The new breed

Griffin already has a high profile in Berkley paperback; his six-volume Brotherhood of War saga, a Green Beret epic spanning WW II to Richard Nixon's presidency, has more than three million copies in print. With The New Breed, the series segues into hardcover, but this is not so much a sequel as a lengthy missing chapter from volume six. In late 1963, Col. Sandy Felter, formerly JFK's private Ollie North, returns from secret missions to Vietnam and the Congo and persuades new president LBJ that the Congo is as volatile as Southeast Asia. Felter's longtime friend, Manhattan banking scion Lt. Col. Craig Lowell, helps secure a crew that can combat any rebellion. Among the cast of characters: Jack Portet, an Army private who grew up flying planes in the Congo; Marjorie Bellmon, an officer's daughter for whom Jack goes ``Top Gun''; Karl-Heinz Wagner, an East German who escaped through the Berlin Wall with his sister, Ursula; and Geoff Craig, Lowell's young Army cousin and Ursula's husband. The novel moves quickly, if somewhat disjointedly; Griffin's short-chapter, staccato style hampers continuity. He is also so entrenched in military jargon and lifestyle that the civilian reader may sometimes be confused. Those who have had some exposure to the service, however, will experience jolts of recognition in the hard-hitting narrative. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates; Military Book Club selection. (September 7) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

The first hardcover in Griffin's Brotherhood of War series (The Lieu tenants, The Captains, The Majors, etc.,): a very sluggish tale of American military skulduggery in the Congo in 1964. This new breed is a very old bunch indeed. Heading up the group is Colonel Sanford T. Felter, a presidential advisor with all kinds of secret intelligence connections. He convinces Lyndon Johnson that Communist-inspired revolt will break out at any moment in the newly independent Congo; Johnson gives Felter the go-ahead to try to stop this. Felter's handpicked team includes a young Belgian-American pilot, Jacques Portet, who grew up in the Congo; First Lieutenant Karl-Heinz Wagner, a much-decorated Vietnam vet; Lieutenant Colonel Craig Lowell, a tough military planner; and a cast of undaunted thousands. When things heat up in the Katanga province, Portet prepares to parachute in to Stanleyville with a Belgian relief force to rescue the 1600 white folk trapped by rampaging Simbas (they include, unbelievably, Karl-Heinz's wife and child); Karl Heinz, in the meantime, has hooked up with the famous mercenary ""Mad Mike"" Hoare, and is working his way overland with another fighting force. All ends happily--and with many big bangs. A novel strangely devoid of action--the first 200 pages read like a quartermaster's report as Griffin drearily details the logistics involved in putting together a covert intelligence team. There's little doubt Griffin knows his rules and regs, but his martinetish characters could've used a jolt of non-issue joie de vivre. For hard-core military buffs only. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.