Customer Reviews

Warning of War: A Novel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Warning of War" which takes place pre-World War II, tells the story of a mission to round up all the Marines manning outposts in China. But is it "Fact, Fiction or Fantasy?" Brady does not answer this question leaving it for the reader to decide.
FACT: Marines of the 4th Marines and the Legation Guard were stationed from Shanghai in the south to Peking in the north. Some shipped out to the Philippines, some were captured and spent the war as POWs and some may have been members of "Billy Port's Ride".
FACT: The march of the 4th Marines through the streets of Shanghai, down Bubbling Well Road to the docks for boarding on the "Harrison" for transport to the Philippines happened.
FACT: The actions of 2ndLT Huizanga and Chief Gunner William Lee also happened.
FACT: LT. Huizanga, WO Lee, Col. Samuel Howard and Captain Jack White were "real" Marines stationed in China.
FACT: There is no mention of this mission in any of the written histories of the Marine Corps nor is there any recording of this mission in the official records of the United States Marine Corps.
FICTION: Is it within the realm of possibility that such a mission was formed to gather the far-flung pockets of Marines? Certainly. AND--
FANTASY: Visions of being a part of an adventure such as this lives in the hearts of all who breathe adventure. So why not?
James Brady weaves the mood and emotions of the times as did artist/author Col. John W. Thomason Jr.'s chronicles of the Chinaside Marines of the 1930s. Great tales recommended to readers of adventure. Brady uses words spiced with salty, macho language. Grand stuff used by those in positions of leadership in all walks of life.
This story reads as a "National Geograhic" article with insightful, factual backgrond such as the detailed descriptions of the Legation at Peking, the Ritz Hotel in Boston, the gates of and The Great Wall with tour guide narration of the countryside for added flavor. The lesson in geography is worth the price of the book.
As in his stories on the Hamptons the names of the famous (General "Black Jack" Pershing, General Lewis "Chesty" Puller), the infamous (Pancho Villa, Rapputin), the rich (Prince Yusopov) and the ordinary (Dr. Han, Father Kean) appear throughout the story adding a degree of truth to the fantasy(?).
"Warning of War" contains sidebars of love and romance which are related without the need for the micro details of sex crowding the litrature of today. Also four letter words are few and far between used only occasionally in the dialogues of these tough, salty and macho men. Col. Thomason also wrote in this antiseptic but welcome style.
Approximately halfway into this fast-paced adventure tale the mood slows to a beautifully written scenario of Christmas as experienced by the members of "Billy Port's Ride". Carols, sincere holiday greetings, scenes of stars in the heavens pointing(?), all bringing a tug at the heart strings as good, or better, than any attempt at sentimentality written by the fantasy industry in California. This scenario brought pause to this reviewer's train of thought as he remmebered his Christmas in Korea, standing sentry duty, hearing Jo Stafford's rendition of "White Christmas" flow warmly over the newly fallen snow at his position. Memories, sad but mostly good.
This "Smell the Roses" pace is quickly absorbed back into the rapid flow of the story.
To those searching for history, read "Warning of War" for the love of adventure, not factual information. To all others, this fast-paced narrative may bring back memories and could provide you your own answer to the question presented by "Warning of War".
Is it "Fact, Fiction, or Fantasy"? It could be nothing more than a reading of a great tale of high-spirited adventure.
What more could you be looking for?

James Brady has once again crafted a fine story and created some memorable characters based around little known historical events.

Like his reluctant hero, Tom Verity, in the Marines of Autumn, Brady has conjured up another believable character in Billy Port. Captain Port's mission is to take a small detachment of Marines and some civilian hangers-on and make his way across the Gobi desert gathering up outlying Marine detachments. The War Warning is in the air and before they make their way to the Great Wall of China, their comrades of the 4th Marines have fallen captive to the Japanese war machine. Port and his men realize they are alone and cut off.

This is a wonderfully paced story, with a lot of detail and insider descriptions. Brady really knows his stuff. You get the sense of the Chinese countryside, the interplay between all of the forces warring on each other "out there' on the other side of the Great Wall. But above all, you feel as if you are one of the "China Hands"; the feeling of total abandonment these guys must have felt, but above all the feeling to press on and continue in the Marine Corp way.

There are quick flashes of Griffin's Killer McCoy and his exploits in China and a lot of parallels to McKenna's the Sand Pebbles. But ultimately this book stands on it's own as a great record of a little known time and place in the big picture of WWII.

That is where I think Brady has excelled, he is able to personalize a small moment in history and surround it with momentous world events. He also highlights the professionalism and pride of the Marines that fall into this situations and as in The Marines of Autumn, shows the almost mystical relation between company grade officers and their NCO's.

Semper Fi!

James Brady has always struck me as a novelist who routinely hits stand up doubles or even triples, if not long-ball home runs. His latest "Warning of War" is no exception with compelling insight into the psyche of American Warrior Marines, and with more than enough accurate documentation to make the relatively few historical errors confusing.

Did a Captain Billy Port and a platoon of China Marines really make a ride through North China and Mongolia towards an imagined Siberian sanctuary during the opening of WW2? Or is the book just an artful work of "alternative history?" Who knows? As Judge Roy Bean reportedly said, "If it didn't happen, then it should have." Either way, it's a fine summer read, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

For those of us former "Navy Pukes" who spent a few years attached to the Marines in the WESTPAC (even sometimes embraced as being "almost good enough to be a Marine"), the story rings true enough.

Thanks, Mr. Brady, for another fine novel. Keep 'em coming!

There's a lot of Ken McCoy, if you're familiar with W.E.B. Griffin's "Semper Fi" series, in Captain Billy Port, U.S.M.C. They're are both 'China Marines,' underscoring the presence of an American Infantry force in China that in the summer and fall of 1941, had been in Asia since the turn of the 20th century. They both are encouraged by a strong sense of honor or fidelity, have expensive tastes, high intelligence, and have earned the respect of hard men. I am reminded of Orwell's comments that we who are bathed in the warmth of freedom, sleep well because there are 'hard men' who guard our gates. Billy Port, trapped behind enemy lines by the whims of the Japanese government having selected December 7 to bomb Pearl Harbor, doomed by his own sense of honor, recognizing that the only chance he has for himself and his men is to advance smartly in the opposite direction toward Russia, is one of those men.

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel. It is a novel, we have to remember, although things like that surely happened. Perhaps there was a Billy Port. There certainly were White Russians, Jewish intellectuals, French dilettantes, beautiful courtesans, Mongolian bandits and the above mentioned Marines trying to get the heck out of Dodge when Pearl Harbor happened.

Brady, who himself is not unfamiliar with winter in that part of the world, having spent a cold year in the Marine Corps in Korea 9 years after the events described in Warning of War, does an above average job in making the reader 'feel the cold.'

You might want to pick up "The Coldest War," Brady's auto-biographical account of his year in the infantry in Korea in 1950-51.

Additionally, I believe the style of the infantry officer, his concern for men, his focus in times of battle, his remorse for losses, brief but heartfelt, is well reported. At one point Captain Port arises at 2 in the morning to walk the perimeter in 18 below zero weather. He stops and talks to the men on watch, saying a few words to each of them, spending a moment with them. He does that, he tells us, because 'that's what combat officers do. Let the men know that you're willing to spend time with them when it's damn cold.'

Despite the tale revolving around the character of this infantry officer, this is really a tale of an event. Billy Port is the central piece of the puzzle, but it's a well crafted story of an escape from the great shadow of war by an odd crew of individuals cast, inadvertantly, behind enemy lines. Definitely worth the read.

If as the author has said, that this is a true story, then we should Honor the men of this story. They are true heros.
If Hollywood doesn't make a movie out of this one, they are even worse then nuts! History is full of stories of unknown heros, and thier fights, I love these stories, Keep em comming!

This novel surprised me from start to finish. Its rare that one finds so many elements of a great novel within the pages of a single book. Warning of War is well written and so detailed, it could easily pass for non-fiction if the reader wasn't aware that it was a novel.

The characters are well developed, believable, and true-to-life. Federales is a great example of a 1940's era marine squad leader and 'Top,' the link between Port and the enlisted men, adds perspective, especially to the battle scenes. Another great character is the priest, dubbed 'padre' by the marines. There are many fine characters in this novel but they are all distinguishable and unique, a testament to the author's skill in writing.

This novel is entertaining. It is poignant at times and violent at others. Readers will not be disappointed...

