Strike Back

Strike Back is the action thriller series created by Chris Ryan — former SAS soldier and author — following Section 20, a British special operations intelligence unit that takes on missions of extreme danger across global hot spots. The series began as a novel featuring John Porter, a disgraced SAS soldier, and was adapted into a Sky/Cinemax television series that ran for eight seasons and achieved large international audiences.

Ryan's SAS background gives the series authentic operational detail — the tactics, equipment, and institutional culture of British special forces are rendered with insider knowledge that is the foundation of the series' credibility. The action sequences reflect how these operations actually work rather than how Hollywood conventionally portrays them.

The television adaptation departed significantly from the novels, evolving into a globetrotting action series with a rotating cast of Section 20 operatives that prioritized spectacular action sequences over the character depth of the original books. Both the novels and the series have their particular pleasures.

Begin with the novel Strike Back or with the first series of the television adaptation, which follows the novel's story most closely.