Rogue Force Books

Simply put: If you are sick of hollywood's predictable, ridiculous, superhero action and you want the The Real Deal - Then Buy This Book.

I also highly reccomend reading "Leadership Secrets of the Rogue Warrior : A Commando's Guide to Success."

Those of us who are fans of the Weisman/Marcinko collaboration know what to expect, and we usually get it. Purple prose, riveting technical realism, and a refreshingly honest look at great men who overcome great odds in spite of malfunctioning equipment, fumbled flash-bang grenades, mashed noses and other Murphy factors. What can I say, I love this stuff. Reading Tom Clancy is like watching a video football game, while Weisman's work is like standing at the 50-yard line with the coach. Weisman understands that great men rise to greatness in spite of their occasional acts of bone-headedness! That's what separates the Rogue Warrior from the rest.

Hello to all of you Rogue Warrior fans! This is a [great] if you haven't read this book already. I'm not saying that all of them aren't good either, but just to say that this is one of my all time favorites! This story is about the one and only Richard Marckinko and his merry band of hunters, only this time he is in more [situations] than he can stuff in his big old roguish mouth of his. Dick is here in Azerbaijan on some "secret" mission to observe the opposition and to train the Azerbaijanians how to shoot& loot. But that all goes out the window when some professional tangos come in and hijack an oil rig run by some hostile crew. After all the shooting & looting Dick finally realizes he is in deep [trouble]. On top of that, the ambassador is on his case about how he should not be in the country and how it was against the "book" that he could not train the Azerbainians...so all in all this was a good book no matter what others say, despite the language and violence this is absolutely the best series ever!

I confess! Richard Marcinko's semi-autobiographical Rogue Warrior
series is one of my peculiar pleasures. "Red Cell" is still, far and
away, my favoite. But "Echo Platoon" is a treat with a new twist.
...It seems the old Rogue Warrior is starting to feel his age these
days. Even though he spends every free moment at Rogue Manor pumping
massive amounts of iron and honing his fighting and sharpshooting
skills, by his own admission he's having difficulty keeping up with
his young hunters. Sometimes enough to FUBAR the missions he leads.
And he's mellowing in other ways too, such as permitting a female
Marine to accompany the team this time out. But he can still kick that tango butt!
You might have caught the author on TV recently, describing SEAL
tactics in Afghanistan. Anyone else notice his splendid physical
condition? You have little trouble believing him quite capable of his
fictionalized exploits. You know he's intimately familiar with all
the weapons and gear he namedrops throughout his narrative. Despite
his ongoing love-hate relationship with the Navy, you can't help
admiring the Rogue for his swaggering patriotism, his fatherly
affection toward his young shooters, and his bantering, even bullying,
camaraderie with his readers. And then there's his trademark "Ten
Commandments of SPECWAR", which can be equally effective in whatever
non-lethal endeavor you might undertake, be it business to
bodybuilding. Credit also goes to John Weisman, Marcinko's co-author,
for the fast-reading, non-stop excitement and often laugh-out-loud
humor of this series. Sure, Dickie's getting greyer, but don't count
him out of the action yet! You know the old Rogue's got a few more
adventures to come!

Echo Platoon is just like those before it. Lots of blood, guts, cussing and thrill. Nothing here is new except the people who get killed. People should read this book if 1) they want to know more about the capabilities of the military, 2) they want to learn a little more about what happens around the world, 3) the just enjoy plain old action adventures. Stay away from the book if fair writing and extreme use of foul language bothers you. I would prefer Marcinko to quit making asides to his editor during the story. It only seems to help fill up pages. I would also prefer he stay within the action once it starts and identifies people and past events within another part of the book. Once the the hunter is after the prey and the killing begins, stay there. I find myself jumping through some passages just to stay on track with what is happening.
Marcinko will give you a slight sense of the fast-paced action of war and will give you an appreciation for those who still wish to make men of war within our military instead of trying to make the military a social club. I think future books will be even better based on the current status of our country and President Bush's attack attitude favored by Marcinko.

After reading most of the Rogue Warrior books, you get the feeling that you know the supporting cast pretty well. Getting the backstory on the real men on whom the characters are based is really special. Typical Marchinko -- blunt and plainspoken.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who's not already a fan of the Rogue Warrior books. It's basically a collection of essays by friends of Marcinko (most of whom have been used as characters in his novels) about their background, including combat experiences, etcetera.

This is also the first Marcinko book I've read that seemed to be clearly aimed, at least in part, at the audience for his two management and leadership books. That is business people who want to be hardcore. To this end, all the essays touch on the individual's view on teamwork and what makes a good leader, etc.

