Rating: 
Summary: The Killer Angels
Review: Good story. Fascinating characters. Very good job of describing the strategies involved and the action of battle.
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I read this book for my 8th grade advanced English class. The Killer Angels is one of the few books that I actually liked even though it was required. I really enjoyed the manner in which Shaara tells the story, in everyone's perspective. It's awesome!!!
Rating: 
Summary: The Killer Angels
Review: The Killer Angels is a detailed recreation of one of the bloodiest battles of American history. The Killer Angels won the Pulizer Prize and printed more then two million copies. Author of Battle Cry Freedom, James M. McPherson, said it was, "My favorite historical novel... A superb recreation of the Battle of Gettsburg." The Seattle Times claims, "Shaara carries [the reader] swiftly and dramatically to a climax as exciting as if it were being heard for the first time."
The dialogues are very detailed and recreates the manner of which one of the 1800s would address another. The novel includes detailed maps for the reader to fully understand the situation of the warring parties. The book includes true stories and actual accounts. Such as Chamberlain's regiment, the 20th of Maine and their heroic stand.
I enjoyed reading the dialogues between the officers of both the Union and the Confederates. Shaara gave realistic reasons for the concerns expressed by the officers. I reccomend this book for those interested in American history and war novels.
Rating: 
Summary: A Killer Book!
Review: Michael Shaara's "Killer Angels" is a great book. It one the Pulitzer Prize, sold over 2.5 million copies, and spent weeks on the bestseller lists. Ken Burns credits the book as bringing the battle of Gettysburg alive. Norman Schwarzkopf says it is the best and most historic novel of war he has ever read. It is just great.I read the book myself in 1 day, it is that captivating. This is just after watching Burns' Civil War, and then the movie Gettysburg (which is based on Killer Angles). The book is that rich with details and insight. When you finish the book you'll surely want to read the other books in the trilogy -- "Gods and Generals", and "The Last Full Measure" so you might as well buy all 3 at once. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Best book on Gettysburg, fiction or nonfiction
Review: Michael Shaara begins this historical novel with a letter to the reader: "Stephen Crane once said that he wrote THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE because reading the cold history was not enough; he wanted to know what it was like to be there, what the weather was like, what men's faces looked like. In order to live it he had to write it. This book was written for much the same reason."
Shaara uses shifting viewpoints to introduce us to some of the more well-known characters, to take us inside their heads. There's Lee, of course, and James Longstreet, who'd disapproved of the invasion of the North. George Pickett, George Meade, Winfield Scott Hancock, they're all here, but Shaara also takes the time to focus on the lesser knowns, such as General John Buford, who chose the high ground on which the battle was to be fought and the most compelling character, Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. A professor of rhetoric prior to the war, he seems the least likely hero, but at Little Roundtop, with his troops about to be overrun by Longstreet's troops, he directs his troops to "Fix bayonets" and orders a right wheel forward of the whole regiment, routing the confederates.
Another engaging story is that of Confederate General Lewis Armistead, whose friendship with Union General Winfield Scott Hancock is dramatized when Armistead dies during Pickett's charge.
Shaara's ending ties a neat ribbon on things as it lists all of the surviving characters and what became of them after the battle. Ironically, Chamberlain dies of his wounds. At the age of eighty-three.
You can't go wrong with this one; it's the best book on Gettysburg I've read, fiction or nonfiction.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Very Best
Review: The Killer Angels is a moving and dramatic historical novel. You will taste the hot July dust in your mouth, smell the gunpowder and blood, and feel the tremor of the artillery and the terror of battle in Sharra's very personal portrait of both West Point-trained officers (fighting on opposite sides) and farm boy soldiers. You should visit the battlefield at Gettysburg after reading this incredibly vivid true story. This is a book you'll read, re-read, and give to your friends.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: What can be said about this book that hasn't already been said? It has to rate as one of the best accounts of historical fiction ever printed. Michael Shaara successfully gets into the minds of some of the principle characters of the battle of Gettysburg and displays their thoughts and fears. This is a great book certain to stimulate your interest in the Civil War.
