Assassins: A Tale of Love and War Paperback – December 8, 2016

Great book all the people are so believable and the pace is lighting fast. I fine it hard to be!I've that the politicians are so terrible

Well done, technically, but for one recurring error that put my teeth on edge. The United States does not have a Home Office. That is a UK thing. We have the United States State Department.

This novel starts with the U.S. decision to arm the Afghanis who were fighting the Soviet Union's invasion of their homeland. It follows the career of one CIA paramilitary officer through 2015. The early part of the book is a very good war story. About half-way through, however, the author, spends most of his time detailing all of the mistakes that the U.S. government made in dealing with Muslim terrorism. The story gets lost in political preaching. The author may be absolutely correct about every assertion he makes, but it is not storytelling. If the author wanted to write a non-fiction account of what went wrong with the U.S.'s dealings with Islamic terrorism, he should have written such a book. What he ended up with, unfortunately, was neither fish nor fowl--neither fiction not non-fiction. Instead, the book attempts to be both and therefore fails as fiction. The last half of the book takes the main character to various places but really does not tell a story. instead, in each place the character rails against a presidential or a CIA decision with which he disagrees. Good fiction allows a reader to infer a theme from the actions in the story. I would suggest that the author study Tom Clancy to see how to do that.

Like Don Winslow, Mike Bond writes action, intense fiction with a social message. In this book, you read about the North African Mullah living in France, unemployed by choice and on welfare funded by French tax payers, who exhorts young men to commit bombings of the subways, so that first responders in Paris can wipe the blood of French infidels off the Paris Metro walls. You learn about the horrors perpetrated by the Taliban, how the sale of drugs into the US is intertwined with terrorism, how top echelons of our government were working for and with the leaders of terrorist organizations, and how the US provided arms and military training to the same people now committing attacks against us.And this is fiction, so it may not all be entirely true, but it's a compelling read that gives you another perspective. And, there is a bit of rough writing and editing, giving this book the tone of having been written by a warrior who actually experienced these things, rather than having been written by a professional writer (like myself)

I enjoyed the book. Not the best writing and the plot was predictable in many areas. The author wanted to provide a different perspective on the US involvement in the Middle East. In this, I think he did an excellent job. If you are a hawk you probably won't like the message but you should read it.

"Assassins" starts out as a conventional book and then changes into a poem of pain, anger, and tragic existence.The tale takes a guy through a long career as a social ops guy who works for the CIA in nasty places. What sets this book apart from other thrillers by more famous authors is the deep character study of the protagonist. He is a patriot and does his work from that place. But the toll it takes on him can only be supported by a man of Herculean moral strength.I admit that it took me a while to understand what I had in front of me.The depictions of other cultures are detailed, accurate as far as I can tell, and absolutely, positively without a hint of rose-colored glasses. In one sentence he describes the fate of a young girl in an out of the way place with chilling finality. Not everyone in the world shares our thought patterns.This is literature of a kind and unlike the thrillers dealing with similar subjects, you read elsewhere.Bond has a bunch of books. When I recover from this one, I'll try another.

Interesting book that places one individual at many pivotal spots in terrorist history. The author has a very dark take on human nature, but weaves a story tying together much that has happened with his philosophy. Gives you much to think about, the only thing missing is footnotes and sources. Not a book I would recommend if you want a good nights sleep.

The book is a little too long, too trivial and very partisan. Even though the author dislikes Taliban (thanks Heaven!), his hatred for republican presidents speaks by itself. I just can't stop noticing how the author can't help himself but kick Reagan and Bush and blame them for everything, while casually "overlooking" what Carter did with Iran situation and how Clinton partied it though and over to Al-Qaeda. Still have 30% left on this book, but reading it gets more and more on my nerves and the plot is rigged. Overall, the book is too long and the main character is weared thin to his undies. Need a better book to read!

Fascinating read. I was half way through this book when I ordered the second book.

Cleverly crafted plot moving from subplot to subplot.Believable characters with believable limitations and human motivations.Don’t start it until you have a good block of time to keep reading.