In Danger's Path

Rating:
Summary: W.E.B. Griffin fans thirsty for another "Corps" book?
Review: As soon as I spotted it in the store, I bought two. I was having dinner that night with the "Maj." The Maj is a WWII, Korea & Viet Nam Marine whose stepdad was an Army Sergeant Major in China before the war. Stepdad told him first hand about the bandits in the Gobi. He's on his second reading of this book, and chewed me out for giving him something that interferes with his chores and planned projects. He loves it, I think it's the best yet, and I hope not the finale. I was up all night on a seven hour flight from Honolulu to Houston, crammed into the back seat of a full DC-10, ignored both movies, but finished the book. Felt better than if I'd slept. CAUTION: You don't rate reading this one unless you've read all the previous volumes in the series. F. E. Lange, fmr.Cpl., Rocket section, Weps Plt., K Co., 3rd Bn., 25th Marines.

Rating:
Summary: More fantasy than historical fiction
Review: I listened to the audio version, abridged. It was very boring, almost impossible to keep up with the characters, very little action, convoluted plot, ridiculous (by today's standards) love scenes over and over again with too many couples to keep track of. The abridgement may have been part of the problem. I had to finally go and read the dust jacket of the book to understand what the basic plot was: a mission in the Gobi desert by the Marines, to save a group trying to escape from the expected Japanese assault of China, and to erect a meteorology station. I guess you have to understand World War II better than I do to understand why all of this was important to the war effort. Also, it may have disadvantaged me that this is the first Griffin book I have tried, by listening or otherwise. I can see where World War II buffs might get a big kick out of these endless details, constant references to rank, with virtually nothing said about the people's physical appearances, personality traits, et cetera, so that it's really hard to tell how one General or Lieutenant Colonel differs from another, and how they all differ from each other. Well, I know the big names in the book: Roosevelt, Nimitz, MacArthur, "Wild Bill" Donovan....but I would have liked more information on one of these individuals, more focus, more of a personality or psychological study instead of this roughshod back and forth geographical moves, jumping all over the world for brief snapshots of the goings-on of the heroes of this book, womanizers for the most part. Ah jus' don' get it, Cap'n McCoy! (he's the main man, as opposed to the Generals, methinks, at least I got that much). If any of this is autobiographical, Mr. Griffin must have led a very confusing life. OCD? Diximus with feeling.

Rating:
Summary: A Waste of Time
Review: I picked up these books hoping to gain some insight into the actions of the Marine Corps in the Pacific during World War II. What I found instead was a sort of soap opera that rambles on for hundreds of pages without getting around to much actual fighting. For example, The Marines don't even get to Guadalcanal (their first major offensive) until the end of book III, some 1200 pages into the story. Those 1200 intervening pages are mostly conversations (ad nauseam) between stateside Marine Corps officers as they sit around headquarters, or go out on the town chasing skirts.

The small portion of the books that is devoted to actual battles is done in such a cursory fashion that you're left with the impression that the author either finds this aspect of the Marines' mission distasteful, or doesn't understand it well enough to write about it. Mr. Griffin could have deleted about 80% of his material, and would have ended up with better books, albeit still not good ones.

If you're the sort of person who likes to watch daytime soap operas, then you may enjoy these books. If, on the other hand, you're interested in military history, the banality of these books will leave you screaming in frustration.

Rating:
Summary: RATING A MARINE HISTORY NOVEL
Review: I ROB M. BEING A FORMER MARINE ENJOYED THE SERIES OF THE CORPS BOOKS.THIS ONE LEAVES YOU HANGING.VERY POORLY ENDED.MR. GRIFFIN I WISH WOULD TAKE THIS SERIES INTO KOREA, AND THE VIET NAM WAR. WOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE IN THE ACTION LINE AND LESS BOOZING,AND CARROUSING.BUT TELL IT LIKE IT IS.I HOPE HE GETS ANOTHER BOOK OUT AT LEAST TO BRING THESE CHARACTERS TO A CONCLUSION.

