Vijandig gebied (Danny Black, #4) (2024)

Alex Cantone

Author3 books43 followers

December 17, 2016

'He's a bad soldier,' Spud muttered. 'We shouldn't have anything to do with the f***er.'
'No,' Danny said. 'He's a good soldier. He's just a bad man.'

IS operatives are smuggling themselves to Europe on board leaking boats carrying refugees. Intel suggests a terrorism attack on Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day and a British SAS unit is sent to intercept them, and to track the IS mastermind to Northern Iraq. But tensions within the team are set to explode. Faced with a ruthless enemy, in a war of misinformation, the team's objectives and changing events render Standard Operating Procedures useless. Who then is the bad soldier?

Chris Ryan uses his Regimental background to deliver another thriller, with references to recent events including the shooting down of a Russian fighter near the Turkish-Iraqi border, with edge of the seat action to the last page.

    military read-2016-17

Sean Peters

741 reviews118 followers

October 6, 2023

With so many favourite authors it is good to catch up with old favourites, but bad that I fall behind so easy, on Book four, starting book five, but still three more to fully catch up.

Not read Chris Ryan for a little while, this book, was a three star for the first half of the book but four star for the fast paced second half of the book.

Always guaranteed for a gritty, tough, fast paced authentic and powerful story, if you know Chris Ryan's story you know his stories are close to the truth, realistic and sometimes frightening of the possibilities.

A migrant boat battles through the rough Mediterranean. Its passengers are desperate, starving and scared.

They are also being ruthlessly targeted by the SAS.

Islamic State militants are smuggling themselves into Europe using these boats. Only by locating such men before they make it into the UK can the Regiment stop them committing their acts of terror on British soil.

When one of these migrants reveals plans for a sickening Christmas Day atrocity in London, SAS operative Danny Black is tasked with infiltrating the most dangerous theatre of war in the world: Islamic State heartland. There, he and his team must lift a brutal IS commander - the only man who knows all the details of the London attack. The commander surrounds himself with vicious militants and a harem of sex slaves whom he treats in the most sadistic ways imaginable. And his jihadi wife is, if possible, even more abominable than him.

As Danny pits himself against the violent thugs of the Islamic State, he learns that it is not just the UK that is under threat. His very presence on the mission has put at risk the safety of those closest to him. And he discovers that there are greater forces at work here, who do not care if the innocent live or die.

Now there is nothing Danny will not do, no line he will not cross, to protect his family. Whether that makes him a good soldier or a bad soldier he neither knows nor cares. Because as he is fast learning, it is sometimes impossible to tell the difference between the two.

Gripping and powerful ending, hint on Book 5 !!

Four stars.

Nick Brett

1,007 reviews62 followers

July 9, 2016

Part of the “Danny Black” series (no 4). Black is a serving SAS member known for talent and not quite following orders.
This book is probably the most violent of the Ryan books and plenty of strong language too. Readers may be made uncomfortable by some of the things done by Black’s SAS colleagues in this, the good guys are not to be admired here.
We start with an interception of a boat load of refugees, move to a mission in-country to snatch an ISIS commander and end back in the UK trying to stop a critical attack.
I was a little concerned with the levels and kinds of violence but also with an utterly unnecessary depiction of a member of the Royal Family. A plot device is needed to get a wayward SAS member as part of the Royal Protection team (a bit of a flaw, he is so far off the rails he would have been Returned To Unit) but it really felt unlikely as did most of the plot really.
I’ve not been a massive fan of the Danny Black stories, although I like the idea of a serving SAS member being the focus, the plotting shows weakness and repetition with not enough redeeming features. Main criticism would be that you find yourself going “nah, that wouldn’t happen” far too often.

L.M. Mountford

Author34 books1,226 followers

October 16, 2018

Loved the earlier Danny Black Novel 'Hunter Killer' so I thought I'd carry on the series. Unfortunately, I haven't got round to buying book 3 but I had this on the shelves so I gave it a go. And I loved it. Easy to pick up and read.

This is gritty and intense and leaves the reader in no doubt what happens when IS terrorists decide to fuck with the SAS. My only complaint is that one character doesn't catch a much deserved bullet with his brains, except for that a bloody cracking read.

Former SAS Trooper Chris Ryan is easily the greatest action thriller writer living as he draws upon his real-life experiences to pen a tale that is both thrilling and real-to-life.

Anet

13 reviews

October 7, 2021

Not my usual type of book. We’ll written and kept me wanting to find out more. War is not a typical setting for my reading but … I might even find another Chris Ryan book

Matti

22 reviews

November 10, 2017

Read many McNab SAS thrillers but not read Chris Ryan's books before... What can I say? cracking!

February 14, 2024

Let me congratulate Chris Ryan on writing another deeply subversive book about how the West views the Middle East as a place where terrorists, refugees and Kalashnikovs come from. This series covers seven and half books so far with all but one involving Muslim enemies (the outlier has Mexicans). Despite the undoubted financial cost to him, Ryan understands that the repeated demonisation of brown people in book after book is going to break through to the reader. He is the father making us smoke 100 exploding cigarettes.

In this book, Ryan satirically gives a Middle Eastern group of no real history of power projection the ability to fake mass bombing on the level of 9/11 while attempting an assassination above the level of JFK. In sending the protagonist straight to the Middle East to kill the enemy leader before the attack (somehow) happens, Ryan is clearly winking at us about how this game of whack a mole is only successful if you are looking to write a series of half a dozen books about how those damn moles keep popping up.

Standing against this apparent/imaginary threat, Ryan takes the harder path than simply painting Britain’s leaders and security forces as people making “tough” choices for “good” reasons. Instead those leaders and their lackeys are both cruel and stupid. They beat innocents, “accidentally” beat to death terrorist suspects, attempt to kill each other over slights, and supply to the “good guys” the same kind of surface to air missiles the United States is desperately trying to buy back from the last set of “good guys”. Of course it would be far too on the nose to have those leaders admit they might be wrong, instead they muse how unfair it is that their enemies don’t make themselves easily bombable from 30,000 feet. As one sadly notes:

“[IS] don’t care about the lives of innocents.”

And another:

“They’re monsters”.

These comments come immediately after ordering that the SAS sink a refugee boat under the SAS's control - with the refugees still onboard.

In terms of actual characterisation, the protagonist is a sly comment on how far our moral centre has moved. He is somewhat perturbed when his commander sinks the refugee boat, sees torture as only a necessary evil to get good quality information, doesn’t want others to enjoy executing prisoners and limits himself to cutting the tongue out of a corpse. A facile reading of the book’s title is that the protagonist is a “Bad Soldier” because his family considerations conflict with the mission. The deeper meaning is that he is a “Bad Soldier” because he is a murdering psychopath.

The potrayal of gender in this book is also a clever parody. There are two genders here: men, and that other one that men sleep with. Ryan also subverts trope of using women as victims to advance the narrative. A number of pages are spent describing the torture of a Yazidi woman by the enemy. Rather than the stale and overused resolution of her being rescued, she is deliberately shot by our heroes for killing her torturer. Ryan has the insight to later juxtapose this with a white man killing someone the protagonist desperately wants alive. The white man walks away unscathed, with Ryan implicitly commenting on how justice differs according to the colour of one’s skin.

This is a book that sets the standard for lampooning the national security state.

Jim Whitefield

Author7 books28 followers

July 12, 2017

Another of Chris Ryan's brilliant 'Danny Black' thrillers. Along with the usual tension between team members, the constant edge of seat situations they find themselves in make this a real page turner. There is nowhere you want to stop and take a break. Part of the action is at Sandringham in Norfolk; an area where I lived for years and know extremely well. I could imgine the scenes in exact places, down to the inch. Even though the story concludes by tying things up well, there are sub-plot aspects that remain and I can't wait for the next in the series to be released later this year. Ryan never fails to please and always leaves you wanting more of the same.

