The Generals: The Brotherhood of War

The Generals by W.E.B. Griffin

This is the first of the Brotherhood of War series by W.E.B. Griffin that left me a bit cold.  It’s not that it’s a bad story. No, this book is very similar to those in the series that precede this one.  I think it’s just starting to feel a bit old to me.  It probably doesn’t help that I’ve basically read them all back to back whereas I’m guessing they were released about a year apart.  Maybe had I spent more time between each installment, I would have enjoyed them a bit more.  They’re just too similar.

In addition, there’s a bit too many quirky things about this book that bothered me as well. It’s almost as if the author was a bit tired of the series himself and tried to do too much too soon. First, not that it really matters, but our three main characters never actually make it to “General”.  Yes, there are generals in these stories, and maybe the familiar supporting cast gets a bit more page time than the other books, but in every other book, our trio of Lowell, MacMillan, and Felter usually make it to the rank on the cover of the book somewhere in the story.

Then, this book is divided into two parts.  The first takes place around 1963, and then we abruptly jump to 1969. I never quite figured out why, nor could I figure the connection between the two parts.  At the conclusion of the book, I felt as though, again, the author was trying to just hurry up and finish the series.  I don’t know if it was his intention or not, but he did pen three additional books for this series, and in those books he went back to 1964. So maybe, in hindsight, he would have done things a bit differently.

The biggest sin in this book was that the last 70 pages or so of this book really needed about 350 pages to tell the part of the story adequately.  Griffin seems rushed.  He even concludes the book with a “where are they now” portion since he wrote the book about 17 years or so after the story ends.

Speaking of story, you know the drill by now if you’ve read any of these.  These are “military” books that mix personal with professional.  As I’ve said before, I wish these books had more combat/action as opposed to whisky and women, but Griffin still tells a good story even when he focuses on the bedroom as opposed to the battlefield.  The Craig Lowell schtick still gets old, however.  Whenever we meet a “new” woman in one of these books between the age of 20 and 50, you already know that somehow, someway, she’ll end up in bed with Lowell.  She’ll manage to be repulsed and attracted at the same time because of his wealth, arrogance, and good looks.  It’s getting a tad dry at this point.

I’m interested to read the next installments.  I felt that he left this series a bit unfinished.  I’m not sure if that was his intention, but it sure felt like it.  A good addition to the series, but far from the best.