Thursday, June 21, 2012

Fearless by Eric Blehm

Fearless takes you deep into SEAL Team SIX, straight to the heart of one of its most legendary operators.

When Navy SEAL Adam Brown woke up on March 17, 2010, he didn’t know he would die that night in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan—but he was ready: In a letter to his children, not meant to be seen unless the worst happened, he wrote, “I’m not afraid of anything that might happen to me on this earth, because I know no matter what, nothing can take my spirit from me.”

Long before Adam Brown became a member of the elite SEAL Team SIX—the counterterrorism unit that took down Osama bin Laden—he was a fun-loving country boy from Hot Springs, Arkansas, whose greatest goal had been to wear his high school’s football jersey. An undersized daredevil, prone to jumping off roofs into trees and off bridges into lakes, Adam was a kid who broke his own bones but would never break a promise to his parents.
But after high school, Adam fell in with the wrong crowd and his family watched as his appetite for risk dragged him into a downward spiral that eventually landed him in jail. Battling his inner demons on a last-chance road to redemption, Adam had one goal: to become the best of the best—a US Navy SEAL.


An absorbing chronicle of heroism and humanity, Fearless presents an indelible portrait of a highly trained warrior who would enter a village with weapons in hand to hunt terrorists, only to come back the next day with an armload of shoes and meals for local children. It is a deeply personal, revealing glimpse inside the SEAL Team SIX brotherhood that also shows how these elite operators live out the rest of their lives, away from danger, as husbands, fathers and friends.

Fearless is the story of a man of extremes, whose courage and determination was fueled by faith, family, and the love of a woman. It’s about a man who waged a war against his own worst impulses and persevered to reach the top tier of the US military. Always the first to volunteer for the most dangerous assignments, Adam’s final act of bravery led to the ultimate sacrifice.

Adam Brown was a devoted man who was an unlikely hero but a true warrior, described by all who knew him as fearless


My review:
This is the second book I read and reviewed this month, but the two are totally different.

The first part of the book is about Adam's years before becoming a SEAL. The book pulls no punches and doesn't gloss over his failures and drug addictions. It shows what a great guy and SEAL he was, yet also shows how the greatest men can have a weakness and struggle.

This is a very inspiring story. In part, because of Adam's perseverance to be a Christian and get victory over his drug addictions, but also because of the things he went through to become and stay a SEAL.

This book went into more detail than the other I reviewed about their activities in battle and out in the field, and it helped me gain a better appreciation and thankfulness for what our military do and go through to fight for our freedoms. The book had its sad moments, but overall it is a great story of a great military hero.

I was disappointed in the language in the book. Yes, men curse in the military, but Waterbrook is a Christian publisher and should not have allowed the language that appears in the book. I counted multiple uses of 4 curse words, and two other words that just don't belong in a Christian book (the vulgar words for urinate and illegitimate children). Also, they used an abbreviated version of the "f" word ending in ing and only removed the "u" and "c", replacing it with a dash. That is way too close to using the actual word, and they do that at least 5 times.

If you're willing to overlook the cursing, then this is a book I'd recommend. It tells the story of a great military hero and also of how God changed and used him.

About the author:

Eric Blehm is the best-selling author of The Only Thing Worth Dying For, which recounts the harrowing story of the first Special Forces A-team to infiltrate Taliban-held southern Afghanistan weeks after 9/11. It was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. The author’s The Last Season, winner of the National Outdoor Book Award, was named by Outside magazine as one of the ten “greatest adventure biographies ever written.” Blehm lives in California with his wife and children.

Fearless is available from Waterbrook/Mutlnomah Publishing.

Thanks to Waterbrook/Multnomah Publishing for the review copy.


0 comments: