Customer Reviews

In Danger's Path

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This book comes closer to being "vintage" W.E.B. Griffin than the two works that followed. As usual,there is a compelling plot line in mounting a mission to the Gobi desert in order to establish a weather station for forthcoming B-29 raids against the Japanese home islands. As usual "Killer" McCoy and Ernie Zimmerman are involved as "the doers". As usual,Fleming Pickering is the behind-the-scenes manipulator and planner. As usual, Franklin Roosevelt is Machivellian. As usual, Bill Donovan almost manages to screw up the works. As usual, McCoy manages to pull off the mission.

All that said, I really did like the book. Aside from too much time being spent by Fleming Pickering doing his little political intrigues to offset Bill Donovan's little political intrigues, the book was a fairly satisfying read and manages to hold the reader's interest very well. I found that several of the characters introduced early in the series (Milla Banning) to have their roles resolved , and others moved on to new levels of future importance (Easterbunny). I thought the mission to the Gobi desert was quite unusual and the cameo of "vinegar Joe' Stilwell was a nice touch.

My major compliaint about this series is that it is moving too slowly,and at one book every 2-3 years it will take about 20 years to complete. C'mon WEB! Speed things up before your readers all croak!

I would like to see McCoy marry Ernie Sage,see Flem Pickering run out of Famous Grouse, and move on to Korea. As things stand,there is little left for McCoy to do as an intel officer in W.W.II. I enjoy a faster paced story line and this one seems to be starting to drag a bit. A little less time spent on "filler" of various sexual/bedroom antics of various young officers and more time spent on the actual mission in the Gobi with Zimmerman and McCoy would have upgraded the rating to 5-stars.

What a great read! I've become an avid reader of Griffin's books since the summer of 1999. My library now has 26 books - all read and eagerly awaiting another - and another. A friend of mine started me with a few "out of sequence" Brotherhood of War books and that did it! I immediately purchased the remainder through AMAZON.COM. The other series fell quickly into place as well. This man has a great style, one that puts him right "up there" with my other favorites, Tom Clancey and Joseph Wambaugh. Acutally, W.E.B. is "numero uno" as far as I'm concerned. In reading some of the reviews, yes - there are editorial mistakes, along with some factual ones as well (for example: operations plan is correctly abbreviated OPLAN not "Opplan," and the message formats are a bit "off" - however, none of this detracts in any significant way from the story-telling ability of Griffin and the spellbinding effect he has on the reader. In my opinion, having spent 32 years of active duty in the U.S. Coast Guard (enlisted to Chief Petty Officer; Warrant Officer (Comms); and Ensign through Commander (regular commission) - he KNOWS the inside/outside of military life - the pomp & circumstance - the "games" - the whole nine-yards! There is little doubt that anyone who has spent more than a tour of duty in the military has picked up on these nuances. He makes the reader feel as if he has been there. That's what separates him from the "pretenders." Kudos to W.E.B. Griffin.

As a longtime reader of the estimable Mr. Griffin, I'm really starting to see my enthusiasm fade for the Corps. I read the Brotherhood from Start to Finish, and was lucky enough to begin in 1986, when most of it was finished and the last new books were being written.

The Corps premeired at about that time, when I was McCoy's age. Now I'm 14 year's older, and he's still in his early 20's - I won't begrudge him (!) that, but I'm mightily worried about this series.

The Brotherhood carried, pretty intactly, the story of 4 main characters through 25 or so years in 8 books. There were many secondary characters, but the focus was on these 4.

Now, how many characters does the Corps have? And how many were introduced or given new prominence in this book? This Weston guy acts no differently than Pick Pickering... Is he a necessary character? Chief McGuire? Sampson? Williamson? Janice whatsername? How many new characters do we need to keep this thing moving forward?

I remember when Ken McCoy was actually a pretty sympathetic character, and now he pretty much comes off as a jerk. Let's see - he meets Sgt. Sweatly in the desert after not seeing him for 2.5 years, and Sweatly - immensely pleased to see him - calls him "Killer", a nickname McCoy doesn't like. McCoy then withdraws his handshake, "dresses Sweatly down and eyes him coldly".

What a jerk.

