Every Alaskan king crab season, brothers Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand risk their lives and seek their fortunes upon the treacherous waters of the Bering Sea. Sons of a hard-bitten, highly successful fisherman, and born with brine in their blood, the Hillstrand boys couldn't imagine a life without a swaying deck underfoot and a harvest of mighty king crabs waiting to be pulled from the ocean floor. In pursuit of their daily catch, the brothers brave ice floes and heaving waves sixty feet high, the perils of thousand-pound steel traps thrown about by the punishing wind, and the constant menace of the open, hungry water—epitomized in the chorus of a haunting sailors' sing-along: “Many brave hearts are asleep in the deep, so beware, beware.”

By turns raucous and reflective, exhilarating and anguished, enthralling, suspenseful, and wise, Time Bandit chronicles a larger-than-life love affair as old as civilization itself—a love affair between striving, willful man and inscrutable, enduring nature.

Describes the ordeal of Navy SEAL Neil Roberts, who was stranded on a cold mountaintop in Afghanistan, surrounded by fanatical al-Qaeda fighters, and the efforts of fellow American soldiers to rescue him before it is too late.

Militari con i nervi a fior di pelle. Civili impauriti. Profittatori in cerca di bottino. Rivoltosi pronti a far saltare in aria tutto ciò che gli capita a tiro. Questa è Baghdad dopo l'invasione americana. Una giungla. Dove i più febbrili, agitati e inquieti sono i federali, i dipendenti del dipartimento di Stato americano. Non si danno pace, cercano l'unica cosa che può giustificare l'invasione dell'Iraq agli occhi del mondo: le armi di distruzione di massa. È a questo punto che entra in scena Rick Gannon, un carismatico consulente per la ricostruzione. In realtà, un avventuriere in fuga da un torbido passato, spinto dall'assoluto bisogno di far soldi. Gannon fonda una maleassortita banda di truffatori (un reporter fallito, un agente della Dia, un ex campione di calcio iracheno oramai decaduto, un uomo d'affari e un'avvenente pilota d'aereo) attorno a un grandioso progetto criminale: il presidente ha dichiarato che in Iraq ci sono le armi di distruzione di massa, quindi bisogna trovarle. Solo che per trovarle bisogna metterle. È un lavoro sporco. Ma assai ben pagato. Attraverso una serie di trovate ingegnose e spassose, Rick mette a punto un piano quasi perfetto per riuscire nel proprio intento...

Afghanistan, March 2002. In the early morning darkness on a frigid mountaintop, a U.S. soldier is stranded, alone, surrounded by fanatical al Qaeda fighters. For the man's fellow Navy SEALs, and for waiting teams of Army Rangers, there was only one rule now: leave no one behind. In this gripping you-are-there account–based on stunning eyewitness testimony and painstaking research–journalist Malcolm MacPherson thrusts us into a drama of rescue, tragedy, and valor in a place that would be known as...

ROBERTS RIDGE

For an elite team of SEALs, the mission seemed straightforward enough: take control of a towering 10,240-foot mountain peak called Takur Ghar. Launched as part of Operation Anaconda–a hammer-and-anvil plan to smash Taliban al Qaeda in eastern Afghanistan –the taking of Takur Ghar would offer U.S. forces a key strategic observation post. But the enemy was waiting, hidden in a series of camouflaged trenches and bunkers–and when the Special Forces chopper flared on the peak to land, it was shredded by a hail of machine-gun, small arms, and RPG rounds. A red-haired SEAL named Neil Roberts was thrown from the aircraft. And by the time the shattered helicopter crash-landed on the valley floor seven miles away, Roberts's fellow SEALs were determined to return to the mountain peak and bring him out–no matter what the cost.

Drawing on the words of the men who were there–SEALs, Rangers, medics, combat air controllers, and pilots–this harrowing true account, the first book of its kind to chronicle the battle for Takur Ghar, captures in dramatic detail a seventeen-hour pitched battle fought at the highest elevation Americans have ever waged war. At once an hour-by-hour, bullet-by-bullet chronicle of a landmark battle and a sobering look at the capabilities and limitations of America's high-tech army, Roberts Ridge is the unforgettable story of a few dozen warriors who faced a single fate: to live or die for their comrades in the face of near-impossible odds.