From Publisher's Weekly..

"Wright rode into Iraq on March 20, 2003, with a platoon of First Reconnaissance Battalion Marines—the Marine Corps' special operations unit whose motto is "Swift, Silent, Deadly." These highly trained and highly motivated First Recon Marines were the leading unit of the American-led invasion force. Wright wrote about that experience in a three-part series in Rolling Stone that was hailed for its evocative, accurate war reporting. This book, a greatly expanded version of that series, matches its accomplishment. Wright is a perceptive reporter and a facile writer. His account is a personality-driven, readable and insightful look at the Iraq War's first month from the Marine grunt's point of view."

Rocky's Review

Generation Kill opens with a gritty realism that I had not previously seen from an embedded reporter, which is surprising considering the nature of embedded reporting. Perhaps coming from Rolling Stone Magazine, the reporter is more able to adequately describe the colourful characters of First Recon.

The bravado, rough humour and all american action hero situation of this First Recon Platoon make for exactly the type of reading that would inspire many people to think "yeh, I want to be part of that!" and think about making the first moves towards a career with the Special Forces. It's only later in the book that some disturbingly graphic scenes are described, which will undoubtedly cause those same inspired readers to think again, and to think very hard.

One of these disturbing scenes is one of two excerpts from the book that you can listen to in a net radio broadcast by XXX. If I had listened to this broadcast prior to starting the book, I probably would never had read the book, it's that graphic. In the passage the author reads out details one of First Recon's roadblocks that went wrong. Of course roadblock incidents and Rules of Engagement have made main stream media many times over the course of the war, disturbingly graphic accounts such as this however are not often spoken of. Suffice to say this is a book that really does not pull any punches, and combined with the author's narrative skills, can make for a genuinely harrowing read.

One very surprising section likens the marines firefights to movies and video games. As the adrenalin kicks in and the marines turn into the killing machines alluded to in the book's title, they liken the experience to playing a video game, where the trigger is the left mouse button and the enemy nothing more than a pop-up target that must be removed before points are lost. This adds a whole new dimension to the many "realism" debates that occur in Tactical Shooter gaming forums. How much more realistic can a computer game be, when marines in real firefights find themselves in a surreal theatre where the world around them is reduced to the normality and inconsequence of a computer game?

I found this book a riveting read, it holds nothing back and as such is a wake up call for those of us content to sit back and watch sanitised news reports of battle in a far off land.

If you read one book about the war in Iraq, make it this one.

Rocky