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Summary: THE BEST CIVIL WAR NOVEL I'VE EVER READ!!!!!!!!
Review: This is the book you just have to read if you want to know anything about Gettysburg. All of the characters are so well written it's like you're standing right next to them. The well written veiwpoints of Lee, Chamberlain, and my favorite, General Longstreet, tell you just how these people fought the battle. You'll fell sorry for "The War's Most Hated Soldier" (Longstreet),and get mad at "The Man Who Lost Gettysburg" (Lee), while reading about Chamberlain's great fight on top of Little Round Top. You will be swiching backand forth from Confedret and Union. The best book in the world, even though it's disliked by Gettysburg park officals for being "Too Novelie". READ THIS BOOK BUT READ GODS AND GENERALS FIRST!!!
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Summary: My all time favorite!!
Review: A damn good book!! Why? Michael Shaara did an excellent job of not being too fictious, and yet, the book is fictious. He wrote the feelings and views of the characters with utmost profession and no one can write a better Civil War novel with an exception to his son, Jeff Shaara, for writing the second best novel
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Summary: Slow to warm up, but still pretty good.
Review: This book is slow to warm up, but, when the reader gets to the action scenes, the heat is pretty intense. I found the action scenes to be very vivid and descriptive. However, a problem that I found was that I became tired of Longstreet's protests to the procession of the battle, prior to Little Round Top. I feel that Shaara was really overdriving the point, and it started to become tedious. Another problem that I had with the book was how time would pass quickly without the reader being made aware of it. I understand the fact that Shaara warns the reader of editing that out for content reasons; however, I have a problem with how it was done. An example: often troops would move, and even smaller troop formations can take around an hour to move one mile, when you take into account all the extra crap that needs to be done in order to get them moving. So these troops end up moving a little ways, and they set up, and it turns out to be sunset. It is a problem for me, because I could not figure out the rate at which time was passing. Another time, just prior to Pickett's charge, Armistead is observing the Union artillery suppression fire results as he sits and waits behind the covering ridge. In the space of about ten lines, about half to three-quarters of an hour passes. The problem I have is that under a artillery barrage, this amount of time would seem much, much more slower and intense. As a result, this really took away from the "I was there" feeling. However, I really have to give credit to how the battle scenes were portrayed, the descriptions were easy to visualize, especially Little Round Top. One final note, I think this book would have been much better if the book had been centered around low level troops sometimes, instead of the generals, as, one thing I have learned from serving in the infantry myself, is that the high-ranking officers always have very little idea, if any, of what is actually happening on the battlefield
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Summary: Civil War writing doesn't get much better than this.
Review: Of all the books I've read on the subject of the Battle of Gettysburg this is one of the best ones ever written. Mr. Shaara brings an approach to his subjects that other authors only wish they could do. The layout of the novel, having each chapter dedicated to a single character, brings a different and singular perspective to an already familiar tale. His descriptions of Pickett's Charge as well as the best written telling of the Battle of Little Round Top ever, are alone worth the price of the book
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Summary: Heart felt compassion
Review: The Killer Angels is an incedible story. Shaara writes in compelling voice that places you in both the camps and on the battlefield. The portrayal of Chamberlain moved me to further research the history of the man, which was as remarkable as his character was memorable. Of the many books I have passed along to others for 'required reading', none have been commented on as as strongly as The Killer Angels
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Summary: Gettysburg as you've never known it before!
Review: The Killer Angles is one of the best books ever written. I am a Gettysburg fanatic, thanks to a family trip last summer. This book is wonderful for anyone who loves Gettysburg, as I do. I am 14 years old, and I was never interested in Gettysburg, or the Civil War until I went to see the town that inspired the book. This book doesn't tell you about the battle as some textbook would, but it tells it like a dairy would. When you put the book down, you are sad that it is over. You feel attached to the men, and attached to the story. No matter how many times you read it, it never gets old. It is history as you've never known it! Even if you are not thrilled about the Civil War, or Gen. Robert E. Lee, or Joshua Lawerence Chamberlin, just give it try. You will never regret it
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Summary: I felt like I'd met these men
Review: I was browsing through a bookstore when I saw 'The Killer Angels' and paused to read part of the first of the chapters that are entitled 'Lee.' Immediately I was engrossed in the mind and heart of this legendary general and in Shaara's book. I bought it on the spot. It's simplicity and compassion as it passes from the viewpoint of one man to the next are unrivaled in military literature. I heartily recommend 'The Killer Angels' to everyone - no special knowledge of the war is needed to enjoy this sublime book. My subsequent journey to the Chickamauga battlefield, the site of fighting two months after Gettysburg, was enriched immeasurably by my insights into the soldiers' minds provided by this book. They weren't black and white photos or engravings or little red and blue boxes on a map. They were flesh and blood men with families and dreams, possessed of glaring shortcomings and triumphant virtues
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Summary: Introduction to the Civil War
Review: As a Civil War re-enactor and enthusiast I found this novel informative as well as very entertaining. Many people today think that the Civil War is full of dates, places, and statistics. Shaara puts away these things when he writes this novel and introduces you to the emotions, fears, and lives of the men who fought in a sleepy little town in Western Pennsylvania. -M. Simms, BDH
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Summary: This book brings the excitement in Gettysburg, war strategy
Review: I think this book was easy to read and brought the anger in every american in the british days. The war with the colonies and british showed the ability of each side fighting for freedom. The corruption between the two sides who wanted to conquer was a disaster. I like this book for its way in detailing the war itself, Gettysburg
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Summary: A humanized look at the Civil War's greatest battle.
Review: Some literary critics take offense to the phrase "historical novel." After all, they claim, all novels fit into a historical context. (Obviously they've forgotten about futuristic science fiction.) These critics think it presumptuous for a writer to create dialogue for the the likes of Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, and Lawrence Chamberlain. Because the world will never know what exactly was yelled, cried, and whispered on the battlefield of Gettysburg, the pessimists feel history is being distorted. Author Michael Shaara does not distort history. He brings history to life.
Recently, I wondered what I disliked most about going to school. I decided the long reading assignments from boring, impersonal textbooks were the reasons I most detested nine months out of the year. "The Killer Angels" should be required reading for anyone studying American history and the Civil War. Instead of mere facts and figures, Shaara shows us what it must have been like to fight on that hilly Pennsylvanian countryside.
I'd like to write about the structure of this book; the way it was ingeniously organized by Shaara. Readers will frequently turn back to the Foreword. The descriptive information given makes it easy for the reader to remember who's who. The maps by Don Pitcher are marvelous. Uncluttered and informative, the maps appear in just the right places: they do not disrupt the flow of reading. Best of all, when Shaara gets into his best description (that of the third day of the battle) no maps appear. The reader can focus on the words, freeing the imagination.
The characters are what make this novel so good. I say characters, but in reality they are historical figures shown in all their honor, courage, shortcomings, and fraility. General Rober E. Lee, for example, is shown as a dualistic man torn between God and "winning the war for Virginia." The most refreshing thing about the book is its objectivity through Shaara's obvious extensive research.
Lawrence Chamberlain and James Longstreet will undoubtedly speak loudest to most readers. They both ponder the Cause of the war, and through their words, readers too will try to understans why the war and its bloodiest battle were necessary. In the past, history had not been one of my interests, but after reading this novel, I feel compelled to learn as much about the North and South as I can while I search for another great "10" of literature.
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