Rating:
Summary: Brings Our Deadliest War to Life
Review: To citizens of these United States, the Civil War was the defining event in our nation. It was a war of battles with evocative names: Bull Run, Antietam, Vicksburg, Gettysburg... Perhaps the war was about slavery, perhaps it was about the clash between an industrial democracy and a planting autocracy. But what was it really like? Even the best historians fail to make compelling their descriptions of battle. It all starts to sound like business prose. We know there were real issues on the ground, real death and fear and dreadful mistakes. We know, too, that some battles were decisive, and perhaps we are given numbers - numbers dead, and so on. But unless you know how read those numbers and descriptions of troop movements (unless you yourself have toiled in the mud and trenches, or had to make choices that meant death for somebody), it all comes to seem like a company's annual report does to most of us, like figures with no blood in them. The Killer Angels tells us things about the battle of Gettysburg that a history book cannot. It puts us into the minds of a few key people in the Union and Confederate armies, and it puts us on the ground during those murderous three days. We learn to look from eye level, we get some feel for the constant presence of death. We see devout soldiers, and soldiers who are willing to die without any hope of a heaven. We learn what it was like at Gettysburg, and why failures of character mattered. Michael Shaara's method was to go back to the original sources - the letters and memoirs and diaries of those who were there - to find a more personal truth about the war. This is a targeted book without the pretensions of a "great" novel. It is focused in intent and rather simple in structure. It shows those days of the battle (and the agonizing nights) through the eyes of a few of the key officers of the Confederacy and a couple of junior officers of the Union. This was an interesting decision but, I think, appropriate: to a great extent, the South lost the fight because of Lee's decisions, and the North held because of those junior officers. But read this book, and draw your own conclusions. You will never think of the Civil War as mere "history" again.
Rating:
Summary: Doom on the over Confident!
Review: My knowledge of the ACW (American Civil War)and specifically The battle of Gettysburg was limited to the one American history class and various familiarity with the Generals from ACW board games. But, after reading The Killer Angels I have an enormous respect for every American (Northern and Southern) whom fought in this battle. I realize this is historical fiction and opinions of precise personalities may be of debate, but the battle events I feel were historically accurate. In my opinion, Lee's overconfidence of his rebel yelling high morale troops was his doom in this battle. Lee should have listened to his general's opinions and suggestions. Although, I recognize that I am a mere novice and realize how easy it is to be a critic when I have not lived a day in Lee's shoes. I will look forward to reading Jeff Shaara's 'Gods and Generals' which will hopefully enlighten me to the feel of that era.
Rating:
Summary: A Compelling Call to Self-Evaluation
Review: I have read this book twice, with almost five years between each endeavor. I took away something a little different each time, and I am wondering what reaction the third effort will one day produce. The Civil War became a real event in ways hard to explain after my first reading. Never had I been so affected by an historical novel. The second reading left me with questions still unanswered - especially since I am a product of arguably one of the most selfish and self-centered generations/cultures in the history of he world. What manner of man suffered hardships almost unthinkable by today's standards just to reach the scene of battle, and then, exhausted from two days of battle, willingly marched over a mile's distance toward an almost certain violent death? All for a principle and a "cause" - flawed, yet compelling beyond anything most of us today will ever imagine or understand. Unfortunately, no one really seems to care that much about anything any more (except for themselves). Shaara's insights as to what motivated the soldiers of that era were quite revealing, and a major part of what made his work so gripping. I was constantly asking myself, what would I have done in their place? Would I have had the courage of Buford, Chamberlain, Armistead, and Pickett, and their men, in the same circumstances - against overwhelming odds? Perhaps if history were always taught from such a personal perspective, more Americans would be interested in learning about it, and fewer of the past's mistakes would be repeated. One of the most memorable and compelling books I have ever read, on any topic. I highly recommend it.
|
