• No Easy Day

  • The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden
  • By: Mark Owen, Kevin Maurer
  • Narrated by: Holter Graham
  • Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (10,305 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
No Easy Day  By  cover art

No Easy Day

By: Mark Owen, Kevin Maurer
Narrated by: Holter Graham
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $15.75

Buy for $15.75

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

For the first time anywhere, the first-person account of the planning and execution of the Bin Laden raid from a Navy Seal who confronted the terrorist mastermind and witnessed his final moments....

From the streets of Iraq to the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips in the Indian Ocean, and from the mountaintops of Afghanistan to the third floor of Osama Bin Laden's compound, operator Mark Owen of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group - commonly known as SEAL Team Six - has been a part of some of the most memorable special operations in history, as well as countless missions that never made headlines.

No Easy Day puts listeners alongside Owen and the other handpicked members of the 24-man team as they train for the biggest mission of their lives. The blow-by-blow narrative of the assault, beginning with the helicopter crash that could have ended Owen's life straight through to the radio call confirming Bin Laden's death, is an essential piece of modern history. In No Easy Day, Owen also takes listeners onto the field of battle in America's ongoing War on Terror and details the selection and training process for one of the most elite units in the military.

Owen's story draws on his youth in Alaska and describes the SEALs' quest to challenge themselves at the highest levels of physical and mental endurance. With boots-on-the-ground detail, Owen describes numerous previously unreported missions that illustrate the life and work of a SEAL and the evolution of the team after the events of September 11.

In telling the true story of the SEALs whose talents, skills, experiences, and exceptional sacrifices led to one of the greatest victories in the War on Terror, Mark Owen honors the men who risk everything for our country, and he leaves listenres with a deep understanding of the warriors who keep America safe.

©2012 Mark Owen and Kevin Maurer (P)2012 Penguin Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"This harrowing, minute-by-minute account by one of the highly trained members of Navy SEAL Team Six is narrative nonfiction at its most gripping.... No Easy Deal puts you right there for every tense moment." (Entertainment Weekly)

"Gripping.... There is no better illustration in No Easy Day that SEALs are ruthless pragmatists. They think fast. They adapt to whatever faces them. They do what they have to do." (The New York Times)

"[Mark Owen] has given us a brave retelling of one of the most important events in U.S. military history." (People)

What listeners say about No Easy Day

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7,214
  • 4 Stars
    2,274
  • 3 Stars
    640
  • 2 Stars
    115
  • 1 Stars
    62
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6,254
  • 4 Stars
    2,169
  • 3 Stars
    582
  • 2 Stars
    91
  • 1 Stars
    49
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6,736
  • 4 Stars
    1,743
  • 3 Stars
    527
  • 2 Stars
    96
  • 1 Stars
    61

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

all the action is in the second half

Great recap of the mission to get Osama Bin Laden, which picks up in the second half of the book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Understanding the Drive

Would you listen to No Easy Day again? Why?

Get a first hand account of what happened on that historical mission. This is about the mission that every solider wished they were on. The sacrifices that these soldiers make so you can sleep peacefully in your beds at night. Great read!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Intense insight

The Bin Laden event sounded so simple and clear cut. Read the book. Amazing, scary, insightful and - as though I didn't respect SEALS enough already - that respect has multiplied exponentially.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Formulaic

From the foreword throughout it seems manipulative and perhaps with the military mind in view with all the jargon.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Mission Accomplished

Whatever was redacted can't keep this wild ride from being a compelling insight into the daily life of the toughtest men that protect this country. Great read, great story, great result!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Importance of a first account of history

First, all the bluster about revealing operational secrets, etc.---it is not there. Nothing I heard in this narrative was particularly a surprise. If any adversary could gain some type of tactical advantage from this, they obviously have not done their homework elsewhere. I suspect some of that bluster is because the author is not particularly complimentary of Obama and his willingness to take credit for the operation. The author does not drone on about this, but simply makes an observation and moves on with the rest of the story.
To learn the inside story of what actually happened with the mission is very interesting, particularly how close it came to going horribly wrong. This book is mostly about the men who train relentlessly becoming professional operators and the work that goes on to allow them to succeed. If you have an interest in current events and like to know the intricacies of how this event actually occurred, this is recommended.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great First Hand Account

Great book! I was riveted all the way through. The book was just as good, if not better, than I'd hoped. I noticed some negative reviews claiming that the author was guilty of having given away military secrets, but after having read the book I don't believe that to be the case. I read Manhunt as well, and that account has nearly the same level of detail, except for the details of the raid itself, which this book delves into.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

History, Raw and Unadorned

If newspaper journalists provide us with the "first draft of history," then "Mark Owen" (a pseudonym) has provided us with history's raw ingredients, the unadorned and unedited account of an important event. Owens doesn't reflect on the politics of the wars he fights or the philosophical implications of his job as a deadly 21st Century super-warrior. Much of the book is filled with the mundane details of his trade: the equipment he wears, his sleep cycle, the importance of emptying his bladder before a mission, the sit-ups and pull-ups he struggled to do to qualify for the SEAL program. He is not an introspective kind of guy and he doesn't describe his work in glamorous or romantic prose. But there are two things that make this book worthwhile. First, there are the Obama-era rules of engagement for the Afghan War which render SEAL and other military operations less effective then before in eliminating the enemy and which expose our own soldiers to much more personal risk then previously. Second, of course, is Owen's personal account of the Osama bin Laden raid. US government officials have questioned the accuracy of Owen's account of how the bin Laden killing went down, but for my money Owen's account rings true because it is more morally ambiguous and less glamorous then the official version and raises the question of whether bin Laden could have been captured and flown away without any real risk to the SEAL team. There's not much about politics here and it's clear that the CIA effort to locate and kill or capture bin Laden proceeded seriously and unabated from September 2001 onward and just happened to gel when it did in 2011. President Obama makes an appearance at the end of the book to watch the takedown by video in Washington and, of course, take credit for the raid which would have taken place when it did regardless of who won the 2008 presidential election. The narration is first rate. Recommended.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

An engaging but unsurprising narrative

First off, the narrator was great. It’s easy to believe his emphasis and intonations are the same as the author would have used himself. The author does create an engaging narrative about his experiences as a Navy Seal that is hard to put down.

The book starts with a teaser introduction to the helicopters arriving at the compound. It then digresses to the training and combat history of the author. Then only the last third of this short book is about the preparations, raid and the aftermath.

Unfortunately, this book does not add too many details about the raid than was already known generally. In the days after the raid I had read a few news articles and watched Obama’s speech on YouTube. But the book doesn’t really add too many details that I did not already know.

The main revelations and surprising nuggets are the details of how Osama’s Corpse was handled by the Seals. This is about the only aspect of the raid the author seems to have no qualms with reveling the shocking details. These details are what I suspect upset the pentagon the most. The only other new information that he provides about the raid is very terse and otherwise there is a distinct lack of details. It is easy to tell that the words where crafted very carefully not to reveal too much. The chapter detailing the encounter with Osama Bin Laden is the shortest in the book at only 6 minutes long.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Self indulgent garbage

Seven hours of my life I’ll never get back. A passive aggressive attempt to tell you how great he is. Sad part is that somewhere in all his transparent attempt to feign humility is a good story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful