Special Forces , Mercenaries and Veterans by Aleksandr Voinov and Marquesate

SYNOPSIS

Special Forces is the story of a Scottish SAS soldier and a Soviet spetsnaz soldier. Two enemies who meet in the line of duty during the early days of the Soviet Union’s last war in Afghanistan. Behind enemy lines respect and finally love grow … but that’s only the official version. This epic spans across over twenty-five years of their lives. It’s harsh and violent, but life is cruel and they just do what they need to survive.

Special Forces – Soldiers is the first cycle of the Special Forces epic, which consists of three cycles and is about a million words. The second cycle is Mercenaries and the third one is Veterans.

This print version is the original version of Special Forces (1st edition), as it was edited by the authors of the time of first publication on Marquesate’s website. The Soldiers cycle was published between July 2006 and March 2007. This is the only version that is authorised by Marquesate.

The ebook version is available for free download, and the original chapters remain as a free read on Marquesate’s website below:

This print version of Special Forces is strictly non-profit and print cost only. The paperback of this original version is available from Lulu.

5 plus amazing stars!!

(This review encompasses all the books in the Special Forces series.)

When I first sat down to try and write how I felt after reading this series, no words came.  I knew I had just read something amazing. I often say that if a book makes me experience extreme emotions I know I have read the best there is. Well until I read book one in this series I never knew that I was capable of a book to affect me as much as this one did; as the whole series did.

I knew I had read something genius something I will probably never experience again. I hold my hand up honestly  and say that this series goes beyond everything I have ever read in my 37 years of life and I hesitate to say that I doubt I will ever feel as strongly about a story and 2 characters like I do now.

This series has affected me like no other and it has changed me forever. As I write this I actually feel the emotions as strongly about this story as I felt when reading it weeks ago.

So believe me when I say, I don’t think I am going to be able to write any kind of adequate or eloquent review that does this book any justice, it’s the honest truth.

My fan girl love affair with the brilliant Mr. Voinov continues no matter how much this genius of a man tries to test me, my sanity and my feelings.

This series is the EPIC 25 year journey of Vadim Krasnorada and Dan McFadyen; two enemies who meet in the line of duty during war in Afghanistan. Their lives crossing paths spanning years. Their story consumed me to the point life ceased to exist. I could not let them go.

To quote and use the words of Mr. Voinov:

“They eat you up, swallow you whole, digest and churn you around until their loneliness spits you back out again.”

Their story messed with my head and my heart like no other before; it is brutal & tender, ugly & beautiful, painful & hopeful.

I had intense feelings of despair, hatred, happiness, at times I felt sick to my stomach and forgot to breathe, other times I laughed in relief. My emotions were all over the place. I was so confused with how I felt. I have never cried through a whole book before. But at times I was sat reading with silent tears that just didn’t stop.

Dan & Vadim’s journey is filled with revenge and torture; the aggression and lust between two powerful men turning into so much more on a journey that I both hated and loved.

Such perseverance, beauty and compassion I fell in love, no matter how irrational that felt to me at times, with both Dan and Vadim. My heart felt like it was going to burst with how much I loved these characters; still does when I think of them.

No two men’s love has surely ever been tested as much as Dan & Vadim’s. They have had just about everything anyone could imagine thrown at them. The logic said they shouldn’t have been together in the first place so to battle like they did through the ugliness of war, the two sides of conflict, the near death, the obscure obstacles, I was turned inside out….they captured me completely and their hold on me will never let up.

Their journey is not pretty, it is raw, ugly and kicks you where it hurts and oh does it hurt, but it is a genius work of beautiful basic human emotional art. I was stripped of all superficial emotions right down to the raw and the pure, layer by layer as I moved through their story. I was slowly seduced by the awe-inspiring words that had me absorbed in the story to the point of being an emotional nervous wreck.

I could sit here and write and write about how amazing Special Forces is, but finding the right words is proving too difficult and I would be here forever, it needs to be experienced.

After “living” 25 years with Dan & Vadim where I went through: War, Rape, Torture, Killing, Lies & Deception along with the ultimate strength of Love and the true meaning of Home, I was exhausted, overwhelmed  but I was oh so satisfied at the end.  I felt like I had been in a nasty fall and was picked up and lovingly put back together.

I actually feel honoured to have been allowed on this journey written by Mr. Voinov and Marquesate.  A journey that will stay with me forever.  Vadim and Dan changed my life and they took a huge part of my heart, that will always be theirs.

“You’re my home. I will find you.”

“I will… find you. If it’s the last thing I’ll do, I’ll come back. Nothing will stop me.”

“If I touched you, that’d be it.” Dan shook his head, “Damn, how the fuck am I going to make you understand?” Pleading, almost. “You are everything, don’t you get it? You are the Afghan mountains, the damned red dust, the endless sky. You were my home, and more often than not, also my reason. You are unlike all the others, unlike anyone I shag, because when I touch you, it’s not just a touch, it’s eleven years of heaven and hell.”

 “You made me human. I stand by that. You made me into somebody I would have wanted to become, if I’d ever thought about what I wanted to be that wasn’t about a record or power or a rank or some…delusion I was chasing. If all that was gone and stripped away, the man I am, I am because of what you did, what you made me feel all those years.”

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Now, for those of you who feel strong enough to go on this journey you are able to download it free, yes I am shaking my head as I type free, from Aleks website:

http://www.aleksandrvoinov.com/special-forces.html