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Gods and Generals Jeff Shaara 9781841580654 Books

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Gods and Generals Jeff Shaara 9781841580654 Books

You always have to question a sequel or prequel to any classic. Is it an attempt to cash in on the original novel? Is it an attempt to manufacture a "franchise"? The last option is always the best and most elusive; it's an attempt to recreate the power of the original work with something as bold and interesting.
Jeff Shaara's epic Gods And Generals falls into the latter category. His prequel to his father's monumental novel The Killer Angels manages to connect to the real life characters from this time period in just the same way. These people become flesh, blood and bone again with all the flaws and greatness inherent in the flesh. Shaara manages capture the little moments that made of the story of the men who eventually fight in the Battle for Gettysburg. Shaara captures the human core that suffers and falls during the chaos of war.
Perhaps every bit the equal of The Killer Angels (only time will tell if it ages as well), Gods And Generals allows us a window into the minds of those who participated in a pivotal moment in American history. What's most impressive is the fact that Shaara manages to capture all the flavor of the original novel without stuping to imitation. His prose is fluid and beautifully structured. A pity that the novel has segregated to the historical novel genre; it's much more powerful, horrorfying and touching than that. It's a crime to confine such a well written novel to such a small literary ghetto.


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Gods and Generals Jeff Shaara 9781841580654 Books Reviews

Jeff Shaara is the son of Michael Shaara, who wrote the superb book "The Killer Angels" about the Battle of Gettysburg. "Gods and Generals" is a prequel to that book, covering the lead-up to the Civil War, plus the first two years of the war. The book adopts the same approach as "The Killer Angels," recounting events from the perspective of several key figures, in this case primarily Lee, Hancock, Jackson, and Chamberlain.

I found this a very good book, albeit grim reading. It is eloquent, engrossing, and moving. Since I know less about the Civil War than I would like, it had the added bonus of being educational. Nonetheless, I didn't think it quite the equal of "The Killer Angels." (But that is a high bar.)

I note that I remain conflicted about Robert E. Lee, who, here as elsewhere, appears a sympathetic figure. And yet he commanded the Confederate forces, choosing the wrong side in a war that, for me, clearly had a right side and a wrong side.
Michael Shaara wrote "Killer Angels" a historical novel about the leaders of the Battle of Gettysburg. The book is written to place you there at the battle. It was so good that it won a Pulitzer prize. The book was made into the movie Gettysburg in 1993. The director of the movie championed the book to Michael Shaara's son, Jeff Shaara, encouraging to continue his father's great work telling the rest of the story, which led to "God's and Generals".
Jeff Shaara does a great job following his father's voice to tell the story about the beginnings of the Civil War up to Gettysburg. I felt like I was there. However, unlike his Dad he did not include maps that allowed one to follow the development of the battles blow-by-blow; a feature that made "Killer Angels" really shine. Thus, the 4 star rating.
God's and Generals is a great read for any who want to learn about the Civil War without having to read a "history boom". Regarding the lack of maps just go to Wikipedia and look up the battles. There are plenty of great maps there to support the story.
I highly recommend this book.
This book is a prequel to Michael’s Shaara’s (Jeff’s deceased father) The Killer Angels. That book was a Civil War novel about the Battle of Gettysburg that also went on to be a high grossing film. From what I understand, the movie that this book is based on wasn’t very well received, so it’s possible you never saw it – or maybe even heard of it. I haven’t read any Shaara books before this one. This book was good in many aspects, but I also found it a bit lacking in places.

This story begins in the days leading up to the Civil War and concludes roughly three years later before the Battle of Gettysburg. Our story focuses mainly on two officers from each side of the war. On the Confederacy, we have General’s Lee and Jackson. On the Union – Hancock and Chamberlain. It should be pointed out the Joshua Chamberlain was, in fact, a Colonel. It’s fortunate that he’s included because I felt his story was the most interesting of the four.

In many ways, that’s really what this book is – a character study. It tries to go in depth of the lives of these four men. Since they’re on the battlefield during most of the story, their tales are rather introspective. We’ll read a chapter, for example, where General Lee is sitting on a stoop in between battles doing nothing but thinking of home. Such interludes can wear thin after a while. Unfortunately, when our main characters aren’t thinking, they’re “fighting”. I say “unfortunately” because I don’t really enjoy reading books (or chapters in books) that focus exclusively on a battle. Some of the best military/war books I’ve read are when most of the action takes place OFF the battlefield (see W.E.B. Griffin’s Brotherhood of War series). I tend to be in the minority, however. Such detail in a book doesn’t seem to bother most readers, so it’s quite possible you won’t be bothered by this as much as I was.

To each their own, however. Many seem to enjoy both son (Jeff) and father’s (Michael) books, so you might enjoy it slightly better than I did. There were good parts, I felt, but I felt it was a bit weighed down too much in the areas I mentioned. I will say that Shaara does an excellent job portraying the character’s feelings and their reasons as to why their fighting on a particular side. It’s well known, for example, that Robert E. Lee was offered command of the Union army when the conflict broke out, yet turned it down as he felt his loyalties should like with his home state of Virginia.

It also should be pointed out that much of the stories told between the battles are speculation. Shaara uses creative license when detailing conversations between many of the principals, so some hardcore historians may tend to cry ‘foul’, but this never bothered me. I felt that I knew these men much better after reading this novel regardless as to how exact the tale was when compared to the facts.

Most that have read the book stated they enjoyed it overall, but felt it wasn’t quite as good as his father’s ‘The Killer Angels’. Such comparisons are usually inevitable whenever a new author takes over from a deceased author – especially when the two are related. I imagine most, like me, will enjoy it even if you may be left with some reservations.
You always have to question a sequel or prequel to any classic. Is it an attempt to cash in on the original novel? Is it an attempt to manufacture a "franchise"? The last option is always the best and most elusive; it's an attempt to recreate the power of the original work with something as bold and interesting.
Jeff Shaara's epic Gods And Generals falls into the latter category. His prequel to his father's monumental novel The Killer Angels manages to connect to the real life characters from this time period in just the same way. These people become flesh, blood and bone again with all the flaws and greatness inherent in the flesh. Shaara manages capture the little moments that made of the story of the men who eventually fight in the Battle for Gettysburg. Shaara captures the human core that suffers and falls during the chaos of war.
Perhaps every bit the equal of The Killer Angels (only time will tell if it ages as well), Gods And Generals allows us a window into the minds of those who participated in a pivotal moment in American history. What's most impressive is the fact that Shaara manages to capture all the flavor of the original novel without stuping to imitation. His prose is fluid and beautifully structured. A pity that the novel has segregated to the historical novel genre; it's much more powerful, horrorfying and touching than that. It's a crime to confine such a well written novel to such a small literary ghetto.