4.16 avg rating — 1,027 ratings

"Account of a BBC journalist's experience with a South African mercenary. The Author tries to understand a man who, quite against expectations, becomes a friend."

3.92 avg rating — 99 ratings

"Venter is a veteran of many African wars since the 1960s, and while his right-wing politics may appeal to some people more than others, his reporting and storytelling are both very compelling."

3.25 avg rating — 20 ratings

"Rogers writes very well about the experiences of mercenaries in Rhodesia, South Africa, the Balkans, and elsewhere. Based on many interviews, not only on secondary sources."

3.29 avg rating — 42 ratings

"An up-to-date book on mercenaries and PMCs (and how they differ) by an ex-soldier and Guardian journalist who's seen it all."

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 6 ratings

"Journalist Seale knows the Middle East very well and his book about the attempt in the late 1960s to overthrow the the revolutionary government of the late Muamar Qaddafi with the help of mercenaries is very interesting. "

4.25 avg rating — 52 ratings

"Eeben Barlow's account of the founding of the South African PMC Executive Outcomes is much more interesting and compelling than you might think. Barlow is a very intelligent man and his story is full of all sorts of unexpected twists and turns."

3.81 avg rating — 8,402 ratings

"Scahill's book is very well told and often quite scary. Is it desirable that a private entity with deeply partisan right-wing political leanings and contacts in Washington and an undisguised loathing for liberalism should arm itself as well as many national militaries?"

3.83 avg rating — 922 ratings

"Pelton rides with the mercs in Baghdad in an effort to understand, not just the politics of the invasion of Iraq, but the motivations and lives of the mercenaries who fought there on behalf of the US government."

3.92 avg rating — 274 ratings

"Autobiographical account of a British mercenary in Iraq after the invasion."

3.82 avg rating — 146 ratings

"Nortje tells the story of the famous SADF unit, made up mostly of Angolans and Namibians, who fought the brutal wars against the Soviet-backed governments who took over their countries. Nortje has a pretty narrow perspective, but the story of the men of 32 Battalion is worth a read. "