. However there are so many other facts the book gets wrong. Quite simple things even. At one point, for example, Adolf Hitler is described as having brown eyes. It really doesn’t take a great deal of effort to discover – if you don’t know already – that Hitler’s eyes were blue.

One of the secondary characters in the book is Russian – Irina Narov. Since the bearer is a woman, the name ought to be written Narova. That pulled me up every time I saw it.

At one point Jaeger and Narov must sneak into the camp of ivory poachers. They wade through a muddy water hole, contaminated with animal faeces. To hide themselves they spread mud and shit over their hair and daub their faces with it. Quite a play is made of how disgusting this is. But a short chapter later, long before either of them have had a chance to wash, they are camping out overnight and cuddle together to keep warm. Having apparently forgotten about the stench of mud and faeces, Grylls has Jaeger approvingly sniff Narov’s “sweet womanly smell”.

Another thing that irritated me on and off throughout the book was the cavalier attitude Jaeger exhibited towards nature, when he wasn’t busy trying to protect it. Quite early in the book I was put out when he and his companions ditched their parachutes into the Caribbean Sea. I’m not sure what they could have done otherwise, but having recently seen film of naturalists and activists trying to cut whales free of ghost fishing nets, I found myself wondering how many fish and other sea creatures would be entangled and killed in the strings and canopy of Jaeger’s abandoned parachute.

It called into question for me all of Jaeger’s later professed concern for nature. As it turned out this was not the only time Jaeger and his companions threw their rubbish away. In fact they seem to leave a trail of detritus behind them across three continents and two oceans.

This is extracted from my longer review of Burning Angels published on my website at TheSupercargo.com on 13th June 2018. Read more here
http://www.thesupercargo.com/burning-...

[Michael Painter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh dear…my first and last Bear Grylls book.

Goes into too much technical detail, I get it you used to be in the forces so you know what you are talking about but, really to be a writer you need the story to flow effortlessly, but not unfortunately with this book, there are far too many times when the flow is interrupted with his ever-present "let me show my superior knowledge" the protagonist gets out some night vision goggles, boom I'm with you I know what you are talking about, oh hold on, you're going to tell me which armed services use them, the distance you can use them over and the serial number, why not give me a web address too and I can buy a pair! Sorry to say, it's a light book with heavy-handed tech info.

[Eileen Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bear Grylls seems to be everywhere these days. I wasn't sure I'd take to this story.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this terrific thriller.
I will look out for more Will Jaeger books.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Orion via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.

[Jem Wilton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fair play, Bear... Ebola, Nazis, Guns and Ammo references a plenty - what could possibly go wrong? Hey, how did the Nazi seaplane end up inside a mountain? - All good fun, but not particularly riveting... managed to finish the book though, so can't have been too bad!

[Katie C1990 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't get my head around this book. I struggled to stay interested in the first book but thought I would try the second to see how the story panned out. I just couldn't stay focused on the story at all.

[Julia · Rating 1 out of 5]

The description of the book was very intriguing and sounded interested. But the book itself was very subpar. I have to admit I regret wasting my time on it.
Up until last 100 or so pages, I was thinking I’d give it 3*, but these past pages were just a complete, utter disappointment.
The plot in itself was good, it could have been a good book. But there’re two aspects that seriously annoyed me:
- way too much and too extensive description of technologies. It felt like these were necessary to fill the pages. Endless technical specifications of guns, ammunition, technologies, techniques. Like reading passages from users manuals and wikipedia combined.
- completely, massively unrealistic events and so dumb twists it was seriously weird to read. Like reading a book for total dummies, without any grain of logic.
Not to mention several annoying mistakes - like Russian female surnames written in masculine form. One of the main female characters is “Narov”, it’s a masculine form, Narova - would be feminine; her grandmother is Olschanevsky - which again is a male form, Olschanevskaya would be a female).

[spoilers] For example:
- there is a full scale drone and missiles battle in a fancy resort. Apparently no-one notices or cares about it - there’re seemingly guests in the resort and it’s a functioning high-end property. But sure you can have military drones and missiles flying around the beach just like that. Why would anyone care, right?
- so the brilliant, amazing Will Jaeger is smart enough to understand the boy’s importance, find and “protect” the boy, but then Jaeger, his team and a whole organisation of Nazi-hunters are so dumb they need Jaeger’s semi-unconscious wife to tell them WHY the boy is important and what they should do next to save the world. That part was so “wtf!” for me it made me almost angry for wasting my time reading the book (mind you, I “figured” why the boy is important the moment his storyline appeared - and I did assume Jaeger and his team did as well - why else would they search and protect the boy?)
- so there we have whole world’s governments in a fight to save the world - but the main evil guy has disappeared and no-one seems to care. But wait… apparently no-one has actually gone to look for the evil guy in his known hiding place! The place Jaeger actually visited and everyone knew of that place. But of course, why would someone try to look for the guy who tried to wipe out the world. The well-known hiding place is obviously the not the place to check, right?
- 2 pages of epilogue on pandemic fighting was so random crap it again made me regret the time spent reading the book. First there’re pages and pages of descriptions how the evil is spreading across the world. Then at the end there’s a tiny epilogue how the world was saves in couple of weeks. REALLY?

