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I used to love to read the bad-to-the-bone Rouge Warrior series by Richard Marcinko. Spinoffs of his bestselling autobiography of the same name, Marcinko cast himself as the lead hero. In a deft, no-holds barred first-person narrative, he took readers on adventures from the continental United States to Ireland.  

The first novels in the series -Red Cell, Green Team, Task Force Blue, Designation Gold, SEAL Force Alpha, Option Delta and Detachment Bravo - absolutely rocked with great action, good humor and pointed commentaries on the military establishment. He also had a mega-cool team with guys who had names like "Nasty" Nicky Gruntle, "Stevie" Wonder and others. 

Then the formula changed.   Marcinko first parted ways with co-author John Weisman and went solo for the novel Violence of Action.  Here a new team arrived in a passable adventure. Then he picked up Jim DeFelice as co-writer and together they put out Vengeance. Things turned from passable to blah.  For one thing, Marcinko suddenly turned soft when compared to his old heroic self.   

He rarely, if ever, let the bad guys get the drop on him in the first novels. At the climax of Vengeance, they do! And his resolution of it is only so-so compared to the slam-bang finales of the likes of Option Delta or Green Team.  Not only that, but Marcinko changed the formula even more by not spicing the text with point-blank commentaries on generals, admirals, politicians, etc.   This change was even more of a disapointment than the first.      

After trying one more novel after Vengeance entitled Holy Terror, you can no longer find this writer browsing for Rouge Warrior books at his local library.  Which leads to the question: How do you feel when one of your favorite authors changes his/her formula?   Does it wreck things for you or can you cope?

Article image courtesy of Barnes & Noble