Customer Reviews

Special Ops (Brotherhood of War, Book 9)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

After reading all the positive reviews for this book, I feel like maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. But I can't help thinking that somebody else contributed heavily to this book. It just doesn't feel like Griffin's dialogue. And who edited this book? Johnny Oliver and Jack Portet get mixed up, and I thought the version of the M16 used by Special Forces soldiers during that era was known as the CAR 15...(Griffin calls it a Car 16) As usual, Griffin has changed the story line from past books to make things fit into this story. (Take a close look with how he has played with Lowell's and Felter's pasts) And why can't Guevara actually be used in the story instead of being referred to in dozens of Top Secret messages? I don't know....I really like Griffin's Corps Series...and all the other Brotherhood books I thoroughly enjoyed...but this one was a struggle just to finish. But it's nice to see the characters brought back to life. I hope that if he does so again the story will flow a little more smoothly.

Griffin has written twenty books better than this, including the first half dozen books in the Brotherhood of War Series (this title is number 9 in the series) plus the eight titles in his Marine Corps series "The Corps." I would suggest that a new reader of Griffin start with the first book in one of these series and read them in order.

"Special Ops" is about the attempt of the U.S. military to defeat and discredit Che Guevara's revolutionary ambitions in the Congo in the mid-1960s. It might have been a great book had Che been a living, breathing character, rather than being seen only from afar.

Griffin seems tired of his old military heros, the best of whom is Craig Lowell, who is brave, good-looking, intelligent, irresistible to women, and filthy rich. Somehow, despite all that, you still like Craig, whose shortcomings are that he's always in trouble and gets more medals than he does promotions. He is still around in this book, but Griffin focuses on a younger group of soldiers who are only only bleary, second-rate copies of the original Craig Lowell.

Griffin's strong point has been the authenticity he has been able to bring to U.S. military culture. However, in "Special Ops" Griffin seems to have pulled out of a hat all his old literary tricks and reused them, changing the characters and the scenes a bit but relying on the tried and true -- and the now trite for readers familiar with his other books. Moreover, he makes mistakes, probably due to haste, as other reviewers have pointed out.

Don't read this book. Read the first book in Griffin's series, "The Lieutenants" or the first book in his Marine Corps series, "Semper Fi." At his best, Griffin is a great writer about war and the U.S. military, but "Special Ops" is not one of his best books.

W. E. B. Griffin is a very prolific, and very popular, writer. He has five series currently in place: The Brotherhood of War, The Corps, Badge of Honor, Honor Bound, and Men at War. (The Men at War series was published originally under the pseudonym of Alex Baldwin, and was not carried to conclusion. Republished in hardcovers under Griffin's name, it has been very successful-maybe Griffin will now finish the story line.) The Brotherhood of War series really established Griffin as a popular writer, and was carried to its conclusion. He later wrote a new entry, The Aviators, which was roughly coincident with the series' main line book The Berets. He now repeats that with another companion piece set in the 1960's - Special Ops. Special Ops revisits (rehashes) some of the action from both The Berets and The Aviators, but in Griffin's "episodic" style these sections repeating those from the other books fit right in and make the current story coherent. Leaving them out would leave gaps for those who have not read, or have forgotten, the previous books. The "new" story is about a detachment of Special Forces troops, many of whom were met in the other books, who mount a clandestine operation to defeat, and discredit, Che Guevara's attempt to export Cuban communist revolution to Central Africa. Sandy Feltner, one of the ongoing characters in the series, is an intelligence counselor to President Johnson (as he has been to Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy). He sees the risk Guevara poses, while the CIA does not, and proposes Army-based covert operations aimed at embarrassing Guevara while foiling him, rather than assassinating him and thus creating a martyr. Griffin's sometimes contemptuous treatment of the CIA is interesting, given his usually favorable treatment of the OSS in Men at War and Honor Bound stories. As always, Griffin honors the warriors and their supporters while spinning an interesting tale. He also connects well with his Argentinean research (the Honor Bound series). The ending is conclusive, if perhaps flawed by relying on printed reports and messages rather than direct narrative. On balance, Special Ops is a very satisfying addition to the Griffin bookshelf, and a nice reminder of the old series. It would be nice to see The Corps brought to its conclusion, however, and save revisiting a "completed" series. And isn't it past time for a new Badge of Honor story?

