Rating: 
Summary: Roguish Evolution
Review: "Violence of Action" is a welcome evolution to what had become a sappy, jingo-ridden mockery of both Dick Marcinko and special operations in general. "Rogue Warrior" started out as a kick-ass series of action-adventure stories (minus the first and only non-fiction book) and degenerated into a quagmire of silliness and "wanna-be never-was" bilge."Violence" offers a far more serious sense of writing coming from one of the most capable special warfare operators this country has ever produced. The new characters have a "for real" feel to them, and the Rogue interacts with a new female team member as well as others who lack goofy kiddy club nicknames that came to border on the absurd. And in "Violence" Marcinko actually gets laid...alot. Something lacking in each installment of the best selling series until now. The subject of suitcase nukes is presented in "Violence", both official devices and the infamous "dirty nuke" so much in the news today where international and domestic terrorism is concerned. Marcinko makes his own rules in "Violence", and then remakes them as the plot pummels the reader from start to finish. The action is fast, furious, and bloody. So much so even the Rogue Warrior finds himself aghast at the carnege he and his team create in order to save a US city from nuclear disaster at the hands of domestic terrorists. A welcome relief from past RW efforts, and sure to set a new standard in the series from the Master of Mayhem himself, Sir Richard Marcinko - the Rogue Warrior.
Rating: 
Summary: Marcinko still politically correct
Review: ah. The warrior for the State. Marcinko and his big government, Politically correct Navy warriors now re-write the Turner Diaries by standing the plot on its head.
Distasteful stuff no matter which point of view is scrutinized.
Each uses personnel prejudices to justify torture and murder. Please. Does anyone nowadays really believe White Supremacists are a threat to nuke America?
More like they are the only boogey man left that you can slay without bringing down the wrath of the PC Navy pencil necked geeks who hand out those security contracts.
Rating:
Summary: Marcinko still politically correct
Review: ah. The warrior for the State. Marcinko and his big government, Politically correct Navy warriors now re-write the Turner Diaries by standing the plot on its head.
Distasteful stuff no matter which point of view is scrutinized.
Each uses personnel prejudices to justify torture and murder. Please. Does anyone nowadays really believe White Supremacists are a threat to nuke America?
More like they are the only boogey man left that you can slay without bringing down the wrath of the PC Navy pencil necked geeks who hand out those security contracts.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: Although this book is not at the standard of the original Rogue Warrior or Red Cell, in my opinion it is probably the best of the rest. The last few books in the series were a little tiresome. I can only see the word Rogue used as various adjectives so many times before it gets on the nerves. This book shows better character relations and less egomania from our beloved hero. I agree the story is a little short, but it moves at a breakneck pace and is never boring. I can't wait for the next in the series. Marcincko on his own as an author is just as good, if not better than the team of Marcincko and Weissman.
Rating: 
Summary: Find out what he's drinking
Review: Always a timely story with a now age-defying hero, Marcinko is back -- this time working for a duplicitous President. He seeks a renegade retired Special Forces colonel whose men are as well trained as his own. The colonel wants to start a general race war to benefit his white supremacist gang and army of sympathisers. He has stolen a suitcase nuclear bomb ... and you can guess the rest. One of the better Marcinko books.
Rating: 
Summary: Marchinko¿s Best Book since Rogue Warrior
Review: Anybody thinking Dick Marchinco had become an anachronism got a wake-up call on 9/11 of last year. Arguably, that included Marchinco himself, since his recent books, while still lots of fun to read, had become formula-driven - not really the work of a man feeling himself in tune with his times. However, with Violence in Action, Demo Dick is back with us in lethal force, invigorated once again with the purpose of his life. It's the best book he's produced since the original Rogue Warrior appeared more than a decade ago. While the distinctive Rogue voice will be recognizable to readers of this series, many of the formulaic elements are diminished or gone - the rambling asides, the sarcastic portraits of inept bureaucrats, the convoluted accounts of global detective work, punctuated by stylized bursts of action, as Dick and his boys unravel some new terrorist conspiracy. Violence of Action, in contrast, proceeds without digression, like a cannon shot from page one to the end. Surprisingly, Marchino chooses not to exploit the mood of the times here to cast Islamic militants as his villains. His Bad Guys are American white supremacists who spout mystical gibberish about Yahweh and have seized a nuclear device with which they plan to incinerate Portland, Oregon. Moreover, they're not only home-grown Americans, but former Navy Seals - blood brothers to Dick - who have drifted way off the reservation and betrayed everything he holds holy. The fury with which he hunts them down is unprecedented in anything he's written. There's a graphic torture scene early in the book that I could have done without and that most readers will find abhorrent. However, Dick doesn't revel in the ugly business - he simply describes it - and he seems to be making a philosophical point of sorts, since the information extracted from one thug's pain, in the end, saves the lives of half a million or so innocents. Ironically, in this most furious of his books, Marchinco seems finally to have wrapped his testosterone-addled brain around the idea of females in the military: both the fiercest warrior on his new combat team, and his new boss, whom he honestly respects, are women. Who says that Old Rogues are set in their attitudes? Anyone who reads Marchinco either loves him or hates him - he destroys all middle ground. His fans will be enthralled by this book, and to them I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Haven't read this book? Doom on you dogbreath!