If an author is going to write military fiction, it should be assumed that the readers who pick up their book have more than a passing interest in military history. And that's the problem here. Once again, I want to stress that I realize that this is a novel, but Brady insists on inserting real characters and locations and so it is jarring when inaccuracies occur.

For example, he has Captain Billy Port, the derring-do hero, ask about air cover for his intrepid band of Marines as they embark on their mission. You guessed it. The Flying Tigers are mentioned (after all, the setting is China and everyone is familiar with Chennault's fliers) and their reputation for fighting discussed -- in spite of the fact that the Flying Tigers were not operational until after the outbreak of war. Further, having been stationed in Shanghai, Port should have known about the lack of available air cover. There are other errors too as he tries to broadbrush the early war in the Pacific. His mentioning other battlefronts like Singapore, the Phillipines and Wake Island is both gratuitous and frequently wrong as he misrepresents what happened there. Doesn't anyone edit for facts anymore?

The story also plods in the middle. Oh, there are occasional fire fights, strafings and run-ins with bandit warlords. But there are far too many stock characters. This novel has the plot of a B-movie or a Saturday matinee serial, albeit a shambling one. I have to admit though, Port's unexpected decapitation of a warlord is a nice scene and good touch to highlight that, as Chesty Puller allegedly said of Port, he is a "good killer."

I have no doubt that this book will sell well and, who knows, might even become a movie. If it does, the script will need some doctoring up. Brady wrote an excellent Korean War memoir and I recommend it. However, he should leave fiction alone. Of course, the fault my be mine. I have a tremendous respect for the Marines and their exploits and to see them lackadaisically treated, even in fiction and by one of their own no less, offends me.

One last issue. The book jacket contains a blurb by Dan Rather (yes, that Dan Rather), who compares the novel to something by Hemingway or Clancy. It is painfully clear that Rather has read neither of those authors! The only similarities that I can find is that printed words are used to tell the story and both of the aforementioned authors wrote novels too. Come to think of it, maybe that's what he meant... Surely he wasn't comparing style or pace.

Warning of War
A Novel of the North China Marines
By
James Brady

There is a legend within the United States Marine Corps named " Billy Port's Ride". As many legends, it has the distinct ring of truth. There are some known facts. One, there was World War II, two, there were Marines stationed in Shanghai, China at the outbreak of the war. Third, there was a "Billy Port" who had served under the command of then Major Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller in Nicaragua. Billy's full name was Captain William Hamilton Thomas "Billy" Port. James Brady has written a novel around this story that leaves you believing this legend is more than a "story".

Stationed in Shanghai, China leading up to WWII, Billy, apparently, was a colorful character, enjoying his status in Shanghai as an unmarried Marine, a commanding officer, and as someone from a Bostonian family of means. Billy enjoyed a lifestyle, supported by his civilian money and fostered by the pre-war atmosphere of Shanghai, the Imperial Hotel (a favorite hangout of Russian expatriates), and beautiful Chinese and Russian women.

In November 1941 an official "War Warning" had been issued and the Marines in Shanghai were preparing to evacuate by sea. Billy, evidently, was ordered to take a small group of Marines and head out to the hinterlands of China. Their mission was to gather up the Marines who were on assignment outside of Shanghai (in northern China), thus out of communication and not aware of the "War Warning". Billy's party left Shanghai on or about December 1, 1941. From Shanghai, Billy and his small contingent sailed on a commercial freighter to Tsingtao, then on to Tientsin. From Tientsin they traveled by rail to Peking (modern day Beijing), then began traveling by truck. They headed North from Peking early the morning of December 7, 1941, hours before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Along the way they were able to gather up some of the Marines they were searching for and were making a beeline for Russia (an ally at the time) to escape the Japanese. Their trip took them through northern China, the Gobi desert in Mongolia and to the Russian border somewhere south or southeast of Lake Baikal in Russia. The overland journey from Beijing to the Russian border was approximately 700 miles, through desert, while being chased by the Japanese Imperial Army, through warlord country, in frigid weather and without the benefit of 7-11's, Starbucks and Holiday Inn Express. Brady does an amazing job of putting you right there during the grueling travel and firefights with the Japanese and the Mongolian warlords.

