I consider myself a chain reader, meaning that I start reading one book as soon as I finish another. Needless to say, I go through several books a month, in both print and audio form. I'm telling you this because I have never been as spellbound by a book as I have with Marcus Luttrell's Lone Survivor. I honestly can't remember the last time I got so caught up in a book as good as this one.

The subtitle of this novel is The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10. It is told from the perspective of the main author, Marcus Luttrell, who was the lone survivor of a disastrous operation in the mountains of Afghanistan. With the help of author Patrick Robinson, Luttrell tells the story both as an explanation as to what happened on that mountain, as well as to pay tribute to the bravery of his fellow SEAL team members who never made it home.

This novel was written in the first person perspective, so reading it was like having the author speak directly to you while telling his story. The language is all very natural and there's no fluffed up pieces, and there is a good bit of profanity during the combat parts. This stuff is straight from the heart, as told by someone who has literally been through hell and lived to tell about it. Luttrell is the kind of person who has truly tested the limits of a human being's tolerance for both physical and mental anguish.

Luttrell takes you through his young life and gives a thorough background as to what led him to join the military. Financial troubles in the family were a contributor. He then spends a great deal of time going into all the details of SEAL training and the endurance test known as ‘hell week' that all SEAL's go through. In the training section, Luttrell said something I found very interesting in that he kept one thought in his mind during all the grueling tests - every SEAL before him had done these same tasks, so it wasn't impossible. That is not something you'd find in the mind of a quitter, and he explains that part of the purpose of hell week was to weed out the guys who would even consider quitting before a measly seven days were up.

The last half of the book is about what happened in the mountains of Afghanistan, and how Luttrell managed to survive and get out even through most of the world thought he'd been dead for days. Even his own family had been notified of his passing because they were so sure nobody had survived what happened. This part of the story was very moving in that it showed not all Afghani people are Taliban and some do appreciate what the U.S. military is doing in the area.

What I liked so much about this book was that the authors pulled no punches. Right toward the beginning and then several times during the course of the story, Luttrell makes it quite clear that he doesn't like the way the liberal media treats the military. He says that eager journalists are more concerned about landing a big story than they are with the lives of the soldiers. Sometimes the soldiers are forced into making bad decisions just because they are more afraid of the national media than they are of the Taliban. He also has no kind words for the clueless politicians sitting in their plush offices coming up with ridiculous ‘rules of engagement' that give the enemy every benefit. Hearing Luttrell's side of this just made me angry, because I was reading something I already knew and he just reaffirmed it. He says there is something very wrong with soldiers being put on trial for murder after killing the enemy - it makes no sense.

Lone Survivor is a great and wonderful book. I don't think it pays any disservice to the military or the SEAL team members described in it. Luttrell does them all a great honor by putting this tough story out there. I highly recommend you read this. You'll learn more about what soldiers are really facing in the Middle East than what you'll hear about on the evening news.

Recommended: Yes