Rating:
Summary: This is the end?
Review: I was not too long out of the Marines myself when this series first came out. I saw the title and picked it up. It was great. McCoy was an old time Marine hero. Zimmerman could have been a non-com in my own unit. Banning was the kind of officer there are too few of but do exist. The following books were also great and, while I didn't hate this story, I was somewhat disappointed to find out that this was how we "The Corps" was ending things in WWII. The story was a bit long winded. I was expecting action and would have enjoyed a bigger emphasis on the storyline surronding the Marines and the retired servicemen in the Gobi. How did the survive? What adventures did they have?

I like Fleming Pickering, but this story was too much about him. Pick came off like a snot nosed kid instead of the fighter ace that he was. I would have like to see Westons love triangle come to a conclusion. I would have liked to see some of the main characters get involved in one of the big battles of the latter part of the war. I envisioned McCoy leading a rifle company onto Iwo Jima or Okinawa (showing his stuff like Bernard Cornwells Captain Richard Sharpe) instead we get him growling about his nickname. Any real Marine knows that you don't get to pick your own nickname so deal with it and move on.

I could go on and on about niggling details but suffice to say that if this book had been a prelude to an epic final conclusion story, I would have not minded the weak ending and the slow plot. It seems that "The Corps" is going to Korea next but I feel like World War II is still raging and unfinished.

Rating:
Summary: Just a sec...who or what is "Reed Business Information"?
Review: I'm about 250 pages into this book. It is kind of ponderous,
like most of Griffin's books have become. Raally, I don't think we need routing #'s for TWX's and teletypes, and I certainly don't need a complete synopsis of "what has gone before" in each of Griffin's series. However, the two reviews by "Reed Business Information"(THERE's a household name in literary reviews) really rubs my fur the wrong way. In the first place, the weather stations in the Gobi were "highly improbable", but they existed, and did a great job under trying conditions. In the second place, to term the name "Fleming Pickering" improbably named is just stupid. What makes this name more improbable than names such as "Stansfield Turner", "Knute Rockne", or Winston Churchill? I once had a friend whose given name...I kid you not..was Lovely Child. He went by LC. Reed Business Information is a publishing house which puts out Variety, and dozens of slick industrial mags no one ever pays to subscribe to. Perhaps this "reviewer" should concentrate on what they probably know best, namely doing lunch, and selling space in publications no one ever reads except when stuck in elevators.
By the way, I'm enjoying "Under Fire". With all of Griffin's usual name dropping, I halfway expect Craig Lowell & the cast of the Brotherhood Of War series to Guest Star. Who knows, it's still early days yet.

Rating:
Summary: Padded and talky
Review: I'm currently reading this book, almost 200 pages (!) into it, and I wonder: will the story ever get started?
This is talky, repetitive writing -- some brief flashes of insight and humor in overwritten scenes as historical characters walk on-stage, but not enough. The author's research is obvious, not skillfully woven in (to use a cliché), and often relegated to parentheses.
So far, I say, Get started with the story! It's like a military and political soap opera. Maybe things will pick up once, or if, the action begins.

Rating:
Summary: Standard W.E.B. Griffin fare
Review: Nothing overly special about this book. Griffin stands true the the schitck of his genre, mainly 1) Deflowered Virgins, 2) Rich Playboys in the military service, and 3) Enlisted men who must become officers by the end of the story. If you can deal with that, its no better or worse than the other books in the series.

However, there are serious problems with continuity in this book. Names and events that took place in prior books and are remembered in this one are so inaccurate, I'm seriously starting to suspect that after Book III or so, these things are being ghostwritten.

Rating:
Summary: A bit flat but still worthwhile
Review: This eighth installment of THE CORPS follows the same cast of characters as the war in the Pacific wages on. This book lacks some of the action and intense battle scenes of the previous books in this series. In Danger's Path instead works on the intricacies of planning and executing a secret mission without compromising the TOP SECRET operation called MAJIC. My only complaint is that Griffin spends way too much time re-presenting the characters and their background. Those who have read the CORPS series are not likely to forget characters such as Ken "Killer" McCoy, Ernestine "Ernie" Sage, Malcolm "Pick" Pickering or the main character BG Fleming Pickering. I would have preferred more action and less devotion to trying to explain the charcters to the first time reader. Still, an enjoyable and easy to read novel.