Billy's group numbered about 2 dozen at its highest and arrived at the Russian border with about half that many (about half were lost to firefights). They actually crossed the Onon River (Russian border) under fire from the Japanese. They reached the Russians and were fed, housed and medically treated. From there it is a mystery. Billy and 2 of his group were picked up by the KGB and were never seen alive again. The rest of the group did make it back.

There is more to the story, however, I'm not going to spoil Brady's excellent book by providing any more details. I do have to say that you can't read this without wondering if the story is more fact than fiction. This a very different WWII story that leaves you mulling over what our previous generations actually went through during a very extreme time.

The premise for this WWII novel is excellent, however the execution is awful. This is just about the worst written historical novel I've ever read, and I've read a bunch. The story is based on a Marine Corps myth, which the author notes there is absolutely no record of, or any of the participants, in any USMC records. A number of readers seem to have totally missed this distinction, and think it really happened! Oh well... the story starts by establishing wartime Shanghai, the far eastern city of spies, where American soldiers mix with British administrators, exiled White Russians, and diplomats of all shades and stripes. When a warning of imminent war with Japan is sent out to all American forces in the weeks prior to Pearl Harbor, it becomes clear that the American units will need to retreat from China, which is largely under Japanese occupation. Although most of these troops are concentrated in various bases, there are a few isolated outposts. This is where Cpt. Billy Port, USMC comes in.

The younger son of a prominent and somewhat notorious Boston family, Port is highly regarded in the Marine Corps for his works with Gen. "Chesty" Puller in Central America. The first part of the book establishes the lush life of Shanghai and his comfortable living, including an "arrangement" with a beautiful young White Russian exile woman, and weekly tennis matches with an American-born, UCLA educated, Japanese officer. No points for guessing that the latter part of the book will pit friend against friend... When the warning of war comes, Port is tasked with traveling across China to gather up the far-flung American units, and lead them to safety. To do so, he handpicks a small unit and sets up a convoy of four trucks and his Bentley convertible for the mission.

The unit he assembles is part central casting, part improbable fancy. There's a Mexican sergeant who's gimmick is that he served with Pershing against Pancho Villa and talks about it incessently. Somehow this manages to be as equally irritating to the reader (because it's not funny), as it's meant to be to the other characters. There's "Sparky" the radio guy, the grease-monkey/mechanic, a big brave lummox carrying the heavy gun, a bunch of anonymous BAR grunts, a college-boy Naval reserve lieutenant, and (I'm not making this up!), his Chinese butler, a world-famous French race-car driver, and a White Russian alternately referred to as "General", "Count", and "Prince" Yusopov. Along the way, they pick up a female Chinese doctor, and a British Catholic priest/paleontologist. Now, an able writer (such as George MacDonald Fraser) could have had a lot of fun with this wild and wacky cast, but Brady just isn't up to it. These characters either seem to serve no discernable purpose (such as the Naval officer), or are very convenient devices (the Russian teaches the Marines how to make a Molotov cocktail and just happens to have a brother at a monastery where sanctuary is available at a critical time, the English priest just happens to know the whole country like the back of his hand and speaks the dialects, etc.).

The bulk of the book is one extended chase scene, as this motley band of brothers makes its way across the Chinese country, skirmishing with bandits, ducking Japanese Zeros, suffering in the elements, and ultimately, racing for the Soviet border. The action sequences are far and away the strongest parts, from ambushing a pursing patrol, to facing down huge bandit hordes, it's good stuff (if somewhat predictable). Alas, the bulk of the book is riddled with cliche, repetition (for example, the term "top sergeant" is explained several times), and awkwardness (for example, every time Port meets with his "staff", Brady feels compelled to run through the roll call of who is present). It's the kind of story that might work better as a film, where one is a little more forgiving of hokiness and the dialogue would be much tighter. In any event, Port's race across China is a promising idea for a story, but this book just doesn't deliver the goods.

While I am sure that the United States had military personnel many places in the world on the eve of World War II certainly those in Shanghai would appear to be trapped when the United States was attacked and declared war on the Japanese Empire. The story of Captain Port and his trek to Siberia with the adventures on the way would make a really excellent motion picture both because of the story content but because it is timely. Vietnam, the Gulf War, Kosovo, 9/11 and Afghainistan are too much with us and are difficult to digest but this story can be digested with perspective and like Casablanca would be like any great book one has read impatiently waited for to see on the screen