Rating: 
Summary: Interesting and Fascinating
Review: If you are looking for a historical novel that is fun to read and exciting I recommend "Gone For Soldiers". I have never read any of Shaara's other books and stumbled across this novel at a discount store and thought why not. Furthermore, I am a relative novice to the American - Mexican War histories. Well I was surprisingly pleased. The novel is well written and I was hooked. It is fascinating to read Shaara's interpretation of the war and the personalities involved. I have to admit that initially I thought that the story would be tedious but I was pleased that it turned out to be interesting.The major characters are brought to life carefully so that General Scott, Captain Robert E. Lee and Mexican dictator Santa Anna are well represented. Each chapter changes the story's point of view and is titled with the character who is narrating. Usually the point of view is a major character (Scott, Lee or Anna) but minor characters are given their own chapters as well. General William Worth, Lieutenant James Longstreet, Lieutenant Thomas Jackson and Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant are some of the author's most exciting chapters and characters. The only complaint that I have is that Lee is not all that interesting of a person. However, other characters make up for that. The action was exciting and fun to read. The battles of Cerro Gordo, Churubusco and the capture of Mexico City are great stories. Shaara excels in his description of battle strategies, troop movement and 19th century military tactics. Even his description of the war's aftermath was interesting. The peace process and US policy towards Mexico was informative. Shaara's point that General Scott was offered dictatorship over Mexico illustrates the differences between the two countries. All in all a very good book. And I would recommend this novel to anyone. Since this my first Shaara novel I will probably read some his other books.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Regrettably glossy and superficial treatment of the subject. Neither the history nor biography provided anything of substance. Be content with the Civil War series and move on to something else.
Rating: 
Summary: Not equal to Defenders of the Holy Grail
Review: Writing a novel about war requires careful research and a NEW version that explains events while compelling the reader to think NEW thoughts. Shaara does not accomplish his mision.I recommend reading Ken Agori instead.
Rating:
Summary: Franchise Literature, Ulysses: The Prequel
Review: I purchased this book believing it to be authored by the man who wrote the great "Killer Angels" and neeless to say I was very disappointed. I think "Gone..." is an example of what I like to call "franchise thinking": you take a good idea and through copying it or applying it to other things you drain the life out of it. Franchise thinking prevents any change or attempts at something new; why bother? We found a formula that works, lets beat it to death (Killer Angels WWII, anyone?) . While not exactly horrible, the book is offfensive because Shaara Jr is cranking out nepotistic retreads of his father's great book. Unfortunately, I'm sure there are enough middle-brow military buffs out there to keep him in business.
Rating: 
Summary: The Mexican War - Shaara-style
Review: Our war with Mexico in the 1840's is not really well-known, and so this book fills a knowledge gap, and fills it well. It follows the same basic formula as the original book by the author's father, and the author's own two previous works on the Civil War: chapters about each character, and then a final wrap-up at the end, telling us about each person's future career. It works as a novel, so why tamper with success? The book is well-written, even though there appears to be more internal thought from each person than is really necessary. The author attempts to stay as close to the historical record as possible, and I give him high marks for that. My only thought is that, now he's done the Civil War and the Mexican War with these characters, where does he go? I hope to have a response in the bookstores from him, and I will be sure to read it.
Rating:
Summary: You learn more about the Mexican War than about Lee
Review: "Gone for Soldiers," a novel of the Mexican War, has the odd position of being a prequel to a prequel. The son of Michael Shaara the Pulitzer Prize winning author of "The Killer Angels" which tells the story of the battle of Gettysburg from the perspective of four major participants (Lee and Longstreet for the Confederates, Buford and Chamberlain for the Federals), Jeff Shaara authored both a prequel, "Gods and Generals" and a sequel "The Last Full Measure" to his father's novel. Both volumes maintained a focus on Lee, Longstreet and Chamberlain while working in other familiar figures from the war, most notably Jackson for the prequel and Grant for the sequel. In "Gone for Soldiers" the focus is primarily on Captain Robert E. Lee and his mentor Winfield Scott during the Mexican War. More than the other two volumes, "Gone for Soldiers" is able to benefit from the shifts in perspective used in "The Killer Angels." Most of the chapters focus on Lee and Scott, although there are a few focusing on the Mexico military dictator Santa Anna and several chapters during the final assault on Mexico City that tell of the exploits of Longstreet, Jackson and Grant--all figures who will become prominent in the main trilogy (the chapter on Grant is the most interesting). Certainly it is difficult to get the most out of this volume if you have not read "The Killer Angels," or at least seen the movie "Gettysburg," although I can not imagine why someone would come to this book except through those other volumes. After all, there are not a lot of novels about the Mexican War out there. But the element of irony underscores many scenes in the book, whether it is Lee briefly meeting