Rating: 
Summary: Familiar Characters, Familiar Story Line, But Still Great
Review: Having read everything WEB Griffin has ever written, I, like all other Griffin fans eagerly await every new book. In Griffin's latest addition to his 'Corps' series: 'In Danger's Path' (GP Putnam & Sons, 1998)Griffin uses his standard issue storyline with his cookie cutter characters to tell the story of the WWII military and the OSS (predessor to CIA) attempting to set up a weather station in the Gobi Desert. Griffin, whos personal history remains a mystery to his fans, delivers exactly what his fans crave for. His ability to stick with a winning formula guarentees 'In Danger's Path's' success. Drawbacks: The final two-thirds of the book spends a bit more time dealing with safe-guarding national secrets then it does continuing the story line. However, if you're a fan of anything Griffin has ever written, then not only should you read 'In Danger's Path', but grab his other series', 'Badge of Honor' (police stories), 'Brotherhood of War' (army aviation stories), 'Men at War' (OSS stories in Africa), and 'Honor Bound' (OSS stories in South America). Enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Just a sec...who or what is "Reed Business Information"?
Review: I'm about 250 pages into this book. It is kind of ponderous,
like most of Griffin's books have become. Raally, I don't think we need routing #'s for TWX's and teletypes, and I certainly don't need a complete synopsis of "what has gone before" in each of Griffin's series. However, the two reviews by "Reed Business Information"(THERE's a household name in literary reviews) really rubs my fur the wrong way. In the first place, the weather stations in the Gobi were "highly improbable", but they existed, and did a great job under trying conditions. In the second place, to term the name "Fleming Pickering" improbably named is just stupid. What makes this name more improbable than names such as "Stansfield Turner", "Knute Rockne", or Winston Churchill? I once had a friend whose given name...I kid you not..was Lovely Child. He went by LC. Reed Business Information is a publishing house which puts out Variety, and dozens of slick industrial mags no one ever pays to subscribe to. Perhaps this "reviewer" should concentrate on what they probably know best, namely doing lunch, and selling space in publications no one ever reads except when stuck in elevators.
By the way, I'm enjoying "Under Fire". With all of Griffin's usual name dropping, I halfway expect Craig Lowell & the cast of the Brotherhood Of War series to Guest Star. Who knows, it's still early days yet.
Rating: 
Summary: More fantasy than historical fiction
Review: As another reviewer wrote, this series has "soap opera" feel to it. It's more about flashy personalities and social elitism than real human interaction. I find it difficult to believe that this series has any correlation to the REAL experience of Marines in WWII (both stateside and overseas). Most of the characters spend a lot more time hanging out in exclusive nightclubs and drinking expensive scotch than in preparing for or engaging in combat. Even a character like Ken McCoy, who initially seems like the protoype for a self-made man and heroic warrior, eventually comes out looking more like an aristocratic playboy than the ideal fighting Marine suggesting by Volume I. To overcome the bad guys (who are usually self-important rear-echelon chairwarmers) Griffin's characters seldom rely on courage or ability - they just get themselves promoted repeatedly or find a patron who outranks their foe. It's one thing to write a story about unusual people within a realistic broader context. In THE CORPS, even the broader context degenerates into nothing but a stage for a sort of social inflation (every character in the book apparently MUST meet in person with either President Roosevelt or General MacArthur - preferrably both). And it seems that the key to getting ahead in the WWII Marine Corps is to have a father or patron who was best friends with a General when they were both enlisted men in WWI. This series would have been infinitely better if there were fewer "General Pickerings" and more "Gunny Zimmermans". Why does EVERYONE have to have a tailored uniform, special orders, a Top-Secret clearance, and a AAAAA-1 travel authorization? On a more technical level, Griffin has the EXTREMELY annoying habit of repeating entire segments of the story (often verbatim) from one volume to the next, and occasionally within the same volume! Even worse, In spite of using what is apparently the cut&past method of writing, he often changes details of these episodes between tellings. In spite of the MANY flaws of this series, these books are very readable and, at least for me, highly addictive. Overall however, THE CORPS falls far short of its potential. Griffin also has some very annoying habits that make reading the whole series much less than the sum of its parts.
Rating:
Summary: This REALLY isn't the end ,is it?
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: My enthusiasm is on the wane...
