I want to start by saying that I don't think this book is any less well done than any of Krakauer's other work (that I have read so far). My lower rating is personal taste and not a comment on the quality of this book. Krakauer is a wonderful nonfiction writer, a great researcher. He does a fantastic job of explaining difficult concepts to the layperson.

But going in, I expected this book to be more about Tillman's death and the government cover up. That seemed to be what the synopsis implied and that was what I was interested in. His death didn't occur until around page 250 (out of about 350 pages). Most of this book focused instead on Tillman's life and his motivations for joining the army, which I personally had very little interest in. If you want to learn more about Pat Tillman as a person, I highly recommend this book.

I personally found Tillman rather unlikable. Which isn't to say I think he was a bad person, I just didn't like him and it made reading this book more unpleasant than it otherwise would have been. Krakauer said repeatedly how sensitive Tillman was, how kind, how humble, how thoughtful. But he acted like the entitled football players I went to school with; they got their way so often they came to believe they inherently deserved more than other people. In high school he got in frequent fights, eventually beating someone so bad they wound up in the hospital. He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, but the judge knocked it down to a misdemeanor so he wouldn't lose his football scholarship.

Then there were the other small things, like partying late at night even though his wife had work early in the morning and continuing even after she asked him to stop. Or telling a Frenchman that he'd be speaking German if it weren't for us. Or risking his death for pointless stunts just because it was entertaining. It felt like everyone anecdote involved him being arrogant or self centered or hotheaded. He just wasn't someone I liked. This wouldn't have mattered if the book had been mostly about the aftermath of his death, but it was largely about Pat Tillman the person, and I wasn't interested.

I really enjoyed the political elements of this book. Krakauer obviously has a liberal bias (which I found kind of funny considering how hard he generally tries to keep himself out of his books), but his information and facts were sound. I think it's probably good to know the bias going in, but it didn't detract from the book at all for me. I was a child in the early 2000s so while I remember a fair number of events, I don't understand their significance. I remember the Jessica Lynch rescue, but not the scandal around the lies involved. It was fascinating to fill out my knowledge, and I definitely learned a lot from this book.

The way Krakauer delved into friendly fire was fascinating. It wasn't just Tillman's story, but friendly fire in general. He covered some other incidents and discussed its history in war a bit. It was one of my favorite aspects of the book because I hadn't realized how prevalent friendly fire was. At one point he gave percentages for how many casualties (fatal and non fatal included) were from friendly fire and in Iraq it was 41%, which is apparently not too far from the norm. Afghanistan was 13%. I literally had no idea it would be anywhere near that high. If asked to guess before this book, I would have said less than 10%.

Which also leads into the discussion on the military and how cover ups happen. I'd have a hard time arguing that the military is good at keeping friendly fire incidents quiet since I thought it was so much lower. I appreciated Krakauer explaining the chain of command and how it happened, but I will admit I struggled following some of it. There were too many military titles, names, and weapons for me to keep it all straight in my head. My only complaint here is that I wish there'd been more about friendly fire in general and how the military deals with it. There was enough, but that was the worthwhile part of the book for me.

The last small critique I had is the sexism. I don't think it was coming from Krakauer, but just the people in the book. There was a "boys will be boys" vibe to Tillman's childhood and the fights he got into. His wife at one point made a comment about how he was becoming so sensitive he was growing breasts. Tillman himself discussed how he thought the Afghan men were effeminate. It wasn't a big part of the book, but I definitely cringed when I came across those bits. It was never discussed critically and I definitely got the feeling that Krakauer was just capturing these people's lives, but it was rather unpleasant to read.

I did still contemplate giving this book four stars, especially once we actually got up to the friendly fire incident, but I just don't think it was quite there for me. Still a very worthwhile read, but not one of my favorites from Krakauer. If you like Krakauer in general, I'd recommend picking this up.