16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Novel and Great Series, August 22, 2004
First off, this book is a novel and the genre is drama, not war. It is not about war but about the culture and relationships, history and traditions of men who fight wars. The story of course is set against a war, but it could be any modern war in any theatre. What you are getting is a perspective on what goes on in mens minds when they make decisions about their fates or how to get a box of bullets onto an island in the middle of no where.
The reader meets the various characters as they meet one another and sees and thinks what they do from their various perspectives. They tell their own stories, ambitions and worries so you know whats going on in their minds. At times, the reader gets to walk in the shoes of the young private thrust into new situations, then the reader is in the head of a more experienced soldier who meets private. Everything in the military tradition informs an officer that his word is gold and a private's is meaningless and then the private exhibits characteristics that makes the officer contemplate his original presumption. If he acts on the private's words, whill his own judgement be questioned? If he's wrong, will his career or life be over? Those thoughts go through people's minds at every level of decision making. There are the career elisted men, the younger and older officers, the career trouble makers and cilivians who have put on uniforms, there are men whose sons are fighting beside them or wives who worry about them both. There are men who advance quickly and men who the war exposes as being out of their league. They all have historical reasons to mistrust one another but they must work together because there is simply no one else.
Generally, the men must form quick impressions of their comrades. Then the impressions change or deepen. Men of oddly different backgrounds form deep friendships or intense animosities. Men find one another personally challenging, useful, an obstacle or whatever. The reason this is all important is because their lives and the future of the country hangs on every decision they make and this is what makes for such interesting and compelling reading.
There are countless tomes about battles and campaigns but very little exploration, especailly at the lower ranks, of why one man puts his life in another mans trust and almost no writing the explores all the back channels and double dealing that goes on in the military culture.
While this novel is unlikely to fill in your knowledge of any particular battle, it may inform your understanding of every other historical book you read by letting you get into the heads of men at every level of the fighting.
This series is fairly condensed compaired to the Brotherhood of Arms series. It covers from around 1940 to 45 with some extra books taking the characters into the Korean War. The BoAs series introduces you to another great cast of characters but the time range takes you from 1942/3 til 1970 and visits them more often than not when the country is not at war. Also, check out the Honor Series, which takes you to South America during the war. Awesome stuff.
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't start this one unless you have all 7 books, April 17, 2000
By A Customer
A powerhouse of action, suspense, friendship, and even love. You can almost smell what Griffin is writting. Also read the Men at War series while you are waiting for book 8 or 9 or whatever he is on now. Believe me 8 or 9 or 10 or 50 books of this calibur are not enough. By the time you are through you will feel like you personally know Pick, Ken, Erine Page,Zimmerman, Banning, and all of the others. So buy them all not just Semper Fi we need to keep W.E.B. Griffin in pencils and paper.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Addictive Series, June 5, 2003
After reading this, the first book in "The Corps" series, I the purchased the rest three at a time. Since finishing the series, I have now read every book Griffin has published.
Griffin's character development is so thorough that you feel you have gotten to know a real people as the various series develop.
The Corp Series offers a great "behind the scenes" look at WWII in the Pacific Theatre, what it meant to the men that served and stirs the patriotic juices inside of you.
One of many fantastic books from a terrific author.
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