Ultimate Weapon

I have been into SAS fiction and non-fiction for some years now, and have read Ryan's, McNab's and Michael Asher's books on the Bravo Two Zero mission. I must firstly admit to having nearly had my fill of the whole ex-SAS hardguy fiction genre now, but I bought this in an airport when I just wanted to sit down and read something that's nothing more than a bit of fun. I had my fun - but had no satisfaction finishing the book; I felt that I had wasted precious hours instead of that feeling of achievement one should experience at the end of a good novel.

The plot is a bit silly but acceptable. Less forgiveable is the terrible editing (especially since the book is dedicated to Ryan's publishing team!); not only are there some bad typos, but someone's clearly gone through the text rearranging sentences and hasn't re-read it to ensure that it still makes sense. Even when the text does flow, there are high-school errors such as using the word "cautious" twice in the same sentence. It's a shame Ryan didn't bother investing in a thesaurus.

Then there's the action, which is good if occasionally pointless. The characters seem to have fisticuffs for no apparent reason which seems to go against the SAS way of doing things, for starters. Then Stone cracks a rib early on in the book; sure, he's a hard guy - but he then goes on running around and having more fights without so much as a mention to the problems a broken rib would cause even the toughest of soldiers. Then he slices his hand on broken glass while stabbing someone, yet has no issues from his increasing tally of wounds while shooting his way through Iraq.
The book feels like a poor Hollywood action movie, rather than something that's written by a guy who should know from personal experience the difference between what is physically punishing yet humanly possible, and what just can't be done.
What I have liked about SAS fiction is that it's impressive, yet plausible. This is gripping in the easy-to-read "I wouldn't-mind-finding-out-what-happens-next sense" - but the cocktail of writing mistakes and poorly planned plot results in something that is just unengrossing. When I read a book I want to be unaware of the pages in front of me; not constantly being pulled back to the real world of spelling, grammar and questions about how long it takes ribs to mend.

A poor effort from a writer who can - and has done - much better. Give it a miss and go for one of the other myriad of similar books available.

Good book but with crappy end (0/0 people found this helpful)

Preview
This is the second Chris Ryan book next to The One That Got Away. I have read The One That Got Away and it was excellent about the first hand experience which he went on the Guiness Record for escaping 290 kilometres from Iraq to Syria. Before I red the Ultimate Weapon, I was hoping that I would get a very good book about a small Special Force Team, which turn out, however, not to be as good as it seems to be.
Feelings
At first when I read this book, it was very boring. It started with a walk in the mountains to the mission where Jed was pinned down. Not until Chapter 18 that the book's tension began to grow, and then went to the climax where they both raced around Iraq, battled the Republican Guards and managed to rescue Sarah and take out one of their agents. Then the ending was a crappy one. It ends with the Firm driving them to the hotel and let Jed and Sarah to their honeymoon, without telling what happened to the other main character.
It is also wrong that in fact a T-55 tank loads its guns faster than 45 seconds and it turns its turret faster than it does in the story. Thus, Nick Scott, despite being badly wounded on the leg, can still trek up on the mountain. This is a serious fault done by this book as a man, after being wounded by the leg, cannot trek up a mountain. Also, by then when he reaches Turkey, he would be dead because he has lost so much pints of blood.
Overall the book is good, although the author needs to think more humanly as the trek up the mountain with a wounded leg is impossible. He also needs to spend more time checking on the technical information, not to get most of them wrong.
5 stars for the entire story but costs one star for a crappy ending, wrong technology informations and not-humanly ordeal.
Ending
If you are an SAS or other special force fans, this is the book for you. If you are a battle fans, or whatever related to war and small-arms, this is the book for you. Simply this is a good book, although it needs a few improvements of course. It's not as good as some of the Chris Ryan's books but it's certainly not the worse. I heartily recommend this book for all the military lovers to read.

Disappointed (1/1 people found this helpful)

After the previous one I told myself no more C.R. But, when I saw "Ultimate Weapon" in a bookstore, I decided to give it a chance. Now I know it was not a good decision. The story is one of the worst I have read. For me Mr. Ryan has significantly lowered his standards and his book are no more worth my time. I don't enjoy them. I struggled very hard to get to the end and finally ...I gave up.

Look elsewhere for a good read.

An Excellent read (1/1 people found this helpful)

I have read a lot of the Chris Ryan books and i must say this one was great i just wanted to keep reading and reading story line was great and the action was gripping but the end seemed to fade a little but overall a great book

One To Many (2/3 people found this helpful)

Sorry Chris this was rubbish!.I have read all of your books and this was one to many as far as I am concerned.The two main characters getting severe beatings and injuries every single day but still carry on as though nothing is wrong,get in the real world Chris, any one of there injuries would have laid us mere mortals up for months in hospital.

Chris Ryan

Reader Reviews:

A bit of fun that's about as unrealistic as any Hollywood action movie and is amateurishly written and edited. Don't bother. (0/0 people found this helpful)

Good book but with crappy end (0/0 people found this helpful)

Disappointed (1/1 people found this helpful)

An Excellent read (1/1 people found this helpful)

One To Many (2/3 people found this helpful)

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