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Type of bind: Audio Cassette
EAN num: 9780786109289
Format: Unabridged
ISBN number: 0786109289
Label: Blackstone Audiobooks
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
Quantity: 9
Printing Date: 1996-02
Publishing house: Blackstone Audiobooks
Sale Popularity Level: 2384151
Studio: Blackstone Audiobooks
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Product Description:
Trapped in Eastern Europe by a united Germany with atomic weapons, an American army--led by Lieutenant General ''Big Al'' Malin--must fight its way to the safety of the Baltic Sea. 150,000 very first printing.
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Rated by buyers -
This is a modern re-telling of the the extraordinary story which Xenophon described in "The Persian Expedition" which is also sometimes known as "Anabasis" (March Up-Country)."
Following the break-up of the Soviet Union, a long-running dispute between Russia and the Ukraine about the ownership of some former Soviet nuclear warheads suddenly threatens to become very serious. The Russians ask the USA to retrive the weapons, and they send the Tenth Corps to do so. The American force secures the nukes, but then an ally stabs them im the back and leaves them surrounded in hostile territory.
Just as Xenophon's force of greekl mercenaries, the original "Ten Thousand," had to fight their way back home after the Persian prince for whom they were fighting fell in battle in 401 BC, in this book the men and women of the US 10th Corps have to make their way to the sea for evacuation. Sometimes they can persuade the forces they come up against to let them through without a battle, all too often they have to shoot their way through.
The political situation described in the battle is more than a bit ridiculous, but the battle scenes are excellent.
A good light read if you want something to amuse you for an afternoon. However, the original story, "The Persian Expedition" by Xenophon, is an even better read.
Rated by buyers 
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The End of the Cold War put a real hurt on the Military Techno-Thriller business. Coyle's "The Ten Thousand" is a good case in point.
To have a fight, you have to have an antagonist. Before 1989, that was easy......the Commies! After the Berlin Wall came down, that became problematic. Authors handled this with a wide array of options. In my opinion the best were those that searched for another bad guy like drug trafficers or Terrorists. I found the worst to be those that esentially went into denial. You know, the ones that have the Communists take back power and threaten the world again. Then there are those who dredge up Nazis like Coyle did. Yawn. How unoriginal.
I have two other problems with this novel. First is Nancy Kozak. Sorry Harold, but you gave her too much of a free ride as one of the very first female infantry officers. In my eyes, her presense in this story makes as much sense as Pee Wee Herman being the NATO commander. Then there is the light infantry thing. Coyle's military experience primarily comes from serving in mechanized units and he can be unbelievably hostile to light infantry/airborne forces. Strangely, light units often play key roles in Coyle's novels. This one is no exception. Despite this, he often blasts these units (especially paratroopers) as being an anachronism.
If you just like military novels you may enjoy this one. The combat scenes are decent and pretty accurate. But if you cant stomach poorly considered backdrops stay away from this one.
Rated by buyers -
I just finished reading The Ten Thousand yesterday afternoon, but boy I was caught by surprise as to how the plot unfolds, though I've very first seen this book ten years ago and the plot still ingrained in my mind all this time.
It all begins in a cellar in Regensburg, Germany in late April 1945. When a young boy, a member of the Hitlerjugend, sees his family die before his eyes, he feels anger at not being given a chance to serve his Fatherland and his Fuhrer...fast forward to present day, the young boy is now the Chancellour of Germany, Johann Ruff.
The plot was unique in a sense: American troops enter the Ukraine together with Russian Army advisors to acquire a stockpile of Ukrainian nukes discovered stashed away. they eventually take the nukes with them, but not before the Ukrainians destroy one nuke stockpile and kill the American troops in the area.
Because they were not apparently consulted before the operation began, the Germans hijack the nukes as soon as they are prepared in an airbase in Germany for transport to the US. So begins the most dangerous European crisis since World War II...and now that General Malin and his X Corps are trapped in the Czech Republic with no home bases in Germany to return to, they must now make a choice: disarm right then and there, or travel across a hostile Germany for evacuation by sea, with former allies hot on their tails.
I liked Coyle's descriptions of how the action X Corps took gave resemblance to an earlier feat of arms: the march in 400BC of the Greek warrior Xenophon and his ten thousand mercenaries from what is present-day Iraq all the way back to Greece.
The reason I'm giving it four of five stars is because of some things i found odd: A Russian major in charge of US Rangers? Ooookay. Normally, US troops would feel uneasy when a foreign officer, a Russian at that, takes command of a US unit. But given the situation, the issues of nationality and racial bias take a backseat because all of them are soldiers, very first and foremost.
This is the very first ground war novel I've ever read that placed a major emphasis on ground battles, unlike the other combined-arms operations I've read in some books, most recently in Clancy's Bear and the Dragon or even in Larry Bond's Cauldron...and it shows, from the gritty realism of the tank battles and fifth-column ops that occur at several points in the story, to the personal perspectives of some of the major players themselves (Dixon, Kozak, Seydlitz, Ivanich, to name a few). Yes, some of the characters in the book do not reach the end of the story, but hey, that's war.
The book also gave focus on the professionalism of the German soldier and their ethical dilemmas on following the orders of their superiors or their consciences as well give rise to major dissent in the German Army. It also forced me to take notice because they come from a country that has never been to war in over fifty years, still struggling to come to grips with it's Nazi past and it's division during the Cold War, not to mention many generals from my country's armed forces also went to military schools in Germany that are some of the toughest in the world.
In all, The Ten Thousand is a well-written book.
Rated by buyers -
Most days, I don't think Harold Coyle could write his way through a Dick & Jane story.
But this time... wow. Taking some ancient Greek history and twisting it into a modern plot, Coyle has written one fine military page-turner. I dare ya not to laugh out loud when a German officer states, "My position has become untenable..."
Great stuff.
Rated by buyers 
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This is the very first of his books that I read. Coyle is the best at military fiction. I have probably read this book four times it is that good.
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