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Eight Lives Down | 
| Author: Chris Hunter
Publisher: Corgi
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Format: Import
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.4
ISBN: 0552155713
EAN: 9780552155717
ASIN: 0552155713
Publication Date: November 25, 2008 (In 46 Days)
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Product Description
Visceral and compelling, Eight Lives Down is the most exciting and nerve-jangling work of military non-fiction since Bravo Two Zero.
If fate is against me and I’m killed, so be it, but make it quick and painless. If I’m wounded, don’t let me be crippled. But above all, don’t let me fuck up the task.
So goes the bomb technician’s prayer before every bomb he defuses. For Chris Hunter, it is a prayer he says many times during his four-month tour of Iraq. His is the most dangerous job in the world — to make safe the British sector in Iraq against some of the most hardened and technically advanced terrorists in the world. It is a 24/7 job — in the first two months alone, his team defuses over 45 bombs. And the people they’re up against don’t play by the Geneva Convention. For them, there are no rules, only results — death by any means necessary.
The job of a Bomb Disposal officer is a lonely one. You are alone with the sound of your own breathing and the drumming of your heart in a protective suit in forty-plus degrees of heat. The drawbridge has been pulled up behind you as you advance on your goal. It’s just you and the bomb.
But for Chris Hunter, just when life couldn’t get any more dangerous, the stakes are raised again.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 A white-knuckled blast! October 2, 2008
Chris Hunter must have trouble finding affordable life insurance.
The job in question that he portrays in this book is that of a British Army specialist whose forte is disarming IED's - improvised explosive devices in Iraq. His tale - remarkably well written - is a gripping account of the job. You feel you are there, wearing 70 lbs. of body armor, sweating in triple-digit heat and loaded with another 80 lbs. of gear.
Tom Clancy couldn't write anything more absorbing. An undercurrent theme of "Eight Lives Down" is the huge emotional and marital toll that the job takes on Hunter and his unraveling relationship with his wife, Lucy. There are observations on the Yanks in Iraq, the nature of the Iraqi people, the job of winning hearts and minds and some touching vignettes of tenderness among ragamuffin street urchins.
"Eight Lives Down" is one of those books that you may find hard to put down!
 Too Much Testosterone... September 9, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
A compelling story but way too much macho commentary. The author's narration is like a teenager playing a video game ("take that you evil terrorist!") I'm not expecting 'sensitive' comments from a warrior who puts up with incredible odds, but the descriptions in this book make one believe that Rambo spent a fair amount of time in Iraq. There's even a point where he describes the insurgents as being those who kill just because they like to.
Way too much....
Fantastic and Engrossing August 31, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Wow, I simply could not put this book down.
Chris pulls you in quickly and doesn't let you escape the world of an explosives expert in the land of improvised explosives. From the tension to deactivating a bomb while trying to ignore the reality this bomb was planted so the bad guys could snipe Chris, to the despair over fallen comrades and the impact to his marriage.
Not just an incredible story, but well written with humour and sadness. I hope Chris continues to write, as I'll buy anything he produces.
 I cannot imagine. August 21, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Too many emotions to even catalog in reading this book. What leads people to do this? What people plant bombs? What has happened to the sanity in this world? Who would pick this assignment?
Yes, I was a volunteer firefighter, but this pales to the horror that these men seek out. It is beyond my comprehension at the self- sacrifice and the damned determination of these men. It is the headlong rush into danger, disregarding all instincts of survival. As various nations wave their bloody banners of nationalism or fanaticism, these operatives are unknown and working day and night so that we may slumber comfortably in our homes ignorant of what goes on around us.
We may have to take stock of our values and actions causing the necessity of having such troops.
The married man with two kids who liked to play with bombs July 1, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Mr. Hunter spent 17.5 years in the British army, 10 of which were in bomb disposal. Eight lives down focuses on 4 months of his tour in Iraq, with the first two as his last stint as an ATO (ammunition technical officer). He and his team were so successful in diffusing bombs that insurgents took a disliking to him with a price on his head. His next two months were spent as a weapons intelligence officer, a position he reluctantly accepted but grew to like.
Major Hunter was married with two kids when he deployed to Iraq, despite one more empty promise in a string of broken promises not to spend time away from his wife on dangerous missions. Iraq would become his longest mission away from home, during which he became borderline paranoid about his wife divorcing him. It's a wonder why a married man with two small kids would prefer the rush of adrenaline from diffusing bombs to spending time with his family. "I've never taken drugs," he said, "but I don't believe there's anything that will ever equal the exhilaration of that tour," referring to Iraq.
Chris Hunter wrote this book under an alias for security reasons. His intent was to share his experience of what it was like to be terrified, how his family coped with his time away and the ever present danger of losing him, and how soldiers like him react to the pressures of the day to day grinds in battle.
In this action packed book, Mr. Hunter compiled the most exciting events of his tour in Iraq sure to satisfy the appetite of even casual military and combat enthusiasts.
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