First-time author Sharra comes of a distinguished lineage: His
father, Michael (who died in 1988), wrote the Pulitzer
Prize-winning novel The Killer Angels (1974) about the Civil War
battle of Gettysburg. It's some testament to the younger Sharra's
skills that his own debut, meant to be a prequel to that earlier
book, can often hold its own with that work. Like Killer Angels,
this new novel focuses mostly on actual figures swept up in that
immense conflict: Robert E. Lee and Thomas ("Stonewall") Jackson on
the Confederate side, Joshua Chamberlain and Winfield Scott Hancock
on the Union, most prominently. Sharra follows these figures, and a
score more, from the onset of the war up to the days just before
the 1863 battle at Gettysburg. (A sequel will follow the surviving
characters through to the war's conclusion.) 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. Sharra 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, Sharra's wonderful
command of detail and his generally shrewd depiction of character
make for an impressive debut. (Kirkus Reviews)
"BRILLIANT DOES NOT EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE THE SHAARA GIFT. THANK GODS AND GENERALS THAT IT WAS PASSED FROM FATHER TO SON."
--Atlanta Journal & Constitution
"LIVELY, FAST-PACED . . . A worthy companion to The Killer Angels . . . Shaara brilliantly charts the war, the exploits of the combatants and their motivations. He also concisely shows how the early parts of the campaign unfolded. His accounts of the battles of Williamsburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville are exciting. . . . Though the story of the Civil War has been told many times, this is the rare version that conveys what it must have felt like."
--Chicago Sun-Times
"SHAARA'S BEAUTIFULLY SENSITIVE NOVEL DELVES DEEPLY into the empathetic realm of psycho-history, where enemies do not exist--just mortal men forced to make crucial decisions and survive on the same battlefield. . . . [He] succeeds with his historical novel through fully realized characters who were forced to decide their loyalties amid the horrors of their divided nation."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"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
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