For one thing, after 2 years of wandering around the Gobi desert, enduring much deprivation and toughening, I think Sweatley would have pretty much:

a)Laughed in McCoy's face

b)Given more than half a thought to casually cracking McCoy over the head for being such a Jackass, regardless of the consequences.

What about the other characters?

Fleming Pickering - OSS guy, Admiral and now General. Far, far less interesting than Jack NMI Stecker. I thought this was a series about the Corps... If so, why are we following this guy around - he served in the Marines in WWI, and then gets activated 25 years later after being a high powered businessman - he was a minor character until Book 3, as I remember. Please, can he fall down a flight of stairs or something? I'd like to see Colonel Stecker standing on a reef someplace trying to figure out how to take out a concrete bunker without losing half his men, not hearing about Pickering's latest run-in with Donovan, his love of Famous Grouse, or talking - endlessly - about MAGIC.

Pick Pickering - His wit and lightness, once a welcome part of a well rounded character, to counterbalance McCoy, have come to define him. Who is this guy supposed to be, F. Scott Fitzgerald?

McCoy's girlfriend, Ernie - once an extremely likable and highly sympathetic character, now comes off as coarse and pushy - she goes into Brooks Brothers and pushes some poor sales guy around without a second thought. Nice, really nice.

Easterbrook - An interesting character, now drafted into the OSS. Sigh. I guess we won't see anything interesting out of him ever again.

UNDERSTAND THIS, fellow fans, I'll read this series to conclusion, but let's face it, it ain't about the Corps anymore, it's about the OSS, and these characters don't seem to be acting true to their original natures - and their evolution into who and what they are now is forced, to say the least. There are far too many characters, and far too little action for a series that is supposed to be about the Marine Corps in WW II. I respect the views of those who gave the book 5 stars, and can understand why they did, but I know that Books 1-3 held far more promise than has been delivered in the last few books.

Sorry, Mr. B, I hope you'll forgive me.

When I started reading "The Corps" series I was a young 21 year old Marine myself. The characters were down to earth and I could relate to McCoy. It was good to see a young enlisted man get a shake and get promoted to be an officer. Now it seems that every kid out of boot camp that bumps in to Flem's circle gets gold bars pinned on his collar. This waters down the series and shows to me that Griffin does not want to deal with young enlisted men as characters. I expected to see Lt. McCoy leading a platoon of Marines on Tarawa or some other island. I know that that will not happen. When these characters embark on a mission, it seems that Griffin can't wait to get them back home into a First Class Hotel sipping "Famous Grouse" with their high class lady friends. What about the thousands of other Marines who were slugging it out with the Japanese and didn't see their homes for years? Characters like young Pick and Weston should be flying against Zeros and not fooling around with ladies in the states. What a novel idea to have Marine WW2 pilots in the Pacific! How long can Griffin drag out the "Killer" plot. We know how he got the nickname, we know he doesn't like it. We also know that many times he will be called this by others and get stared down "coldly". When I was a Marine we called each other that from time to time. It was no big deal. His reaction is beginning to bore me. I can only dream of him doing that to someone and getting decked. I can't even begin to start on the female characters. They are all the same. Ernie has turned from a decent rich girl to a snobbish, selfish daughter, flaunting her promiscuities in front of all to see, including her parents. The Corps has turned from a great series of the Marine Corps coming of age in its most difficult time to a handful of guys playing James Bond, and by the way, they are in the Marines. If it is true that Book VIII is the last book, I'm not sure if that is a blessing. I will not have to look forward to W.E.B letting me down any longer. The characters have already become so involved in "Magic" that they can't fight in any of the historic Pacific Battles anyways

I have read the entire Corps series, back to back. FIrst off, this was a dissapointing read as it wasn't the Corps, but the OSS. Second, I am tired of Brig Gen Pickering being the central character. I was much more interested in what the enlisted and lower officers were up to, rather than Pickering's big boy problems.

I wondered what happened to Jack Stecker's son - he was a great character. Would have liked to see more of Pick, although was dissapointed that he turned out to be more of a playboy than a Marine...but I loved the interaction between Pick and McCoy and Stecker's son.

But what I really object to is that although I understand this is the final book of the series; it didn't wrap up all the loose ends. Sorry but I want to know what happened with Carolyn once she found out Mrs. Banning had been rescued. Who got Martha? How did Weston solve his woman problem? Did McCoy marry Ernie? Did McCoy get out of the Gobi Desert? Did Donovan incur the enduring wrath of the President??

All of WEB's books are on my shelves and read over several times to capture his way with plots. His characters, though at times believable, were overly blessed with flaws, which made them less than real as the novels went on. --Worst of all WEB deprived his audience of believable endings to any of his series. The one which hUrt the most was the last in Marine series "In Danger's Path" What happened to woman of honor - i.e., Martha and Ernie. There were decent girls back then. Being retired military it WAS a pleasure to relive some moments. BUT WHAT A LETDOWN!!!!!!"LEW"

This book continues the very popular _The Corps_ series, which may well be Griffin's best overall effort in novels about the profession of arms. Exciting yarn, excellent description of the military (in this, case, Naval/USMC) dialogue and character, good mix of people to like and not to like, plenty of amusing stuff. Everything, in short, that we have come to expect from Griffin. The reason he merits the top rating is that the above are so consistently excellent that they always overshadow the usual flaws.

Griffin's historical weaknesses are name consistency, proofreading, and repetition of pet plot themes. He has improved in most of these areas but only marginally. I mean, for goddess' sake, he's misspelled Vinegar Joe Stilwell's last name. However, the main predictability is still with us: males behaving erratically, copulating with multiple females at same time, getting in *big* trouble. I do wonder if Griffin's capable of writing a book in which infidelity doesn't play a starring role. Nonetheless, I recommend _In Danger's Path_ enthusiastically.

I agree with the other reviewers that The Corp is a terrific series. I picked up Book IV, which my dad had bought, and then I was hooked and bought the rest of the series. As a writer myself, I really admired Griffin's ability to tell a gripping story and develop interesting, believable characters. I especially like the fact that the characters all have the strengths and weaknesses. For instance, Flem Pickering is courageous and honest, but he drinks too much and has a tendency to run off at the mouth. McCoy is brave and smart, but arrogant and hot-tempered, too. My criticism of this particularly book is that it's moving too slow ... it's taken eight years to get through just two years of the war! I also agree with other reviewers who have noted that the seris is veering away from the regular Marines and is now much more about the OSS. I find the stories about the regular Marines much more compelling. One criticism of the series as a whole is that there are a lot of glaring editorial goofs that either the author or a copy editor should have noticed before the books went to print. For instance, Capt. Galloway's age keeps shifting back and forth from 25 to 28 and slimy Lt. Macklin's first name is, at various times, "John", "Richard" and "Robert." Stuff like that is easy to fix and needlessly detracts from what is otherwise an excellent series. Finally, as a woman, I'd like to seesome likeabel, sympathetic women characters who are something other than nurses or upper-class women having affairs with Marines. How about some female characters as war correspondents, WASP pilots, mechanics, etc? But those are picky points.All in all, it's a great series that teaches us younger readers a lot about the sacrifices that our grandparents made during WWII.

In Danger's Path is the longest and ,to me, the most ponderous of the Corp series. I have been reading it since its debut, and it has been my favorite of Griffin's various series, but this one misses the mark rather badly. The usual fast paced action just isn't here and as one previous reviewer mentioned the focus has moved from the Corp to covert operations. The plot of this book centers on the weather station in the Gobi Desert,(an operation refered to in several other books, but now no longer on hold)and group of American refugees from Japanese occupied China. One flaw I noticed is that throughout the books, any one with knowledge of "Magic" cannot be sent into any situation where they may be taked prisoner, but apparently this rule does not apply to Capt. McCoy, since at one point he is asked if he knows what "Magic" is, and replies he doesn't know but he can guess, which he does accuratly, and is promptly sent on a dangerous mission anyway. I have throughly enjoyed the Corp series, but let's get back to the Marines, Mr. Griffin, and leave the OSS stuff to the other two series you have to deal with it......

WEB Griffin does it again. This series just gets better and better. To link those thought lost from the first book and tie it up and bring them together again keeps you wanting more and more.