All in all, interesting for fans of Marcinko's books; useful for people who want to understand how a team should or can work.

I like reading about Marcinko's exploits, both real and made up (really love the first book though), so I grabbed this book thinking that maybe I'd like it more than his fiction, since I prefer his nonfiction. But it is a disappointing collection, very little written by the man himself and mostly written by the men he writes about. Stick with the main book.

I've read 5 of Marchinkos books over the last 18 months and he writes great stuff. The stories are well described and each reads like an spec. ops. mission that was only recently de-classified.

The guys he works with all have unique personalities and backgrounds but plenty of motivation. I bought this book to learn a bit more about who joins the team...and (more importantly) to hear them describe their best/worst missions. Each guy must have a mission that they look back upon?? Beyond just their upbringing, I was hoping to read more of their 'lives on the edge'. I got only a little of that.

If you have friend or family looking at the military, this is certainly the book for them.

Great stories from a group of skilled and dedicated soldiers told in the only way they know how, with honesty, brutality and in some cases a sense of humor. This is a fast read that kept me enthralled because of the pace of the book. The stories are long enough to give you some detail and the situations and short enough that there are no lapses of boredom. It is a great book for non-fiction action of some of great warriors who really loved what they were doing.

Just finished this book. The "proof" on which the Rogue Warrior bases his decision to seek to punish the "bad guys" is a little thin, except that in the final momemnts he is proven to be correct. One only hopes that somewhere the goverment actually does have at least one real rogue warrior out there protecting us from the real bad guys. The world does need real SeAls to keep us safe.

Having known a number of SeAls, the fact that the fictional Marchinko speaks several languages and can drop literary references is not at all farfetched. These guys are world class athletes and top notch people doing a much meeded job. Another in his series of execellent action thriller books.

This is another great book by Marcinko. In this book Marcinko comes up against one of the World's deadliest terror groups, the IRA. To be specific he actually takes on several IRA splinter groups two of which(the Green Hand Defenders and another one called the True IRA) prove to be some of the toughest and best trained bad guys dick has yet faced.
Like all of his books this one is true to life in terms of Counter Terrorist tactics, intelligence gathering and the deadly effeicency of the Irish guerillas. But in the end the bad people all get thier just desserts and Dickey boy saves the day, it is good fun and an exciting read all the way.

Let's get one thing straight right out of the chute: the "Rogue Warrior" series of novels aren't going to be winning Pulitzers anytime soon. These are pure, testosterone-driven, profanity-laced, escapes from reality; they have been a collection of books that have been fun to read. However, after reading "Rogue Warrior: Detachment Bravo", I have come to the conclusion that it may be time for Richard Marcinko to retire to his Rogue Manor.

For starters, the most obvious criticism of "Detachment Bravo" is its utter predictability. It is a trend that started several novels ago and gets worse with each successive book. Heck, even someone who has only read one or two of his books could guess the action and plot. You can ALWAYS guarantee one or more sequences where Mr. Marcinko loses his weapon or runs out of ammo and has to grapple in hand-to-hand combat with a bad guy, will go personally greet and smack around the chief villain in the story, will go meet and smack around his superiors, and - in the climatic battle at the end of the story - will lose his weapon or ammo and kill the villain in a prolonged hand-to-hand combat sequence. Honest to goodness: for a guy who preaches perfection and team support, he is always goofing up, and his teammates - who are there to back him - are never around to shoot the bad guy he's wrestling. Again, I know it's fiction, but it really starts to grate on a reader after a while.

The second criticism is that the plot in "Detachment Bravo" was poor. This series has never been too much about a plot, but he has done better. This one was not well thought-out, seemed disjointed in a lot of places, and was simply poorly developed. Yes, the reader knows who the bad guy(s) are, but it is never fully certain what their ultimate aim is or - more importantly - what they're doing other than trotting the globe on a yacht. What the reader is left with are the usual Rogue Warrior cliches found in every one of his books and the aforementioned predictability.

Readers who want to get Richard Marcinko at his very best should read his first two books: the nonfiction "Rogue Warrior" and the first fiction book "Rogue Warrior II: Red Cell". They launched him to stardom, but he never really held this high level, slowly tapering off until a precipitous decline in quality of his last couple of novels. I rate the book with two stars; it could have easily been a one-star review, but he still wins points for sheer escapism in his writing.

As I indicated at the outset, it may be time for Mr. Marcinko to put the "Rogue Warrior" series out to stud. If he decides to continue the series, this reader hopes that he will take a year or two off and develop a better story. Otherwise, I'm not wasting my money.

Eventhough the Rogue Warrior series has become fairly predictable, i have to say i always enjoy reading the latest installment, and this one was no exception. Yeah, he is always suffering "painfull dings", losing his gun, and having to kill the bad guys single handed, but hey. real life has plenty of "Murphy Moments" too. even if your the toughest navy seal in the U.S. I do think he comes up with some very interesting scenarios for his books, it's just that they all follow the same storyline.

Once again, the Marcinko/Weisman duo take the us on a trip with the wild bunch (read Rogue Warrior: The Real Team). And once more, the bad guys get theirs from every direction imaginable and a few that are beyond imagination, in spite of the incompentent leadership at the top. Dirty Dick will warp your mind if you don't move fast, stay low and watch your six! As the author of FADED COLORS, knowing personally "Nasty Nick Grundle", "Indian Jew" and some of the other sorry lot of heroes, brave American warriors each, put nothing past these characters. Grab a copy, bite a nail and cheer them on to victory over evil...or? And sleep tight tonight. They're really out there.

Recenly, I read Red Star Rogue. Controversial did get my attention.
Prior to reading, I checked the internet for information about the K129 and Project Jennifer.
Reading the book was worth the time. The book does offer believable explanations rather than general statements about the events surrounding the K-129, its location, and salvage. There certainly seemed to be interest in salvaging the K-129.
In the 1960's and 1970's there was concern about the Russians, Cold War activities, and the Chinese. Henry Kissinger was admired for his skillful negotiations and contributions in detente and opening the door of China.
Within the context of the book, the special bond submariners share is described along with an Armageddon situation that could have occurred had a rogue mission been successful.
I am interested in more information about the R/V Teritu and the radioactive oil slick sailed into during an academic,ecological research in the area of Oahu in 1968 along with the FOIA concerns presented by Harriet Ann Phillipi in regard to Project Jennifer.

While not necessarily all believable the detail of research is very good. Well written but stretched a little long. It was nice to stroll down memory lane as to the facts and fears of the Cold War era.

This book accurately relates parts of history that have remained a mystery for years. There is some speculation, however, the author is very convincing and has done his homework. I throughly enjoyed reading this book.

As discussed by William Twist and the originator of this review in earlier reviews of RED STAR ROGUE (RSR) posted on this site, RSR has serious credibility problems in several technical areas.

One of these problems is so egregious that the entire conspiracy theory edifice propounded by RSR stands or falls on this single issue.

Kenneth Sewell, the author of RSR, conjectures that K-129, a GOLF Class Soviet diesel submarine sank in March 1968, while attempting to launch a missile at Pearl Harbor to trigger a Sino-American war. The launch position was estimated in RSR to be about 350 nautical miles northwest of Hawaii, well within the range of the GOLF missile system.

The enormous problem with the RSR position is that the Air Force Technical Applcations Center (AFTAC) compared the arrival times of underwater acoustic signals generated by the GOLF when it sank at five locations (Wake Island, Midway Island, Eniwetok Island, Kaneohe, Hawaii and Adak, Alaska) to establish the position of the sinking with what is known as a time-difference-fix solution.

The AFTAC position, provided by a now declassified Navy document, was 40.1N, 179.9E or 1600 nautical miles from Honolulu, 700 NAUTICAL MILES BEYOND THE MAXIMUM RANGE OF THE GOLF R-21 MISSILE.

The AFTAC position also is OVER 1000 NAUTICAL MILES from the position postulated by Kenneth Sewell in RSR.

The AFTAC position is the position to which US forces went and it is the position where they found the wreckage of the GOLF in 16,400 feet of water. Where the GOLF sank is beyond dispute.

On this single point, the RSR conspiracy edifice collapses and the book is is exposed as a fictional invention without substance or credibility. For whatever reason the GOLF sank, it had nothing to do with any conspiracy to attack Honolulu with a nuclear-warhead-equipped missile.

End of discussion.

I looked at this book as an academic. I study nuclear weapons development, delivery systems, and all that stuff. If it blows up real big, I am into it. So please do take this into consideration as I go into my review.

This book is about as plausible as the last Sasquatch sighting. But perhaps that is why so many people seem to desperately want to cling to it. The author makes several unforgivable lapses in judgement, such as reconstructing the last days of the K-129 - a Golf II class ballistic missile sub that he asserts was on its way with 11 "mysterious" personnel who somehow were trying to launch an SLBM at Pearl Harbor in 1968, in the hopes that the U.S. would automatically suspect the CHINESE and attack them, thus eliminating Russia's main continental threat. He furthermore maintains that the warhead suffered a low-order detonation of the warhead as a result of the Permissive Action Lock failsafe device triggering some of its plastic explosives as a means of somehow punishing a crew severely if it tried something sneaky.

