Damien Lewis in Bloody Heroes has written an interesting account of the controversial Battle of Qala-i-Jangi between Taliban/Al-Qaeda prisoners being held captive there and the Northern Alliance fighters assisted by British and American Special Forces following an uprising. With input from some of those present it gives a first hand account of events that resulted in a long and bloody battle resulting in hundreds of deaths.

Whilst I found it an interesting read I also found that the dialogue grated. The repeated use of 'mate' 'buddy' and 'bro' may have helped identify which side the speaker represented but I found its overuse became annoying.

An interesting read if you can put aside the dodgy dialogue and overuse of stereotypes.

This is a reissue of a book first published in 2006 and it doesn't appear to have been updated so that Osama Bin Laden is still at large at the end. I'd have to say that I've read better by Lewis. It's a fragmented story that opens with the covert seizure of an assumed terrorist ship on its way to London and this was the best part of the story. Shame though there were no terrorist materials on the ship - and an embarrassment for the security services.

It then moves to Afghanistan, we follow the SBS team to a mountain top where they're supposed to call in US air-strikes against a terrorist training camp - but no, it's just a village funeral. Second embarrassment, for U.S. intelligence this time. By this time we're halfway through the book.

The second half focuses on a bloody battle for a fort, interspersed with thriller-alike sections from the PoV of two Taliban fighters.

The slightly disjointed structure, repetition in the writing, unnecessary explanations ('oxygen is vital to physical well-being and survival') made this a bit of a chore to read. There's also a political bias in refusing to ever acknowledge that the Taliban, now the enemy, had been funded and trained by the U.S., especially the CIA, for years - quite disingenuous.

There's no disguising the professionalism of the SBS and their cool banter is laugh out loud funny at times - but I've read better thesis.