[Cecil Williams]

The nine separate novels of this series are the only purely Romantic Fiction that I have encountered in my seventy years of searching for Heroic fiction. I do not enjoy sex and violence and chase scenes and cliffhanger moments in the pop canon and focus on whether or not the author has created larger than life protagonists who stun the mainstream with their feats and their characterization. WEBG does this in spades in the Corps Series.

The first protagonist we meet is a ‘China Marine’ of the U.S. Marine Corp in 1939, Ken McCoy, Stationed in Shanghai. The reader does this in the first Novel, ‘Semper Fi.’ Ken purposely acquires language skills and is ruthless when mission or self defense requires it – and only then. [Note to J.M.: At this point I looked for a method of italicising the last phrase! Cecil] His friends called him, ‘Killer’ Ken McCoy. Later in the book he meets a young lady, Ernestine (Ernie) Sage and both fell madly in love.

The nine books, http://webgriffin.com/series_corps.html, read in order of publication follow Ken and Ernie and a few more people in their missions through WWII in the Pacific and the Korean war. Ken accomplishes those missions, confounding those up the chain of command that he could actually do that. Ernie Sage, successful in her right as an Advertising copywriter on Madison Avenue, forsakes that to be with and support Ken McCoy, her greatest value. She appears throughout the nine books and I fell in love with her – and I am still in love with her! – during the second book.

I highly recommend the nine books read in order of publication.

For those looking for ‘friends’ in literary characters, I recommend those nine WEBG books, Starting with ‘Semper Fi.’

[Jean Moroney Binswanger]

Thanks, Cecil! The abillity to put in italics, etc. is broken at the moment. It should be fixed within a few days, and you can come back and edit.

[JimSmith]

I, too, thoroughly enjoyed this series and highly recommend it.

What heightened the drama for me was knowing that while the characters are fictional, many, if not all, of the situations that confront them parallel actual events and conditions.

[CedarBristol]

I started reading his Brotherhood of War series when I was a Private at Ft. Campbell back in the 90’s, every clothing sale store on every post I’ve been to has most of Griffin’s (William Edmund Butterworth III) books.  It didn’t really reach me until after I got out.  His books are always set in the officers’ world, which wasn’t mine, and they are more about the development of the organization along with technology and world events than about battlefield action.  At 19, this didn’t pull me in.  At 23, I couldn’t stop reading.  At 41, I just recently re-read Brotherhood of War, and wondered why it was only my 2nd time.

The Badge of Honor series about Philadelphia cops was the first one that I re-read, and still high on the list.  

The only weak point in all of his books is that the stories have been handed off to the Author’s son who is continuing them.  The Badge of Honor series takes place in the 1970’s, and then gets updated with the same characters at the same ages only in the present day.  

[Author]

Posts