PUH-LEEZE!!!!!

First, the author needs to content himself with some facts: he claims to have worked as in the reactor space of one of our snooper-boats, yet he obviously doesn't recall ever having "Spooks," or CIA intelligence-gathering operatives on his boat. If he does, then why doesn't he think that the Soviets did the same thing? Or they could have been technicians working on the newly-installed navigational gear. But of course, these were just mystery men who seized the boat. I'm getting spooked already...

Then there is his reconstruction of the events of the sub just prior to its loss. HE CANNOT KNOW THIS STUFF - THE ONLY ONES WHO DID DIED ON THE BOAT. But it is a "Non-fiction novel," right? La la la la la... Now the psychopathic commies raise to fire their missile and...

This gets goofy: he describes a "cold launch" system to fire the missiles FROM A SURFACED POSITION - in essence this system uses compressed air to blow the missile free from its launch tube AS THE SUBMARINE IS SUBMERGED. The predecessor to the submarine, the Golf I class HAD to fire while surfaced, and used an elevator platform to lift the missile clear of the launch tube, of which there were three located in the sail. The Golf II was specifically created to be able to utilize the R-21 missile, which GAVE IT AN UNDERWATER LAUNCH CAPABILITY. If the author had even bothered to actually read Pavel podvig's book, "Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces," WHICH HE CITES, he would know that the K-129 would not have fired from the surface, but submerged. But well, that would conflict with the story... La la la la la....

So the permissive action lock triggered the missile's warhead to self destruct? IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY. It prevents the missile from firing, or the warhead from detonating, but it DOESN'T POP THE EXPLOSIVES ON THE WARHEAD. It would render it inert - and THAT IS ASSUMING THAT THE R-21 HAD A PAL SYSTEM. Not to mention that such an explosion would have opened up the missile's fuel tanks (it was a liquid-fuelled missile after all) and most likely would have blown open the missile hatches covering the other two birds in their tubes. GUESS WHAT HAPPENS THEN? You have two more missiles blowing their fuel tanks, and in the end, there wouldn't be enough of that sub left to fit in a sardine can. Boom. Big rocket fuel explosion. Bye bye boat, and Mr. Hughes doesn't build the Glomar Explorer.

I hope that I haven't ruined anyone's fun here, and if you like sea stories, this one might keep you company on a rainy night, but it is absolutely implausible. Oh, I didn't mention that he states that a secret "Jennifer" satellite "detected" the missile fuel explosion. I thought that "Jennifer" was the code name for the attempted recovery, not surveillance of the world for infrared sources... And being able to discern "between house fires and rocket fuel." Errr, right. I am familiar with the Vela satellites, and I am familiar with the early warning satellites that sit in geosynchronous orbits at great distance that look for rocket plumes, but this satellite system is unfamiliar to me... OH, THAT'S RIGHT - he cites THAT information FROM A DISCOVERY CHANNEL TV PROGRAM. Now if that isn't an accurate source, I don't know what is. When the television becomes part of the basis of a book that claims to be somewhat factual, I blanch. If that is the case, the author may wish to ask Starfleet if Scotty would be so kind as to beam him up to the Enterprise so he can look at the dilithium crystals.

He discounts the possibility that there was a missile fuel leak, or another scenario where the sub might have surfaced briefly to try and vent its missile tube - such as in the scenario portrayed in the book "Hostile Waters" where a leaking launch tube caused a missile detonation and the eventual loss of the sub and several of its crew. But that would dismiss the idea that psycho Reds were trying to get us to blow up the Chinese...

AND THE CHINESE DID NOT HAVE A BALLISTIC MISSILE SUB OF THEIR OWN UNTIL 1988. How would they have nuked us at Pearl Harbor?

Oh, and there's lots of Glomar Explorer conspiracy hooplah, but I have probably taken up enough of your time.

This book requires a willing suspense of disbelief. As I study this stuff for a living, I ain't that willing.

I am a fan of most action genres and the early Marcinko stuff was great. This book, however, was so bad I couldn't even finish it. The characters were weak, the story poorly developed, and there was no evidence of any kind of research being done in this book. I live in Vegas and was dissapointed that Marcinko didn't even bother to verify glaring and rediculous errors that could have been verified on-line (even though a little on-site investigation would be better). It may be that this story line is just played out and should be put to rest.

