Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Rate this book!
Write a review?
I'm a longtime fan of the "Bob the Nailer" sniper novels--all of the way back to POINT OF IMPACT in 1993. Heck, I admit that I enjoyed the Mark Wahlberg movie, SHOOTER, which updated Bob Lee by several decades. Even more, I love the novels featuring Bob Lee's even tougher dad, the Medal of Honor winner from Blue Eye, Arkansas, "Mister Earl" Swagger. However, Hunter's novels have been spiraling downhill since he retired from the Washington Post. Maybe the time stolen from film criticism sharpened...
As with all of Mr. Hunter's books, I really enjoyed it. I can relate to the characters and they truly come to life throughout the story. Another winner from my favorite author.
Semper Fedelis is more than just a motto to most Marines instead being a way of life. In Afghanistan Gunnery Sergeant Ray Cruz is part of a sniper team that is ambushed by mercenaries while on a mission. Cruz disappears and six months later sends a message to his Recon battalion that he will complete his mission. The target now claims to be a friend of the United States and and retired Marine sniper Bob Lee Swaggar to prevent Cruz from finishing his mission. A fast paced military thriller with m...
I just finished this book and the one that follows it in the "series" (if I may call them a series) Soft Target (review to follow, LOL). I've now read all but one of the books considered part of the Bob Lee Swagger series except one. I somehow missed the third in the series (Time To Hunt) I'm about halfway through that one. These books are a mixed bag.I know someone's out there shaking their head thinking (or yelling at the screen), "yeah but I came here for a review on THIS book."Okay, valid po...
THIS is what I was wanting/hoping for from I, Sniper: a return to the twisty and deadly world that Bob Lee is supposed to inhabit, not all that samurai/NASCAR shit. I was a bit dubious of the inclusion of a new protagonist in Ray Cruz, but he turned out to be likable and ruthlessly efficient (if he doesn’t have as much of those two qualities of Bob Lee, who can blame him? I only grow to like the old man more and more as the series progresses.) We have action here in the states and Afghanistan, a...
This book started out really well, but the ending was so incredibly stupid that I have to give it just a couple of stars. The book starts out with Ray Cruz, a Marine sniper who is tasked with having to assassinate an Afghan warlord named Ibrahim Zarzi. However, out in the Afghan wilderness, he and his spotter are jumped by mercenaries (American). His spotter is killed, he is wounded, but escapes. He tries to complete his mission, but a missile destroys the building he was going to use to do it o...
I like Stephen Hunter’s stuff, but I haven’t read them all and tend to dip in and out and often not in sequence. But he has made Bob Lee Swagger an iconic character and done very well to keep rolling out stories on the fairly limited subject of snipers.Here we have an older semi-retired Swagger being asked to help out the FBI in tracking down a top marine sniper that is almost a younger version of Swagger himself. The sniper has gone off the range to complete a compromised mission and in additio...
Didn't like this as much as his other books I've read.
Another excellent book by Stephen Hunter! I don't think I've ever read one of his books that wasn't fantastic. One reason for this is that they start out with a bang, and get you caught up in the story immediately. Gunnery Sergeant Ray Cruz is a lethally talented sniper. He and his spotter, Lance Corporal Skelton, are disguised as goat herders in the wild Afghan desert, and are on their careful way to eliminate Ibrahim Zarzi, known as The Beheader. Out of nowhere they are fired upon. Skelton is
Dead Zero Every time I’m in a jam, I just ask myself “what would Bob Lee Swagger do”? But looks like ole Bob Lee is getting a mite old and slow, so we have a new addition to the mix, Ray Cruz, Marine sniper and one mean fella on a mission to avenge his spotter, killed in an ambush in Afghanistan. This one gets a strong 4 Stars but not 5, because it was just too similar in many ways to Point Of Impact and did not meet the excitement level I expect from Mr. Hunter. Still, no one does bloody, loud,...
