Special Ops: Brotherhood of War Series, Book 1
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Synopsis
W E B Griffin published his last Brotherhood of War series novel, The Aviators, in 1988. Yet there was always at least one more story he wanted to tell - and here it is. In November 1964, Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara went to the Congo with two hundred men, intent on making it his first step in taking over Africa and South America. He failed, thanks in large part to the efforts of an intrepid band of Green Berets. Licking his wounds he returned to Cuba to recruit more men and try the same thing in Bolivia. He failed there, too. In fact he died there, and thus, despite his incompetence, became a glorious martyr to the cause. But who was trying to kill him, really? And why was the USA trying to keep him alive? W E B Griffin has some surprises up his sleeve, and as he takes us through the twists and turns of Special Ops he spins a story of devilish cunning and thrilling adventure.
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1. By Direction of the President; by Command of His Royal Highness, the King of the Belgians; and at the request of the government of the Republic of the Congo, a Joint Belgian-American Operation, "OPERATION DRAGON ROUGE," will take whatever military action is necessary to effect the rescue of American, Belgian and other European nationals currently being held hostage in Stanleyyille, Republic of the Congo, by forces in rebellion against the legal and duly constituted government of the Republic of the Congo. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
1. By Direction of the President; by Command of His Royal Highness, the King of the Belgians; and at the request of the government of the Republic of the Congo, a Joint Belgian-American Operation, "OPERATION DRAGON ROUGE," will take whatever military action is necessary to effect the rescue of American, Belgian and other European nationals currently being held hostage in Stanleyyille, Republic of the Congo, by forces in rebellion against the legal and duly constituted government of the Republic of the Congo. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The new novel from W.E.B. Griffin fills in some of the gaps in the Brotherhood of War series. Some of the material at the beginning is repeated from the Aviators, but is necessary to make sense of the story. There are some inconsistences, with Jack Portet at Bellmon's Xmas party, instead of Joseph Newall, and some mixing up between Jack and Johnny Oliver. It was good, however, to see that Majorie & Jack had a good ending to their story though.
It was great to see characters from earlier books being brought together, and the storyline was interesting, although I must admit the use of Top Secret messages got a little annoying to read. I had re-read most of the earlier books before I read this one, and so probably noticed the inconsistences easily, becuase the earlier books were fresh in my mind.
However, it was good to have a re-visit to Griffin's original series, and basically teh completion of it. I am now hoping that Griffin will complete the Corps series, and possibly add more books the Badge of Honor series.
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I have read most of the books by W.E.B. Griffin, he uses the acts of history and give you the reader a great series of books to enjoy.
I recommend them to you all.
I recommend them to you all.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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51 reviews
26 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Who actually wrote this story
25 Jan 2001
Format:Hardcover
After reading all the positive reviews for this book, I feel like maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. But I can't help thinking that somebody else contributed heavily to this book. It just doesn't feel like Griffin's dialogue. And who edited this book? Johnny Oliver and Jack Portet get mixed up, and I thought the version of the M16 used by Special Forces soldiers during that era was known as the CAR 15...(Griffin calls it a Car 16) As usual, Griffin has changed the story line from past books to make things fit into this story. (Take a close look with how he has played with Lowell's and Felter's pasts) And why can't Guevara actually be used in the story instead of being referred to in dozens of Top Secret messages? I don't know....I really like Griffin's Corps Series...and all the other Brotherhood books I thoroughly enjoyed...but this one was a struggle just to finish. But it's nice to see the characters brought back to life. I hope that if he does so again the story will flow a little more smoothly.
21 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Griffin has written better books
15 Mar 2002
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Griffin has written twenty books better than this, including the first half dozen books in the Brotherhood of War Series (this title is number 9 in the series) plus the eight titles in his Marine Corps series "The Corps." I would suggest that a new reader of Griffin start with the first book in one of these series and read them in order.
"Special Ops" is about the attempt of the U.S. military to defeat and discredit Che Guevara's revolutionary ambitions in the Congo in the mid-1960s. It might have been a great book had Che been a living, breathing character, rather than being seen only from afar.
Griffin seems tired of his old military heros, the best of whom is Craig Lowell, who is brave, good-looking, intelligent, irresistible to women, and filthy rich. Somehow, despite all that, you still like Craig, whose shortcomings are that he's always in trouble and gets more medals than he does promotions. He is still around in this book, but Griffin focuses on a younger group of soldiers who are only only bleary, second-rate copies of the original Craig Lowell.
Griffin's strong point has been the authenticity he has been able to bring to U.S. military culture. However, in "Special Ops" Griffin seems to have pulled out of a hat all his old literary tricks and reused them, changing the characters and the scenes a bit but relying on the tried and true -- and the now trite for readers familiar with his other books. Moreover, he makes mistakes, probably due to haste, as other reviewers have pointed out.
Don't read this book. Read the first book in Griffin's series, "The Lieutenants" or the first book in his Marine Corps series, "Semper Fi." At his best, Griffin is a great writer about war and the U.S. military, but "Special Ops" is not one of his best books.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Romance, Intrigue, and Green Berets
15 Feb 2001
Format:Hardcover
W. E. B. Griffin is a very prolific, and very popular, writer. He has five series currently in place: The Brotherhood of War, The Corps, Badge of Honor, Honor Bound, and Men at War. (The Men at War series was published originally under the pseudonym of Alex Baldwin, and was not carried to conclusion. Republished in hardcovers under Griffin's name, it has been very successful-maybe Griffin will now finish the story line.) The Brotherhood of War series really established Griffin as a popular writer, and was carried to its conclusion. He later wrote a new entry, The Aviators, which was roughly coincident with the series' main line book The Berets. He now repeats that with another companion piece set in the 1960's - Special Ops. Special Ops revisits (rehashes) some of the action from both The Berets and The Aviators, but in Griffin's "episodic" style these sections repeating those from the other books fit right in and make the current story coherent. Leaving them out would leave gaps for those who have not read, or have forgotten, the previous books. The "new" story is about a detachment of Special Forces troops, many of whom were met in the other books, who mount a clandestine operation to defeat, and discredit, Che Guevara's attempt to export Cuban communist revolution to Central Africa. Sandy Feltner, one of the ongoing characters in the series, is an intelligence counselor to President Johnson (as he has been to Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy). He sees the risk Guevara poses, while the CIA does not, and proposes Army-based covert operations aimed at embarrassing Guevara while foiling him, rather than assassinating him and thus creating a martyr. Griffin's sometimes contemptuous treatment of the CIA is interesting, given his usually favorable treatment of the OSS in Men at War and Honor Bound stories. As always, Griffin honors the warriors and their supporters while spinning an interesting tale. He also connects well with his Argentinean research (the Honor Bound series). The ending is conclusive, if perhaps flawed by relying on printed reports and messages rather than direct narrative. On balance, Special Ops is a very satisfying addition to the Griffin bookshelf, and a nice reminder of the old series. It would be nice to see The Corps brought to its conclusion, however, and save revisiting a "completed" series. And isn't it past time for a new Badge of Honor story?
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