Mr Roy Davidson

650 reviews7 followers

August 10, 2018

A better Danny Black book than #3. Still kept the characters. The good soldiers and the bad good soldiers. Danny's girlfriend needs more time spent on her character. Great to see the baddies in Tony. At the end, you just want to say: Go on Danny, slot him. He deserves it. It's right up to date with the ISIS issues and ahead of its time with the bomb on the drone. Overall, a great read that does not need too much thought. I'm soon going to move on to #5!

This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.

Claire

270 reviews1 follower

December 20, 2020

Not my fav chris Ryan book enjoyed the first half but the bit about the main character not telling the sas boss that the Daesh had his wife and baby.... and that after The main daesh guy was murdered they wouldn’t murder his key as well.... bad story line for the second half of the book which was disappointing

This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.

Dave Green

50 reviews

August 27, 2019

Took me a while to read with being bizzy with work plus so many awesome bingey tv but thats not a put down of this book it was another great read full of surprises great action and great hero leading things cant wait for the next.

Hans C.

1 review

July 31, 2021

Like the previous Danny Black books I’ve read, (after finishing all the “Nick Stone” books of Andy McNab), I just can’t wait to read the next which is “Warlord”. Downloaded it right after finishing “Bad Soldier” and already started reading….

Dan

45 reviews1 follower

September 9, 2023

Picked this series up again after a stint away following my disappointment with Hellfire.

Overall this feels much more like a military action adventure and, though the violence is still there, it’s less gratuitous for me than the previous book.

MB

46 reviews

July 3, 2017

Great book but then I love Chris Ryan's storylines and this one was no different.

Tom Waters

123 reviews1 follower

July 9, 2017

Fast paced

A good storyline fast paced action on nearly every page many times and Turns that keeps the reader well informed Tom Waters

Dan Boardman

9 reviews20 followers

July 12, 2017

Current and gripping as always. Another brilliant page turner from Ryan

Jeff

263 reviews2 followers

July 15, 2017

Danny Black and his SAS compatriots have to thwart a terrorist atrocity on Christmas Day. An exciting and violent book.

    adventure

Mark short

2 reviews

July 28, 2017

Brilliant

Very fast paced, full of action only downside was the over use of the c word, overall good read from Chris Ryan as always

Garry Schofield

63 reviews

August 16, 2017

Usual gritty story line

Marius Van Eeden

7 reviews

November 1, 2017

Chris Ryan continues to surprise with exciting, tense plot twists throughout.
Onto Warlord ...

Mike Taverner

684 reviews1 follower

June 17, 2018

The body count rose along with my incredulity. But I went through to the end - well, maybe not the end. Not sure if I'll follow onto part 5 though

Paul Metcalfe

27 reviews

August 1, 2018

I enjoyed it but not really a book for ladies

Liam Curran

35 reviews

February 17, 2019

One of the best yet

Peter S McKay

7 reviews

March 10, 2019

Good read

Sandeep Padala

1 review

July 19, 2019

hard to put down, an overload of jargon, and very intricate details.

Nikola Tasko Markovic

44 reviews

May 26, 2020

Fast paced, well written. Can't wait to read more of Chris!

Shikha Verma

36 reviews1 follower

January 5, 2021

Engaging, full of suspense and a lot of merciless killing.

Matthew Britton

2 reviews

March 24, 2021

Great Story poor ending

Really gripping story line throughout. But disappointing ending! I would have liked it to be more of a finish as opposed to what seemed like a line drawn

fraser smythe

92 reviews

August 13, 2021

Another Cracker

Fast moving and unstoppable.
Keep ready way post the time I've got available as I can't put the book down!

Bob Burch

146 reviews1 follower

October 1, 2021

Ending was a bit rushed and unlikely, but the main body of the novel was enjoyable and reasonably realistic (including the assertion that the USA cannot be trusted)

    spy-agent
Vijandig gebied (Danny Black, #4) (2024)
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