Rating: 
Summary: Great First Effort!
Review: It is obvious that President Carter did thorough research to fill this book full of interesting details about the Revolutionary War Days. One gets a feeling for the viciousness of this period...of the hate of the British and the vast misunderstandings among the people that led to tragic bloodshed.
Through his main character, Ethan Pratt, one sees the good, the bad and the ugly of the period. I enjoyed most what Ethan through of the confusion around him, and how he dealt with war and family issues. Character development could have been a little stronger, but it was a great first effort!! I'm a big Jimmy Carter fan. He was one of my favorite US presidents, if not my favorite. I remember during my high school and college years watching Carter on TV and hoping his decisions would turn out to be the right ones. I was really pulling for him and felt so proud of the efforts he made in the middle east. Nice guys sometimes finish last, but they can still be good role models. Carter is a great model for what a president can achieve following his presidency, a full and very productive post-Washington period of time. Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown-Eyed Boy"
Rating:
Summary: **sigh**
Review: It is unfortunate that some people cannot overlook their remarkable political bias when writing a review of a novel. Those who are so obviously foisting upon others their own political views and agendas should refrain from attempts at "unbiased" criticism.
Rating: 
Summary: More history than novel
Review: It's hard to bring myself to the point of criticizing someone as important, respected and truly talented as President Carter. I have the utmost respect for the man and his entire career, not to mention his literary oeuvre. But let's keep in mind that President Carter is an engineer by academic training, having studied at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Naval Academy. Nobody is going to confuse him with John Steinbeck, nor should they. This book reads like a history book rather than a novel. It's meticulously researched and well written, but President Carter just doesn't have the talent of metaphor that, say, Faulkner has. And that's a tall order, I know. That said, keep in mind that the President's prose isn't going to rivet you to your seat and his plot isn't going to keep you on the edge of it. The book seems to accomplish its purpose of vividly portraying the period and place, but it does so in relatively unpolished form. And perhaps most importantly, the book captures the President's enthusiasm and what historian Daniel Boorstin would call "amateur spirit"--something we truly miss in a world of hyper-specialization and professionalism. President Carter is Georgia's ambassador to the world, and he is deserving of our attention. His literary endeavors are sincere and impressive. He's a true renaissance man, and a crystal clear voice in a confusing and troubled time.
Rating: 
Summary: majorly lacks character devolpment.....
Review: It's obvious that Jimmy did extensive research for the book and it could have been a really interesting read for that reason except that Jimmy did a lot of telling rather than showing, a very elementary rule not to be broken in fiction writing. Parts of the book are also overly repetitive. Often I was informed of the same fact over and over, and I had only read as far as page 50... His book reads more as an outline and a catalog of historical details. It may be hard to be in the hotseat as the editor of this book, but it is truly a shame that the editor did not do his or her job in editing. If only it could have been polished up a little bit before publishing, by fleshing out the characters more, eliminating the repetiveness and the political correctness, it would have been a more enjoyable read.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book, from one who normally does not like Fiction
Review: It's true that a beginning writer would have had a difficult time in finding a publisher for this book. It didn't hurt that Mr. Carter was once our President. However, to write a book like this, you have to have knowledge and compassion - I could never imagine some of our other former Presidents even trying to write anything like this - Johnson, Nixon, Clinton or the Bushes? Read this book, as it is entertaining, enjoyable, and if nothing else, a book you can learn from.
Rating:
Summary: Great Research
Review: Jimmy Carter has done an admirable job of research on a part of the Revolutionary War that has most of us know little about. Unfortunately, Jimmy Carter's first-rate research is undone by his limited skills as a writer - especially a writer of fiction. It is ultimately a great deal like his presidency: the best of intentions, a good mind, and poor results.
Rating:
Summary: Well-researched, but disappointing
Review: Let me begin by saying something I shouldn't have to - I think that Jimmy Carter was a fine president at a difficult time, and I think that any person in that office at that time would have had an equally difficult time. I also think that Mr. Carter is a fine, decent, honorable man, and the most scholarly of our ex-Presidents. I understand that he is a fine writer of non-fiction works. That said... I was looking forward to this novel about a time and a place not often explored in literature. Most Americans (and Americans are virtually the only audience for historical fiction set in this time and place) know very little about the Revolutionary War in the American South; Mr. Carter had every chance to shine here, with few competitors. His name will bring people in to read the book, and he had a fine opportunity to educate as well as entertain. He knows his time, his place, and his subject well. I can tell he loves this subject, and this place. His scholarship shows on every page. And therein lies the problem. This is an extraordinary work of scholarship - I'd like to read it with the characters taken out as a survey of the Revolutionary War South. It is an abysmal work of fiction, even by a first-time novelist. The characters are flat, the dialog is inexcusable, the transitions in time and place are poorly done. Speeches are put in characters' mouths intended primarily to educate us, the readers. Characters sound as if they are reading from 20th Century American history texts, breaking character each time. In real life, people don't (generally) lecture one another about current events; in novels the shouldn't either. Instead of a long lecture, the author should assume the other characters remember what is being discussed, and let the reader infer from the discussion. I wanted to like this book very much; I couldn't get past the anachronisms, the speeches, the preachiness, the stilted way people, places, and things are introduced and described. I couldn't get past the way that the author transitioned from descriptive and narrative text. I couldn't get past the fact that the characters all spoke with the same voice. There are far, far better works of historical fiction on this time, albeit not in the American South. Consider the works of James L. Nelson for the naval war in New England, or perhaps Dudley Pope for the British side of the same Naval War. Please try again, Mr. Carter, but this time get a good editor who knows fiction, and who will help you to write better fiction. As a writer myself, I know how hard it is to change editors. I also know how much a good editor can improve my work.
Rating: 
Summary: A painful read...
Review: Love Jimmy Carter but I wish he would have put his years of research on the subject into a non-fiction work.
Genuinely wretched dialog.
Rating:
Summary: It re-defines the word "novel"!
Review: Make no mistake: if the author of this book were NOT a former President of the United States, his manuscript would never have seen the light of day. He seems determined to pack in every event related to the Revolution that occurred in the south during a twenty year period--at the expense of character development, plot, narrative drive and dramatic tension. If a reader actually reaches the last page, he or she will have a pretty good idea of what happened in the south during the Revolutionary War. But if that's your purpose, I could list several histories of the period that do the job better, not this textbook masquerading as a novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Mr. Carter Steps Out
Review: Mr. Carter steps out into the world of fiction. I enjoyed his venture. I think that he could have and should have given more life to Espy--the forward and somewhat headstrong young woman who enticed a slightly older young man to engage in conversation with her. She led him to her home and into her life through the offer of botinical books. It would seem that he could have given more life to this less than comunicative grown woman who traveled through the wilds with her husband and finally got close enough to conceive and bear a child. The descriptions of the conflicts and the parties involved were great and it is easy to see that the author is more comfortable with these types of descriptions than those of family interactions. He is especially not easy with a even an gentle "toss in the hay". That's all right tho' neither is half the male population I think. Over all the "Hornets Nest" is a good afternoons read and one most folks that enjoy historical novels will enjoy.
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