The New Breed

Rating:
Summary: A Fine, Stand-Alone Addition to a Solid Series
Review: "The Brotherhood of War" series is really six books, beginning in 1944 with "The Lieutenants" and ending in 1970 with "The Generals." This book, though nominally #7 in the series, is (like "The Aviators," nominally #8) not so much a part of the series as a stand-alone adjunct to it. Major characters from the first six books (Craig Lowell, Sandy Felter) are supporting characters here, and the focus is on characters that didn't exist (or received limited attention) in the main series.

One happy result of this is that, although "The New Breed" *can* be read as part of the original series (Note: Descriptions of it as a "prequel" to "The Generals" notwithstanding, it's really read better *after* that book) it also works perfectly well as a stand-alone novel. Fans of the series will see dimensions in the Craig Lowell/Geoff Craig relationships that first-timers won't, but those nuances aren't critical to enjoying the story.

The story proper is about U. S. Army intervention in the former Belgian Congo during its post-independence civil war . . . an aspect of the Cold War that most Americans know about only from an old Tom Lehrer lyric about making peace "the way we did in Stanleyville and Saigon." Griffin makes good use of the post-colonial setting, and Col. Michael "Mad Mike" Hoare, a famous leader of mercenaries in the real world, makes a credible supporting character. The three leading fictional characters, Karl-Heinz Wagner, Geoffrey Craig, and Jacques "Jack" Portet are all drawn well enough to be interesting, and Griffin uses Wagner (an East German defector) and Portet (a Belgian-American airline pilot who gets drafted) to say some thoughtful things about loyalty and cultural differences.

What really makes a novel like this stand or fall, however, is the quality of the plot, and here (perhaps sensing that he's writing a stand-alone story) Griffin does better than usual at creating a story arc that lasts through the whole book, ties the characters together, and comes to a satisfying conclusion.

This is (like Griffin's other books) more a "military procedural" than a slam-bang, shoot-em-up "war story." That may disappoint some readers (try Wilbur Smith's "Dark of the Sun" or "Cry Wolf") but it's true to the characters and material in a way that extravagant violence wouldn't be. Recommended

Rating:
Summary: Great War Story
Review: Excellent. All his war storied I have read over and over, sitting and laughing a great deal, and feeling for the problems of dealing with the military, as I know them. Great adventure, too.

Rating:
Summary: Somethings fishy in Denmark...
Review: I've enjoyed W.E.B. Griffin's books over the years but I'm none too sure of this or any of his newer books in the series (after the Colonels). While it's fiction and Griffin is allowed to rewrite history but it's annoying when he rewrites his own fictional history. Case in point, long time readers know how Craig Lowell received his promotion to Lieutenant so that he could play polo just after WWII. Yet in this book we're told that he received it as a battlefield commission in Greece. It's as good a read as any of the other books he's written but it seems he wasn't paying a lot of attention to his own source material while writing it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This is yet another great book in the Brotherhood of Arms series. The characters are great and I got a real feel for military life.

Rating:
Summary: I'd give it two-and-a-half stars if I could
Review: This series is still nothing more than an Army soap opera, but this particular book is saved from my fiercer wrath because it deals with one of my own personal areas of intrest (the Cold War as it effected sub-Saharan Africa) which is usually unreported and ignored. At least Griffin put the effort in to know the background and some of the players involved in the chaotic atmosphere that was post-colonial Africa, even if the story is as syrupy as the rest of the series.