In Danger's Path (The Saga of the Corps) [Hardcover]

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.

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.