[Emily G · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel continues the story started in Ghost Flight, Will Jaeger is closing in on his missing family but also needs to stop a deadly virus unleashed on the world by neo-Nazis trying to start the fourth Reich.

This is another page turner, with non-stop action. I really like Irina Narov but I think I could have done without the almost romance between her and Will, because I knew that Will was never going to have an affair while there was a chance of getting his family back. Also, the brand placement was rife again, but I was expecting this time so it didn’t irritate me as much, plus it’s worked, as I am definitely going to treat myself to some Salewa boots!

As with Ghost Flight, there were some more things that didn’t make sense to me, like their helicopter catching fire but Narov and Jaeger were able to get supplies from it later, including whiskey, which is very flammable. Then the team were wearing masks to prevent infecting others but on the mission to rescue Simon, suddenly they weren’t - why? There is also a lot of repetition of events in the first book, so that this novel can be read as a stand-alone story, which is a bit tedious if you have read Ghost Flight.

Still despite these drawbacks, it was a very entertaining and I will read book 3 when it comes out in May. 3 stars

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another fun adventure story but I don't think it was quite as good as the first book. The book fallower Jaeger and friends out for revenge and to try and rescue his family from a group trying to build the Fourth Reich. Along the way they stumble across a deadly plan to release a ancient plague which will wipe out a large percentage of the population.
There are quite a few leaps throughout the book and I would have preferred to see how they worked things out but I fully admit this book is already quite long for this kind of story. Without the introductions and world building from the first this book just felt like we were going from one set piece to another. There was some exciting moments but it all felt a bit flat.
A good read if you just want a nice pulpy adventure story and don't expect anything more.

[Stuart Killbourn · Rating 4 out of 5]

With humanity under threat and Will's family kidnapped, the hero of this story is brooding but still manages to keep focus on revenge and his unfolding mission. As might be expected, Will is a special forces operative and is surrounded by similar characters - with a lot of technical details about their equipment and methods. He follows the clues where they lead and uncovers the doomsday plot hatched by some ex-Nazis who also have his family hostage.

Overall, it makes for a fast-paced and globe-trotting plot. A fine yarn. Nothing profound or thought-provoking though. The plot structure is linear and rarely deviates from the hero's perspective. I found this book fairly predictable with no surprises and not much mystery to ponder.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific story with political overtones, and lots of action- a bit too much description of weaponery for me-but I realized how much we don't know of the actions of the Allied powers following the end of WWII. Some of the story seems a bit farfetched, but lots of it feels real or that it might have really ocurred, and the thought of a chemical/biological weapon in anyone's hands is really terrifying. I like the fact that many of the loose ends from the first book were tied up neatly in this following book, but understand the great evil one is still at large and needs to be captured. So will move on to the final book in the series called Hunt.

[T.A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realise when I started this that it was a second in the series, not that it really mattered as everything was explained.

This is an enjoyable read with some good parts and some not so good parts. I love a good "action movie" book and this was that to many extents it went a bit too much in to detail for me on types of guns, equipment and vehicles. I'm sure others would love this but for me it created drag in scenes you wanted to be fast paced.

If not for that I would have given this four stars.

[Marcus Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bear Grylls was obviously going for the Nobel prize for literature with this effort about one mans struggle against the odds. Joking aside this isn't a bad little read, it's easy going and great as a time killer to read on the bus or on holiday. There's a lot of filler though to pad the story out, the sub plot which sees Jaeger take on a poaching gang was a bit of a distraction I could have lived without. Not essential reading but entertaining all the less.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is exciting with any number of life challenges faced by jaeger and his men (and one woman). Perhaps the most thrilling of all was the sea rescue of a speed boat into the belly of an airship. Mr Grylls seems to know his stuff and while some of it might be a bit over the top. A save the world scenario plot and one in which jaeger can find his lost wife and child and consign a bad guy to the jaws of a shark.

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

First book I've read by Bear Grylls; it was pretty easy to pick up despite being the second in a continuing series. I've read my share of trashy adventure stories but this book never grabbed me and I didn't care about any of the characters. Book felt formulaic and seemed to be trying to cover the full suite of cliches - find the hero's family, stop nazis, stop a deadly virus, and while we're at it, let's add in stopping poachers….

[Sophie Towler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic sequel and cannot wait to complete the trilogy… the only thing that lost it a star was one tiny slip of the attention to detail.

There was a scene where two of the main characters are undercover using aliases. One calls the other by their real name!! I spotted it and instantly thought this has blown their cover. Nothing came of it. So a bit frustrating.

Other than that, it was almost as good as the first book.

[Magdalena Brynard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bear Grylls captures the true essence of the evil lurking in the human heart to perfection. The struggle between life and imminent death to an etire world is captured through the eyes of Will Jeager, the hunter. It was a thrilling adventure, that I look forward to complete in the next edition in the series.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! This is a worthy sequel and rockets along at break neck pace. Absolutely love the characters of Jaeger and Narov. Grylls descriptions of wildlife and warfare are excellent and will keep you reading well into the wee hours of the morning! Can't wait to tuck into the 3rd instalment.

[Engc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Burning angels review

I would recommend this book to poeple who read adventure, survival, history.
I like this book because of how interesting it is. If u read any of those genres this book is a must read.

[Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good story - I thought it was better than the first book. Well worth a read...