cover image No Hero: The Evolution of a Navy SEAL

No Hero: The Evolution of a Navy SEAL

Mark Owen, with Kevin Maurer. Dutton, $27.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-525-95452-1

This follow up to the pseudonymous Owen’s No Easy Day (2012) appears destined to follow in the first book’s big-selling footsteps, as it is well suited to the public’s almost insatiable appetite for action-filled true stories by former SEALs, Green Berets, and other special forces members. In his previous book, Owen offered a first-person account of the killing of Osama bin Laden. This new work—again told with writer Maurer—describes other SEAL missions in which Owen took part. Owen says this book is not “another navel-gazing battle memoir”; instead, it focuses on “the most important moments” that took place during unnamed missions, “and the lessons from each one that define me.” The book, he says, is a “way to honor my brothers in the SEAL community,” some of whom died in service to the country. After several chapters describing the arduous SEAL training, Owen and Maurer provide fast-paced accounts of a series of missions in Iraq and Afghanistan that took place during Owen’s 13-year career. Owen emphasizes the selflessness and service of his fellow SEALs, along with the lessons he learned, in a book that is sure to appeal the many fans of in-the-trenches special forces memoirs. [em](Nov.)
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