Call to Arms (The Corps, Book 2) Review

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(More customer reviews)If you buy a W E B Griffin novel looking for shootin' and lootin' combat action, you'll probably be a little disappointed. For new readers, I strongly recommend the first two volumes of The Corps series. As an ensemble, the characters are the most compelling of Griffin's works and the stories follow a mostly historical time line. Readers whose view of WWll comes from old B&W movies may find the carousing a little rugged although the "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now" generation will find the sex and drinking pretty conventional.
Griffin provides his readers a slightly different angle or angles, offering multiple intertwined stories which are more or less connected within the context of the whole. Sometimes, this works well, sometimes less so, depending really upon how well he manages to tie the whole thing together in the last few pages.
If this appeals to you there are a couple of other things you may want to consider before beginning your journey into Griffin's micro version of history. The most obvious is that the books are written in series form, "The Corps", Brotherhood of War", "Honorbound", etc, and while you probably will want to read them in their proper order, (numbered for your convenience, Book l, Book ll, and so on), you may find reading them straight through a bit wearisome. This is due to the Author's practice of bringing new readers up to speed on the reoccurring characters, (reading the story on Ken McCoy's nickname for the third or fourth time, if done in too short a time frame, is off putting).
Another artistic conceit is Griffin's love of the "small world phenomena", (think Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon), all of his primary cast not only know each other through family, or business associations, or mutual friends or a shared experience, they somehow manage to be tied to famous persons of the time. To enjoy the Griffin books you'll just have to suspend reality a bit and just go with it. Get used to guest appearances by "Dugout Doug MacArthur and FDR.
You also may be a little impatient with some of the editing and although most folks who read these as military or history buffs won't mind the routine technical references to uniforms, weapons, rations, and other gear, the casual reader might. I found the earliest "Corps" and "Brotherhood" stories strongest and his later work, and the "Badge of Honor" series to be a little less focused.

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W.E.B. Griffin's epic story of the Marine Corps continues with an elite fraternity known as the Raiders taking form after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

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