Review: Demo Dick is back in the post 9/11 world doing what he does best; leading from the front, filling body bags with Tangos and generally making life uncomfortable for the Beltway crowd. I was getting a little worried about our Rogue friend, his last couple of books were formula, different name and location, same story. Now, I was pleaseantly surprised, much like Col. Blanchard, to find that America's Baddest SEAL has returned to us the Demo Dick of old, and in some ways new and improved. Portland is in trouble, a rogue Colonel is on the loose with a suitcase nuke and an unit full of highly trained white supremists. He sees Portland as a modern day Soddam & Gammora (I live there, it is) and it needs to be cleansed and utilized for the gaint race war he has envisioned. Colonel Blanchard is as well trained as Dick Marcinko and almost as smart (take a note dear reader, almost). This makes him Dick's most dangerous foe yet. As a tool for reigning greater havoc Col. Blanchard detonates a dirty bomb in Portland, killing the Mayor (about time someone got her out of office) and getting the population to try and evacuate thereby gridlocking the city and leaving the bulk of the citizens in their vehicles and thereby exposed to the bigger nuke he has in hand (stealing it from the military in a gruesome fashion). Follow Demo Dick and his new band of shooters as they obtain enough intelligence and clues, not to mention a body count enroute to the inevitable showdown with the Colonel. The story flows well, and rings all too true if you let your mind wander like a libertarian (I am one). It was a joy to read; but it is a bigger joy to know that Mr. Marcinko is back on track and writing better than ever.
Rating:
Summary: A Rogue Reminder
Review: For those of us that have followed the forays of the Rogue since he was hugging the side of the tunnel as a kid trying to keep from becoming hamburger from the passing train on his way to swim in the reservoir, this book is more of a reflection and a series of reminders that he has preached throughout the series (remember the 10 commandments, rules of engagement, etc.). From the title I was expecting re-visitation of the relative superiority tactic that has been an integral part of the indoctrination process with a practical demonstration of the "do it to them before they do it to us". While the latter held true for the most part, there was no examination of strategy here; I suspect that he was seeing if we were paying attention. Speaking of which, I was more than a little disappointed with his handling of the laptop issue, since my head was screaming BTDT. But, one thing that remains true here is that in the world of the Rogue and the real world, S happens. Even though the best of the best are doing their best, S is still going to happen, which I find strangely reassuring. There is no such thing as perfect people performing perfect presentations perpetually as you get from some authors. I enjoyed this book as I have enjoyed reading the previous twelve books. I did miss the usual gang here though. Read the book; but I think you'll miss a lot if you don't examine at least the first two books.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but implausible
Review: Having divested himself of former colloborator John Weisman, Richard Marchinko apparently believes that he has freed himself from the need of maintaining even a pretense of plausibility to his unabashedly self-aggrandizing adventure series. Ignoring all of the real challenges involved in actual interrogation, his plot is dependent upon the proposition that crude physical brutality will extract accurate information from terrorists as quickly and easily as their testicles. Why it would not occur to his fanatical enemies to avoid pain and yet not compromise their comrades by simply lying through their teeth is not explained. But as ignorant as Marchinko appears to be of legitimate intelligence work, he is more so of Washington politics, as illustrated by a ludicrous scene in which he purports to blackmail President Bush into letting himself be ordered around like a deckhand. Nevertheless, Violence of Action is a good read, and the loving descriptions of vicious firefights ring just as true as the remainder of the book does not.
Rating:
Summary: Downfall of Demo Dickey
Review: I can only add my hearty "Aye-Aye" to the reviews given here regarding Demo Dickey's new book. In a word, it sucks!! I've read all the other books & thoroughly enjoyed them. They were a mix of wry asides, thoughtful contemplation and nut-busting action, leavened with a crew of not-so-forgettable companion characters who Dicky really seemed to care about. Predictable?? Yes. Trite?? Sometimes. Fun to read?? You bet!! Want to read the next one?? Definitely!! The key difference between this book & the others is the absence of John Wiseman, his co-author in the other adventures. And what a woeful absence it is, too! Wiseman's editorial hand must have been what added some of the humor, the witty asides, and the oft-times helpful glossary in the back of the book. Most times it didn't change from book to book, but it did enough to make it always fun to look through. The current volume has none of the above at all. What it has in profusion is gore, guts, blood and torture of the most graphic, gut-churning, ball-aching kind. Was it really needed? I'd say not. Marcinko is a better writer than this, I feel. If anything, he seems to be pandering to the worst in his audience. If Dicky is trying to see if he can gross his readership out, he's succeeded. His attitude that the ends always justifies the means if it is in the service of the US of A & for the good of Dickey is simplistic at best. Do we really need to be just like the enemy to succeed? I don't have answers for these immortal questions but his ranting in this book makes me think not. He seems to have given up the mantra of his earlier books of bringing everyone back alive; now both friends & enemies alike, save one or two, are fodder for the mini-gun grinder. His early chapter tales of killing animals for the joy & practice of it is plain disgusting. I hunt and have hunted but I don't kill things for the sheer fun of it. That is cruelty at its height. He says he doesn't like fuzzy animals; I do, even if I hunt them, and if someone who loves animals is out there, they'd best not read this book. All in all, this book is a failure. It has some interesting plot twists. It has baddies galore, of a whole different, disgusting level. It has a hook at the end that leaves the door open for more of the same from Demo Dickey. For my money, I will not be reading it unless his co-author Wiseman is invited back to leaven some of the more dreadful aspects of his writings. Recommendation: If you haven't read Demo Dickey before, DO NOT start with this book or you will not want to read more. Pick up his first book, The Rogue Warrior or Red Cell. Much more interesting & inspiring, and certainly better written. If you have read his other books, don't buy this one. Wait until you find it in a used bookstore for a dime or someone gives it to you free. That's about all it's worth. Sorry, Dickey, you flopped on this one!!
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