Longstreet, Jackson, Pickett, Meade and Grant, or Scott telling his chief engineer about the need to take the high ground. What happened with Picket's Charge at Gettysburg in particular and the Civil War in general colors much of what happens in this novel. If anything, Shaara's characterization of Lee is still too sanctified; his modest and humility become just to oppressive by the end of the novel. Because one of the point of these books is to gain insight into what these men were thinking, you can make a case that Lee, even more so that Scott, is over-reflective, which makes his combination of military genius and political naivete rather unbelievable. The relationship between Lee and Scott is more important that the war itself; years later Scott went on record as calling Lee the best officer he ever saw and one of the biggest surprises is that the old man does not serve more explicitly as a father figure to Lee, whose father "Light Horse" Harry Lee, the Revolutionary War hero, died when the boy was fairly young. Thus we read the book in anticipation of a relationship developing between the two that simply never comes about. As for Scott, we come away from the novel concerned more with his bickering staff and political headaches more than his military genius, especially since time and time again that boils down to have Captain Lee come up with the plan, or scout the enemy, or place the guns, or command the troops. Most of the supporting characters are presented as inept clowns of various degrees, although Nicholas Trist the diplomat sent by President Polk to negotiate a peace treat is the exception that proves the rule. The main thing you will come away with from reading "Gone for Soldiers" are the details of Scott's campaign during the Mexican War. The book is quite readable except for a few rough spots during the action when the characters insist on thinking too much about what they think about what they are doing. But overall, I still prefer the realism of the fictional Lee of Harry Turtledove's "The Guns of the South" to the figure in this book.
Rating:
Summary: it's history with character added.
Review: Jeff Shaara contuies this series started by his father, this time looking at the Mexican war. This often overlooked war was very important in devoloping the people who would decide the fate of the nation ten years later. The book was rather weak in a couple of areas, and should have been longer. Not nearly enough attention and detail was put into decribing the statagy that general Scott used in this war. Wellington personaly praised Scott as one of the best generals of his generation for his Mexican campain. The most glaring oversight was how little attention was given to Grant and Longstreet in this book (only one chapter each). This is puzzling consitering that Grant himself wrote a consiterable amount about his experiances in this war in his memoirs(which are worth reading for people interested in this time period). While they didn't play quite as crutial parts as Scott or Lee, they certianly are important to the history of the time.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but narrowly focused, addition to Shaara's narrative
Review: "Gone for Soldiers" focuses almost exclusively on the relationship between and experiences of General Winfield Scott and Captain Robert E. Lee during the Mexican-American War. Readers looking for much more will be disappointed. The war at large and the exploits of many of it's primary figures, including General Zachary Taylor and his major role in the conflict, are virtually ignored. However, when viewed as a prequel to Jeff Shaara's "Gods and Generals" and "The Last Full Measure", as well as his father's "The Killer Angels", this book is a worthy addition to the narrative thread the two men have woven. "Gone for Soldiers", while the least exciting of the narratives, is still an engaging and enjoyable read. Shaara, like his father, breathes life into the sometimes one-dimensional figures of history by using the historical fiction genre to give voice to their unrecorded musings and conversations. For readers looking for a more balanced history of the war, John Eisenhower's "So Far From God" is strongly recommended for it's thorough treatment of the subject. The "Class of 1846" by John Waugh is also an outstanding book for those interested in the pre-Civil War story of that war's participants.
Rating:
Summary: Another Winner!
Review: This is another great novel by the master himself. He again takes you on a close op ride through a war that has almost been forgoten by many Americans. I completly enjoyed it. It is well-research and well-written for those of you who wouldn't want to spend money on a un-realistic book. After all, it is a novel, and so, it must be treated as such. Thanks again Jeff.
Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking history
Review: A good historical novel inspires me to learn more about the characters and the events the author describes. Shaara's book meets this test. I want to know if Winfield Scott was as good a general as he is portrayed to be. I want to know if Robert E. Lee was as saintly and naive as he is portrayed by Shaara. The brief appearances in the novel of Grant, Beauregard, Jackson, McClellan and other military officers who would later be famous made me want to know more about their participation in the Mexican war. I am also curious as to why the Mexicans lost this war -- although they would seem to have had the advantages in manpower and resources, fighting as they were in the heartland of their country against a U.S. army of no great size and skill. The U.S. is often condemned for its agressive war against Mexico, but, right or wrong, Scott's campaign to capture Mexico City seems to be one of the great miliary exploits of all time. I need to learn more to decide whether this is true or not. Shaara has raised all these questions in my mind.
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