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Special Ops  By  cover art

Special Ops

By: W. E. B. Griffin
Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
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Publisher's summary

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 retreated 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 who was trying to keep him alive?

The brotherhood is back - Craig Lowell, Sandy Felter, Jack Portet, Geoff Craig, Robert Bellmon, George Washington "Father" Lunsford, Master Sergeant Doubting Thomas - and their mission has never been more dramatic and deadly.

©2008 W.E.B. Griffin (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Strongly reminiscent of modern American military classics From Here to Eternity and The Winds of War.… An intricately layered, epic novel." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Special Ops

Average customer ratings
Overall
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Performance
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Story
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The Congo & Che Guevara

Over the years I have read almost all of the Griffin books. He is one of my favorite military authors. I see now that all the books are being released on audiobooks. I decided to take the opportunity to read/listen to the books I had missed reading in the past. This book was on my list. W.E.B. Griffin takes a real situation based on history and inserts his fictional characters right along side the real historical people thus making the story very real. Eric G. Dove did a great job narrating the story. It is the first time I have heard him narrate. Most of Griffins books prior to this series were based on WWII stories. This series moves into the cold war period with Che Guevara the Cuban communist activist. Lots of flying and action in the story. Some foul language but no explicit sex as per Griffins usual method of writing. If you are a fan of military novels or a history buff you will enjoy this story. Griffin also is precise in following military protocols in this story including the famous military top secret memo format. In this book he sums up the ending of the story via after action reports and memos to Felter.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Lazy Author

Far too much of this book, in excess of 90 minutes of listening time is virtually cut and pasted in from the previous two books in the series. There are also a number of continuity breaks in the names of minor characters from previous books in the series such as Pork Waterford's given names. Author would also have been better served by using real names from the beginning of the series where appropriate rather than starting out with a fictional name and shifting to historically accurate names later in the series. Author did a much better job of inserting his fictional characters into historical events in his series on th Corps.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Tedious at best

Most boring W.E.B. Griffin listen ever. The incessant message traffic while OK for a print book was exasperating for an audio book. With a print book you could gloss over the message headings with an audio book you had to listen to each and every message heading about 66 aggravating times.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Never ending Act 1

What disappointed you about Special Ops?

After 14 hours of listening I feel I am still in Act 1. The plot never seems to evolve.
My biggest issue? The mispronouncing of Guevara's name. Mispronouncing a non-English name is unforgivable, particularly for an audio book! Laziness or lack of interest. And having to listen to the mispronunciation hundreds of times drove me crazy until I gave up and stopped listening.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Never got to it.

What didn’t you like about Eric G. Dove’s performance?

Did not bother to learn the proper pronunciation of Guevara.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Wasted my time...perhaps learned some historical events.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

disappointing

whole chapters have been copied word for word from previous books I think author just wanted to end the series without to much work. The final 40 mins are just reports, but no story very disappointing

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Too much recycled material, almost no action

What did you like best about Special Ops? What did you like least?

The individual characters were good, too bad they do almost nothing but talk and drink.

What could W. E. B. Griffin have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

This book has a lot of verbatim recycled material from previous book(s) in series. Not just background to get you up on the story, but literally same situations and incidents told again word by word so you have to listen through paragraphs and pages that you just heard in the previous volume or two, already knowing how it turns out. It really seems like someone else took the author's notes and previous books and hacked together an extended version of previous book, adding a few more characters and more talking and drinking, but really no action. Same problem with lots of technical errors as previous books in series.

What does Eric G. Dove bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Pretty good reader/performer so he helped.

Do you think Special Ops needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

NO!!! Unless the author will actually start with new material completely and have someone that knows a little about weapons, radios and aircraft proof the manuscript, there is no point in continuing this soap opera.

Any additional comments?

Really sad to see these last couple of books, "The Aviators" and "Special Ops" kludged together from scenes and notes probably edited out of previous books. They could have been done well, but feel more like sausage or bologna made from the sweepings.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Terrible

What disappointed you about Special Ops?

Thus book is about the brass and their silliness..............definitely not about Special Ops, I won't buy any more of his books

What was most disappointing about W. E. B. Griffin’s story?

There was no plot

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He did what he could with the material he had

What character would you cut from Special Ops?

all of them

Any additional comments?

none...........I wish I could get a refund

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

This book Sucks.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

No one. It is boring, boring, boring. I almost threw my phone against the wall in the last hour of the book it was so boring.

Has Special Ops turned you off from other books in this genre?

no

Would you be willing to try another one of Eric G. Dove’s performances?

Yes. He was excellent

What character would you cut from Special Ops?

WEB Griffin

Any additional comments?

I belive at least a quarter of the book is taken up with the same old thing. July 27, 1965 Office of the CIA station chief LaPax Bolivia 0815 hours to CIA HQ Langley Va Copy to Sandford T Felter Counselar to the President Room 234 White house office bldg washington DC and over and over again each time he changes locations. The reader is excellent but the story has too much detail on addresses of cables. I like Griffin but his whole story sucks.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

No where near as good as books 1-6

I assume anyone reading a review of book 9 has already read the first 6. If you haven't, I think it's a mistake to read book 9, under any circumstances.

If you liked the first 6, you'll also enjoy the last 3 books, but frankly, I wish I hadn't read the last 3. They tarnished the overall enjoyment. The last 3 books are mostly about covert operations in the Congo and Argentina, and there is a lot of rehash and actual reprinting of excerpts from earlier books. And the number of action reports seem to continue to increase, rather than actual story-telling. In fact, book 9 is the worst - the action reports became the primary method of story-telling, and I'll bet that over 80% of the last half of book 9 was back to back to back action reports.

I was disappointed; it felt like the author was just trying to sell books based on the success of the first 6 books, and these last 3 were a tack-on to a series that he ended after 6 books.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not his best

Too much data and too many foreign names to keep track of. I enjoyed the previous eight books in the series much more.

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1 person found this helpful