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Rating: 
Summary: The Marine
Review: James Brady's novel is a good read. It follows the World War 2 to Korean War fictional career path of a U.S. Marine Colonel named James "Oliver" Cromwell. A military boxing champion, he serves with a marine raider battalion, and later serves as an ambassadors aide; many traditional marine officers view his career with envy and suspicion. Therefore, Colonel Cromwell never realizes a personal goal to command a battalion in combat. The author does not pull his punches in describing the 1942 flawed Makin Island raid by Carlson's Raiders. Brady also ignores political correctness by pointing out the dismal combat record of the Army's 24th Infantry Regiment during the Korean War, "an all black unit with mostly white officers and lousy morale." Brady does error in citing the 4 th Marines "as men who would die" during the infamous World War 2 Bataan Death March. The 4 th Marines were defending Corregidor Island at the time of the Death March. Brady also errors citing Marine paratroopers making a combat jump and "floating down" over Guadalcanal. These marines fought with great valor on Guadalcanal, but "floated in " and hit the beach by boat.
Rating: 
Summary: "Smoke if you got 'em . . . "
Review: A central issue to the novelist's tools is that you like the main character. This is nearly a responsibility more than just a style. In fiction, certainly the tale can be told with a main character you wouldn't want go on vacation with. But generally, you should feel some passion about him/her and about the struggles they endeavor to resolve. Not so with Lieutenant Colonel Cromwell. I have enjoyed many of the Jim Brady books. I thoroughly liked the wry humor and courage and depth and loyalty of Billy Port in "Warning of War," and read the final 25 pages of "The Marines of Autumn" with a lump in my throat recognizing the pain and suffering of Tom Verity and his Marine translators during the breakout from Chosin Reservoir. I couldn't replicate those feelings for Jim Cromwell. Here was a man about whom an epic could have been written. If there were novels about men at war that we wanted shorther, here was one we clearly wanted stretched. It had all the earmarks of an epic: New York to South Bend to Berlin to Camp Pendleton to Makin to Tarawa to Iwo, then to South Korea. But instead, Colonel Cromwell is shallow, almost superficial. He has the feelings, he just can't express them. We're not expecting 'it was a dark and stormy night,' but in 20 years he has 3 contacts with women that last less than 2 pages, and his most insightful dialogue about the meaning of what Orwell's 'the hard men' do, is with Gunnery Sergeant Arzt, who, like Cromwell's eventual injuries, dies offstage somewhere with litle pomp nor circumstance. Overall, it had great potential and I can't help but think it could have been longer and more substantial, instead of leaner and more sparse. I'll still read Jim Brady; this one fell short of his own standards.
Rating: 
Summary: A terrific read.
Review: Brady's latest work, The Marine, is a spectacular novel. I fully enjoyed reading it the entire time. It begins as the main charachter, Lt. Col. James T. Cromwell, is heading for college at Notre Dame, and follows him through his days as a boxer, and then as a raider and as a regular marine. His charachter inspired me and fueled my interest in the Marines with his life like bravery and fearlessness. While the main charachter is quite unorthodox, Cromwell is exactly what the marines want in their men. This is a must read for any war novel buff.
Rating:
Summary: A terrific read.
Review: Brady's latest work, The Marine, is a spectacular novel. I fully enjoyed reading it the entire time. It begins as the main charachter, Lt. Col. James T. Cromwell, is heading for college at Notre Dame, and follows him through his days as a boxer, and then as a raider and as a regular marine. His charachter inspired me and fueled my interest in the Marines with his life like bravery and fearlessness. While the main charachter is quite unorthodox, Cromwell is exactly what the marines want in their men. This is a must read for any war novel buff.
Rating:
Summary: A solid adventure yarn
Review: I have read all of Brady's Marine books (Warning of War, Marines of Autumn, The Coldest War, and this.) "The Marine" is a solid adventure yarn chronicling the career of one Lt. Col. James T. Cromwell, an Olympic boxer who "met" Hitler, a WWII Marine Raider of repute, and a frustrated babysitter of MacArthur in the opening stages of the Korean conflict. This book cements the credentials of James Brady as a military storyteller and is well worth the time and money. However, with my own Marine background, I found one aspect of the text RFI (real blank irritating). There are constant references to artillery as .105mm and .155mm etc. This is just like refering to an eight inch naval cannon as a .8 inch gun. Changes the mental image just a bit, eh? I sincerely hope that this is simply the work of an ignorant editor, but I hope for better in the future.
Rating:
Summary: A solid adventure yarn
Review: I have read all of Brady's Marine books (Warning of War, Marines of Autumn, The Coldest War, and this.) "The Marine" is a solid adventure yarn chronicling the career of one Lt. Col. James T. Cromwell, an Olympic boxer who "met" Hitler, a WWII Marine Raider of repute, and a frustrated babysitter of MacArthur in the opening stages of the Korean conflict. This book cements the credentials of James Brady as a military storyteller and is well worth the time and money. However, with my own Marine background, I found one aspect of the text RFI (real blank irritating). There are constant references to artillery as .105mm and .155mm etc. This is just like refering to an eight inch naval cannon as a .8 inch gun. Changes the mental image just a bit, eh? I sincerely hope that this is simply the work of an ignorant editor, but I hope for better in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Pour a tall beer and get a bowl of kim chee because . . .
Review: James Brady is taking you back to Korea. This novel is written in a somewhat different style than "Warning of War" and "The Marines of Autumn." It somewhat more folksy with shorter chapters but reads well. It tells the story of a Marine from his formative days as a boxer at Notre Dame to serving in several roles as a lieutenant colonel during the first part of the Korean Conflict. Brady's novels about the Corps always feature some unusual historical elements and this one has more than the others. The main character faces different kinds of issues than the those in the other Brady novels. For example, while his career progresses nicely, ironically it is haunted by serving a span as a young officer in Carlson's Raiders (an elite unit viewed with suspicion by many cadre). The book gives a good feel for the various conflicts it describes and for the career of the bachelor Marine officer.
Rating: 
Summary: I've seen better...
Review: James Brady knows more than I ever possibly could about being a Marine and fighting a war. I read Brady's Parade column every week, I know he served in Korea as a rifle company commander and he would know best what life was like in the Korean War, but this book is just awful. Imagine several hundred pages of the same choppy newspaper style writing he uses in his columns. Add to this a soulless main character, a tiresome running joke about meeting Hitler and no suspense or drama in the story and you have a disastrous book.
Rating:
Summary: good story bad details
Review: Once again Mr Brady writes agood story, but gets some details screwed up. [1] A Marine CWO is referred to as GUNNER, not chief or gunny; [2] Marines do not wear fatigues, they wear utilities.
vERY GOOD ACCOUNT OF MAKIN ISLAND FIASCO, HOWEVER HE NEGLEGLECTED TO MENTION THAT THE RAIDERS' REMAIN WERE BURIED IN ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETARY BEFORE THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN, ABOUT 60 YEARS TO THE DAY OF THE RAID. BIG ERROR1
Rating:
Summary: A good book
Review: The bottom line with discretionary spending is "is this worth the money?" With this book the answer is yes. Terrific leisure reading that comes across with great authenticity.
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