Book Review - With its hallmark accuracy on modern-day sniper killing technologies, author Stephen Hunter’s “Dead Zero” features an older, more contemplative Bob Lee Swagger. Dead Zero with Swagger as the legendary protagonist of seven of Stephen Hunter’s novels, never lets up on the razor-sharp dialogue, the vivid characterizations, the extraordinary action scenes, and the dazzling ‘prose’ that defines Hunter’s landmark Bob Lee Swagger series. In this tale, Bob Lee Swagger is pulled out of reti...
SUBJECTIVE READER REVIEW WITH PLOT SPOILERS I've previously read six books by Stephen Hunter, and if you checked up on me, you'd see that I've assigned an average of 5.0 for the six novels. 'Dead Zero' ain't gonna break that trend friend, I can guarantee you! I cannot help but compare Stephen Hunter and Daniel Silva in the way they invent new black operations to seduce their action man out of contented retirement. In 'Dead Zero,' the decorated king sniper of Vietnam fame is 64, in pain constantl...
Dead Zero is the seventh book in the Bob Lee Swagger series, and probably the most politically charged one when it comes to the actual setting of the story.Reyes Fidencio Cruz aka Rzay Cruz, is a 42 year old USMC Sniper and one of the best there is. He's turned down numerous requests for promotion, and alot better paying onces in the private sector to remain in the corps. In other words, he's a patriot and he loves his job. He and his spotter partner Lance Corporal Skelton are sent deep into Afg...
Bob Lee Swagger's adventures are always fascinating. His innate ability to use his history as a sniper to determine what will happen next and where make for good reading. This time he's after another sniper who is presumed to have gone rebel. There are also mercs chasing Swaggert and the other sniper. Both the FBI and CIA are also part of this. It is terrific summer reading.
I really liked how this book started but the long drawn out story made this book just ok. I like the Swagger books because he is a bad ass killing machine. He was neither of those things in Dead Zero. The action sequences were lacking and the plot very predictable. I did like parts of this book but I want heroes not dead zeros. Overall, this book missed the target for me.
What a way to start the new year! Stephen Hunter is one of my very favorite writers, and Dead Zero is worthy of standing with his best work. Ray Cruz, a marine corps sniper stationed in Afghanistan, is sent to kill a notorious Pashtun warlord with links to Al Qaeda: Ibrahim Zarzi, dubbed "the Beheader" due to his treatment of captured soldiers. But before he can make his kill, Cruz is attacked by a private black ops team and presumed dead in a massive explosion. Months later, Zarzi is in the US
For those readers who like modern day military mystery thrillers, this I would recommend. This thriller starts in Afghanistan with the top Seal sniper sent on a mission, but he and his spotter are ambushed by ????. This story is a great mix of soooo many whys, whos, hows, hhmmms, yikes, twists, turns, and then 3/4 through the book you have a "you've got to be kidding me" surprise moment! Then off you go again to the very last page. I don't like to give away any plots to fellow readers, however,
Ray Cruz is a Marine sniper. He is on a mission to take out Ibrahim Zarzi (aka The Beheader".Ray is in big trouble, in fact, so big that his Commanding Officer has asked everyone at headquarters to, "pray for Ray if you're religious. And if you're not religious, pray for Ray. That's an order".Ray has been ambushed twice on this mission in Afghanistan just narrowly escaping with his life. Ray becomes very concerned when he discovers that the people trying to kill him are not Taliban or Al-Qaida,
Stephen Hunter brought his "A" game to Dead Zero. In the initial chapters in Afghanistan, military sniper Sgt Rey Cruz and his spotter begin their authorized assignment to kill a terrorist known as the "Beheader." The two soldiers are ambushed by three American mercenaries under contract to an unknown high U.S. government official. Cruz survives two attempts on his life and then the cat & mouse begins back in the U.S. Cruz vows to kill the Afghan terrorist who has become the darling of the CIA a...
Stephen Hunter.Bob Lee Swagger.Need I say more?Book 7 was a thrill. Leave it to The Nailer to thwart the bad guysin his aw-shucks style.