Once again WEB Griffin has written a book I stayed up until 3 AM to finish. A very interesting story, with well developed personalities.

If there is a down-side, it's that this is a continuation of a series of books that I haven't read in 10 years. I had only vague memories of those characters, but Mr. Griffin does a good job of prompting. (The Lieutenants -> The Green Berets)

I don't need reviews to know that I will love a Griffin book, but read the other series 1st. (Plus you will save money, as Special Ops should be in paperback by the time you finish: "The LT's, The Cpt's, The Maj's, The Col's, The Gen's, The Aviators, The Green Berets.")

As a long time W.E.B. Griffin reader,I was pleasantly surprised that he resurrected the "Brotherhood of War" series. Perhaps Griffin's strongest suit is character development,and in this novel he has demonstrated that ability with particular flair. This novel deals with a time period during the so-called "cold war" when Castro's Cuba was just beginning to be perceived as a major threat not only to the Caribbean,but to the entire western hemisphere. It involves most of the characters previously introduced by Griffin in his previous "Brotherhood" series,most notably Craig Lowell and Sanford T."Sandy" Felter. After an action filled Chapter One in which the former Belgian Congo is introduced as the scene of action,the story line pursues the planning,and execution of the plans,developed to effectively neutralize Ernesto "Che" Guevara's efforts to "liberate" the Congo. Several new and interesting personae are introduced,including "jack" Portet and a more highly developed George Washington "Father" Lunsford. We also get a brief "Griffin" glimpse of LBJ. After the Special Forces operation in the Congo concludes,the story line and it's execution become a little nebulous due to many pages worth of extracts of CIA communications,which in turn,lead to a somewhat weak conclusion to the novel. Had the ending been as strong as the rest of the book,it would have rated 5 stars instead of the 4 stars I gave it.

Frankly, it was poorly written and not typical of Mr Griffin's superb talents. I think he owes all of his devoted readers an apology for this offering.

For the first time I found a Griffin novel deeply disappointing.I found Special Ops to be dull. The last pages of the book were almost exclusively "block orders" that Griffith used sparingly and effectively in previous novels. This time they were used apparently because he was to lazy to write any dialogue. Characters were poorly developed: some major characters of past novels played only cameo roles and could heve been eliminated. Dull!

I think what I found most annoying about this book was the beginning where large chunks of the previous two novels (The New Breed & The Aviators) were either torn intact or badly rewritten and stuffed into this novel to flesh it out. Granted it's been a long time since a Brotherhood of War novel has been released and it's ok to remind the reader of what has come to pass, but this was nearly insulting and if you've read either of the previous novels recently it's just downright boring to read them AGAIN here.

Mr. Griffin, if you must write another BoW novel, lets hear the story of Craig Lowell's adventures in Vietnam, they're hinted at in several places and sound exciting. Anything would be better than Special Ops.

I look forward egerly for each of Griffin's books. It has been too long a dry spell since the last one in the Brotherhood of War, Badge of of Honor or the The Corps series of books. Now that he has brought closure to the Brotherhood series we have his other two popular series to conclude. Special Ops is typical Griffin and is a book that you don't want to start a reading session with if you only have a short time to spend with it. It is a book that you can pass a long cold winter's day or evening with and feel you have not wasted the time. The happy ending for Jack Portet and Marjorie was a nice touch and makes the book more than just a military novel.

Having been critical of some recent Griffin efforts, I wasn't sure what to expect here; rarely does an author reverse a downward trend. The master of military fiction is definitely back, doing everything well that he once did well.

He already had a batch of great characters to work with here, but he takes time to introduce them for those new to this series (which we had all thought was over with years ago), so the book will stand alone well if need be. The premise is interesting even if one does know the ultimate historical outcome. The portrayal of LBJ, in particular, is marvelous. The action is exciting, both human and military, with a number of good old-fashioned Griffin 'senior officer annoyed rants', one of the things he's best at. Griffin has always been good about avoiding excessive ethnic stereotyping, and in a plot that includes strong African American, African and Hispanic characters this talent really shines through. If I could find a weakness to report I'd do so, but there aren't any.

It may be that this book was a long-unpublished manuscript that was gussied up for print; it may also be that Griffin has completely corrected all the recent downward trends of his writing and is back with a vengeance. Either way, this one is his best effort in years--a keeper for sure.