The Fighting Agents (Thorndike Paperback Bestsellers)

Rating:
Summary: a return to classic Griffin military/intel writing
Review: After some lackluster recent efforts, Griffin reminds us why he's considered one of the most capable military fiction authors out there.

Excitement level is good; as is often the case, Griffin takes us to a new region (Yugoslavia/Hungary) and shows good area and language knowledge. He leaves the future and survival of one of the main characters of the series in real doubt throughout most of the book. The recent tendency of Griffin to be over-reliant on sex and infidelity as themes is absent. Either the original version (of which this is a republishing) lacked those themes, or it was rewritten. Either way, the romantic stuff doesn't detract from the storytelling, which is classic Griffin.

As a bonus, we see some of the less-emphasized characters of the series gain development and fullness. The afterword, which I will not spoil for you except to say that it refers to Griffin's real world acquaintance with historical figures, is revealing and interesting.

If you've read the first three, this is a strong continuation. If you have not, the whole series is worth your time and money.

Rating:
Summary: The Fighting Agents - A Great W.E.B. Griffin Starter Series
Review: For those who have not tried W.E.B. Griffin because they don't wish to commit to reading 9 volumes in The Corps or Brotherhood of War series, I highly recommend trying this 4-book series (#1 Last Heroes, #2 Secret Warriors, #3 Soldier Spies, and #4 Fighting Agents). While I would love to see future installments of the Men at War Series, I thought that Griffin does a very good job of "wrapping up" with The Fighting Agents. I enjoyed it the most out of the 4 in this particular series because I felt that it was more operational and thus contained more action and suspense.

Rating:
Summary: Left me wanting more
Review: This was a great book, but it was definately the weakest of the series. Splitting Whittaker and Canidy into seperate story threads may have made sense, but it diluted both stories and the breaks between the two threads seemed contrived.

The treatment of minor characters like Lt. Cdr. Dolan and Joe Kennedy is, once again, one of the major draws to this series. The main characters are excellent, as always, but it is usually the secondary characters who flesh out the story lines.

I would have to say that Griffin's treatment of women is uneven, at best, in this series. The emergence of Charity Hoche as a genius/super analyst is unbelievable, due to the lack of a convincing setup, and is quite irritating. Her whole character seems to be contrived, and it seems Griffin makes her a "genius" to make up for using her as a sex object. While it might be possible to put those two characteristics together, Griffin fails.

Griffin also continues his theme that his hero is always right, especially, if the big wigs disagree with him. Canidy's "rogue" actions rank right up there with Killer McCoy (in The Corps). Just once, it would be good if the over cocky hero would screw up really bad.