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Eight Lives Down | 
| Author: Chris Hunter
Publisher: Bantam Press
Category: Book
Buy Used: $18.79
Used (6) from $18.79
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 1607270
Format: Import
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.6
ISBN: 0593058607
EAN: 9780593058602
ASIN: 0593058607
Publication Date: November 13, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
Fantastic and Engrossing August 31, 2008
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
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
2 out of 2 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.
So...you think you want to be a Bomb Guy? June 2, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
As an American Navy EOD operator, I've had the opportunity to rub shoulders with Chris's mates in the same theater of operations, and it doesn't get realer than EIGHT LIVES DOWN. From the numbing boredom and anxiety while waiting for "the call", to the controlled terror of "the long walk", Chris has done a spot on job of revealing the persona typical of the joes who go in first to save lives and property, without going so far as to reveal the techniques and secrets that allow most of us to come home with all of our fingers. This is the reason that, while you'll find scads of books about other special operations units (SEALS, SAS, Green beret's, etc.), you'll find very little written about these publicity shy operators. By far the best insight into military tactical bomb disposal I have ever encountered. Great job Chris...I trust you're enjoying Nine.
Tense and Engrossing May 13, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is a non-fiction account of the tour of duty of a British bomb disposal operator in Iraq in 2004. The title is a reference to the fact that the bomb disposal squad in Northern Ireland were called "Felix" (meaning that they have nine lives, like a cat). It's an amazing story, so packed with action and danger that it would seem unbelievable if it were fiction. The first half in particular is so tense, so fast-paced that you find yourself longing for the occasional brief interludes of downtime just so that you can catch a breath! The book was very reminiscent for me of the Jamie Foxx/Jennifer Garner movie "The Kingdom" - and it made me realize that the film was more realistic than I had previously thought.
Chris Hunter is a very likeable narrator who is also extremely brave and passionate about what he does. He doesn't just bring the action scenes alive, but also manages to convey what it is that soldiers love about what they do, even when it puts them in extreme danger. He also talks a lot about his family back in the UK and the strains that his army career put on his marriage. This fleshes his character out and makes it a far more interesting book than if it were just about the action on the ground.
I did feel that parts of this book got a little hard to follow due to the military jargon, but that probably more a reflection on the fact that this is an unusual choice of book for me rather than on the book itself. I was engrossed in Eight Lives Down and I highly recommend it.
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