Rating: 
Summary: READ THIS BEFORE KILLER ANGELS
Review: A great book, but I read Killer Angels first, which took away from the greatness of this book. READ THIS BEFORE KILLER ANGELS
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: This book (like The Killer Angels) is a good insight to the thoughts and feelings of many of the players in the battles (Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville) leading up to Gettysburg. While not always factual (some facts are bent to improve the readibility of the story), this book is still a good insight from a historical perspective
After reading this book, I went back and re-read The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (Jeff's father). The writing styles were a little bit different, as can be expected. But, both writers are (were, in Michael's case) highly skilled in taking the actions and words and translating them into modern day language beautifully.
My only hope, is that Jeff decides to write another book on this time period. Maybe on the end of the war, say Petersburg to Appomatox?
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant...simply brilliant.
Review: Ahhh...finally I found the novel a few days ago that was the preceding of "The Killer Angels". I thought to myself "Hmmm...wonder who wrote it?". Then I discovered it was the son of the author who wrote the masterpiece "The Killer Angels". I bought the book and read it. My opinion? BRILLIANT!!! For a guy who wrote this novel for his first, he did a DAMN good job!!
"Gods & Generals" and "The Killer Angels" are the perfect pair. If you buy one, get the other.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book!
Review: If you have read "Killer Angels" you will love this book. What more can I say
Rating:
Summary: It deserves much higher than a 10!
Review: Gods and Generals is such a wonderful book. It is perfect as a book preceding Killer Angels. It brings alive the lives of Bobby Lee, Lawerence Chamberlin, Winfield Hancock, James Longstreet, Stonewall Jackson, and many others. If you don't know anything about this war, except for what they teach you in school, this book explains it. Not as some historian or onlooker, but as these men would have told you, were they still alive today. You grow to feel like you are there. When the characters do something, you do it with them. It is like no other book before it. Once the book is finished, you have a well developed sense of understanding about what these men went through, and how they went through it. The only smart thing to do the second you put down this book, is to pick up Killer Angels! This book deserves an 11, out of 10
Rating:
Summary: The story of four generals' struggles in the civil war.
Review: Gods and Generals, by Jeff Shaara, is a beautifully written prequel to his father's
masterpiece The Killer Angels. Jeff's father, Michael, portrays the personal side of war in
his novel about the battle of Gettysburg. Now his son is taking a stab at it in his novel
Gods and Generals which tells of the struggles of four generals that play a key role in the
civil war leading up to the battle of Gettysburg. He truly captures the feeling of what it
must have been like to be a general in the civil war and the sadness and sacrifice that it
would have involved. It's an emotional thrill ride that the casual reader and civil war buff
alike can enjoy
Rating:
Summary: Gripping, Emotional and Thought Provoking
Review: Jeff Shaara writes as brilliantly as his father in the gripping tale of the years leading up to the Battle of Gettysburg.
This book is written in a manner that pulls you into the hearts and minds of the Generals. Feel the emotion of defeat and victory.
You will wonder, quickly, what would today be like had the commanding officers acted differently.
I was unable to put this book down. As a Prequel to Killer Angels, you understand more about the devastation of the war that brought family member against family member and best friend against best friend.
Like his father before him, Jeff Shaara has brought out a renewed interest in the why's of the war. Could you give up a promising career, and possibility of your life for your home state?
Read This Book
Rating:
Summary: Shaara's creativity and research make this book a winner!
Review: Shaara's is the greatest Civil War novel since his father's "The Killer Angels". He recreates battles and lives as no one else can. If you enjoy historical novels, this book is one of the most comprehensive, historically correct novels I've ever read. It's totally intoxicating
Rating: 
Summary: Web site with excerpts of GODS AND GENERALS
Review:
Ballantine has a large GODS AND GENERALS Web site at http://www.randomhouse.com/godsgenerals/, with excerpts and other good stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Early Raves!
Review: "Shaara tells a tale impressive in its sweep, depth of character and historic verisimilitude....Like his father, Shaara gets deeply into the minds of his protagonists....the Shaara genes, it seems, are in fine shape."
--Publishers Weekly
"It's some testament to the younger Shaara's skills that his own debut, meant to be a prequel to [THE KILLER ANGELS], can often hold its own with that work. . . . And like KILLER ANGELS, this novel displays an impressive grasp of the particulars of the conflict. The author projects some believable, idiosyncratic life into such familiar figures as Lee and Jackson. Lee's early disbelief in the possibility of war, and his growing, almost mystical conviction in the war's necessity and outcome, are all nicely conveyed, as is Joshua Chamberlain's harsh coming-of-age in battle. Shaara is particularly good at rendering the reluctance of many of the combatants. But while this prequel offers a robust portrait of the early years of the war, it lacks something of the impact of KILLER ANGELS. That novel's great resonance had something to do with the intense focus on just three days of battle: Gettysburg became a particularly apt metaphor for the entire conflict. This new book, by having to plod dutifully across several years of battles, seems at times more like an impressionistic work of history than a work of fiction.
"Still, Shaara's wonderful command of detail and his generally shrewd depiction of character make for an impressive debut."
--Kirkus Reviews
"The battle of Gettysburg featured a cast of characters dramatically and poignantly portrayed in Michael Shaara's THE KILLER ANGELS. This new novel by his son Jeff Shaara describes the interconnected paths that brought these men together at this crossroads of our history. Readers of THE KILLER ANGELS won't want to miss GODS AND GENERALS."
--James McPherson, author of BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM
"GODS AND GENERALS is as good as THE KILLER ANGELS, maybe better. Jeff Shaara has written a masterpiece."
--Mort Kunstler, Historical Artist
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