Marcinko is at it again with a fact/fiction return of life and conflict. Im a specialist of military tribute and i am again satisfied.

Yet another action filled book by Richard Marcinko. If you have only read one or all of the Rogue Warrior serious of books you won't be disappointed by this one, the Red Cell team are there to follow Demo Dick in making life hard for anyone who gets in his way.

When Demo Dick first wrote Rogue Warrior, it was good because the first person format was about "his story" (with the characteristic Marcinko lingo). This is latest novel is a sad departure from the DevGru Guru we were entertained by...and some of us worked with.

It takes more than a ghost writer to make a good story. Yes DHS is lame. Yes, a trained chimp could out perform DHS in almost any scenario you could devise. We all know that, and the public endures the mediocrity because no individual knows how to professionalize the machine (witness, Mr. M, how your Red Cell ops embarassed the Navy - pissing off admirals without getting that much to change).

Potential readers -- don't waste your time and money to be disappointed by this story.

Dick -- (with respect, sir) go back to your roots and tell "your story" because it's better than all the make believe and yes, I realize it is more work for you to put it together. Instead of collaborating with a ghost writer, collaborate with Larry Simmons and some of the old Mustangs, or Master Chiefs like Gary Gallagher who can tell the "real story" of how things work(ed). It's not as much published glory for you personally but the end result could be fantastic and a potential "classic" in the way Rogue Warrior was.

Following the series our pleasantly plump former SEAL "collaborated" on with John Weisman, these latest forays into the fiction world are best left alone. Characters are weak, as is the dialgue, and the plot is virtually nonexistant. His new collaboration with DeFelice just does not have the same pizzaz!

Sounds like a lot of chop-busting interviews with this book, but I found it to be an interesting read. The one thing that chaffed me was the fact the Kindle does not support footnotes, which I think would add a lot to this book. You've got to take the author at face value to get through it and bear in mind, as with all "intelligence"-type books, that there's going to be some horse$h|+ thrown in there. I'm surprised nobody's made this book into a movie--I thought it would make a better screenplay than "The Hunt for Red October".

What a joke. Two wannabe authors make up some fiction based on John Craven's own wonderful ability to invent things in his head. There is no basis for any of this conjecture. The title is nuts. Who is the rogue?? Why does a tragic accident that takes down an sub and her brave crew get labeled a rogue?? Because why?? A fantasy?? Does anyone believe this 'sea story'???? A true sad waste of paper?? Not to mention very disrespectful of the professionals who went down with their ship.

Best, pb

A few months back I had lunch with an old friend and the conversation turned to the Cuban Missile Crisis. "That was the biggest event of the Cold War, don't you think?" my friend commented. I concurred. Then I read this outstanding and revelatory work of narrative history. RED STAR ROGUE makes a persuasive claim that the biggest -- yet heretofore unknown to the general public -- event of the Cold War was in fact this: In 1968 the Soviet submarine K-129 went rogue and sank while attempting to launch a nuke at Pearl Harbor. Sound preposterous? It won't after you read this. Sewell, a veteran of the USS Parche, and Richmond, an experienced and respected journalist, have made a compelling case for the above based on political and economic factors of the time, but also very specific nuclear, structural, engineering, and military personnel-related details garnered from a trove of only recently released US Naval documents and Soviet archives, and from extensive interviews with intelligence sources in both the US and Russia. The book is well sourced in the back and the adventurous reader can follow-up with the details on his or her own. Those of you compelled by this will also want to read Sewell's follow-up book, ALL HANDS DOWN.

This is a really neat book. Don't let your expectations exceed the quality of how the material is written. This book is poorly composed however the ideas fiction or non-fiction is quite fascinating. The story will keep you on your toes if you can ignore the writer's inexperience. I suggest any person looking for a good read at night before bed or on a rainy day, grab this book and talk about it with friends or your partner!

I enjoyed reading this book. I have also enjoyed reading the informed reviews of it afterward. Their technical points are well taken, and do tend to undermine the author's credibility.

However, does that mean that it didn't happen? If it didn't, how would one explain the diplomatic virtuoso performance of Kissinger in using the information about the alleged incident? He couldn't have bullied the Russians, claiming to have information about the incident, if the Russians knew it had never happened. I was never a fan of his before this read, but if the incident did happen like the book said, I take my hat off to the man.

All in all, it's a good sea story. Enough truth to make it believable, and enough non-truth to make a good discussion of it. Even if it turns out to be more fiction than fact, it was still worth the read for me.