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The devil's in the abridgement
Review: I listened to the audio version, abridged. It was very boring, almost impossible to keep up with the characters, very little action, convoluted plot, ridiculous (by today's standards) love scenes over and over again with too many couples to keep track of. The abridgement may have been part of the problem. I had to finally go and read the dust jacket of the book to understand what the basic plot was: a mission in the Gobi desert by the Marines, to save a group trying to escape from the expected Japanese assault of China, and to erect a meteorology station. I guess you have to understand World War II better than I do to understand why all of this was important to the war effort. Also, it may have disadvantaged me that this is the first Griffin book I have tried, by listening or otherwise. I can see where World War II buffs might get a big kick out of these endless details, constant references to rank, with virtually nothing said about the people's physical appearances, personality traits, et cetera, so that it's really hard to tell how one General or Lieutenant Colonel differs from another, and how they all differ from each other. Well, I know the big names in the book: Roosevelt, Nimitz, MacArthur, "Wild Bill" Donovan....but I would have liked more information on one of these individuals, more focus, more of a personality or psychological study instead of this roughshod back and forth geographical moves, jumping all over the world for brief snapshots of the goings-on of the heroes of this book, womanizers for the most part. Ah jus' don' get it, Cap'n McCoy! (he's the main man, as opposed to the Generals, methinks, at least I got that much). If any of this is autobiographical, Mr. Griffin must have led a very confusing life. OCD? Diximus with feeling.
Rating:
Summary: A Waste of Time
Review: I picked up these books hoping to gain some insight into the actions of the Marine Corps in the Pacific during World War II. What I found instead was a sort of soap opera that rambles on for hundreds of pages without getting around to much actual fighting. For example, The Marines don't even get to Guadalcanal (their first major offensive) until the end of book III, some 1200 pages into the story. Those 1200 intervening pages are mostly conversations (ad nauseam) between stateside Marine Corps officers as they sit around headquarters, or go out on the town chasing skirts.
The small portion of the books that is devoted to actual battles is done in such a cursory fashion that you're left with the impression that the author either finds this aspect of the Marines' mission distasteful, or doesn't understand it well enough to write about it. Mr. Griffin could have deleted about 80% of his material, and would have ended up with better books, albeit still not good ones. If you're the sort of person who likes to watch daytime soap operas, then you may enjoy these books. If, on the other hand, you're interested in military history, the banality of these books will leave you screaming in frustration.
Rating:
Summary: Padded and talky
Review: I'm currently reading this book, almost 200 pages (!) into it, and I wonder: will the story ever get started?
This is talky, repetitive writing -- some brief flashes of insight and humor in overwritten scenes as historical characters walk on-stage, but not enough. The author's research is obvious, not skillfully woven in (to use a cliché), and often relegated to parentheses.
So far, I say, Get started with the story! It's like a military and political soap opera. Maybe things will pick up once, or if, the action begins.
Rating: 
Summary: The Action Does Not Stop In This Fast-Paced Page Turner!
Review: 'In Dangers Path' by one of today's best writers, W.E.B. Griffin, the action does not stop in this fast-paced page turner. The 8th in Mr. Griffin's 'Marine Corps' series, also, his 27th novel. The time period is set in W.W.II with such wartime leaders as; Prisedent Roosevelt, OSS' Director William Donvan, General Douglas MacArthur, Admirals Nimtz and Leahy and of course, lead character Brigadier General Fleming Pickering. Their new mission; to rescue American refugees (former servicemen) and their families who are fleeing the Japanese in the Gobi Desert. 'In Dangers Path' is a thrilling story by an amazing writer that will attract a huge audience. Also, you might enjoy Bonnie Toews "Triumph and Treason."
Rating:
Summary: This is the end?
Review: I was not too long out of the Marines myself when this series first came out. I saw the title and picked it up. It was great. McCoy was an old time Marine hero. Zimmerman could have been a non-com in my own unit. Banning was the kind of officer there are too few of but do exist. The following books were also great and, while I didn't hate this story, I was somewhat disappointed to find out that this was how we "The Corps" was ending things in WWII. The story was a bit long winded. I was expecting action and would have enjoyed a bigger emphasis on the storyline surronding the Marines and the retired servicemen in the Gobi. How did the survive? What adventures did they have? I like Fleming Pickering, but this story was too much about him. Pick came off like a snot nosed kid instead of the fighter ace that he was. I would have like to see Westons love triangle come to a conclusion. I would have liked to see some of the main characters get involved in one of the big battles of the latter part of the war. I envisioned McCoy leading a rifle company onto Iwo Jima or Okinawa (showing his stuff like Bernard Cornwells Captain Richard Sharpe) instead we get him growling about his nickname. Any real Marine knows that you don't get to pick your own nickname so deal with it and move on. I could go on and on about niggling details but suffice to say that if this book had been a prelude to an epic final conclusion story, I would have not minded the weak ending and the slow plot. It seems that "The Corps" is going to Korea next but I feel like World War II is still raging and unfinished.
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