Product Description

The heartbreaking saga of the years preceding The Killer Angels

"SHAARA'S BEAUTIFULLY SENSITIVE NOVEL DELVES DEEPLY in 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 dividing nation."
--San Francisco Chronicle

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8379 in Books
• Published on: 1998-04-29
• Released on: 1998-04-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 512 pages

Amazon.com Review
In a prequel of sorts to his father Michael Shaara's 1974 epic novel The Killer Angels, Jeff Shaara explores the lives of Generals Lee, Hancock, Jackson and Chamberlain as the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg approaches. Shaara captures the disillusionment of both Lee and Hancock early in their careers, Lee's conflict with loyalty, Jackson's overwhelming Christian ethic and Chamberlain's total lack of experience, while illustrating how each compensated for shortcomings and failures when put to the test. The perspectives of the four men, particularly concerning the battles at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, make vivid the realities of war.

From Publishers Weekly
Like father, like son? The publisher is aggressively linking Shaara's first novel with The Killer Angels, the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning (1974) novel about the Battle of Gettysburg by his father, Michael Shaara (d. 1988). Indeed, the son's book is a prequel to the father's, following some of its central characters, generals all, from 1858 until 1863 and Gettysburg. The good news is that, while not matching his father's beautifully wrought prose, Shaara tells a tale impressive in its sweep, depth of character and historic verisimilitude. Generals Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and Winfield Scott Hancock are back fighting for the North, and Robert E. Lee for the South. The story is told from their points of view, along with that of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Each is a reluctant warrior who emerges as a gifted soldier possessed of a strong moral conscience in a time of bitter partisanship and hatred. Because it covers five eventful years, the narrative is sometimes overwhelmed by its wealth of dramatic material; the battles, though convincingly realized, tend to blur into one another. Yet, like his father, Shaara gets deeply into the minds of his protagonists, particularly Stonewall Jackson, who, though shy and deeply religious, proved to be a brutally efficient military leader. Like father, like son? Not quite, but the Shaara genes, it seems, are in fine shape. Major ad/promo; author tour. (July) FYI: Gods and Generals will debut in Gettysburg during the July 4th week, to tie in with the annual Civil War reenactment.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA. Shaara has chosen four major figures of the Civil War?Generals Lee, Jackson, Hancock, and Chamberlain?and woven an excellent novel told from their individual viewpoints. The author excels at showing the personalities and lives of these key men. The central person in each alternating chapter moves the story toward the bloody battles of the Wilderness and Chancellorsville, and finally to the eve of the Gettysburg campaign. The compassion and religious convictions of Lee and Jackson are contrasted with the equally strong beliefs of Hancock and Chamberlain against secession and the destruction of the Union. All are frustrated by the political and administrative blunders that affect both armies. The author skillfully involves readers with each of the participants. Those unfamiliar with the period will appreciate the introduction and afterword that place the events within the context of the men's lives. Factual detail and deft character development create fascinating historical fiction.?Barry Williams, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Gods and Generals
this book is awesome. non-stop carnage. the absolute worst thing that ever happened to America, 620,000 men died out of 13 million in the country at the time. senseless, pointless, merciless, and too many other -lesses to list here. author jeff shaara's father wrote the masterpiece "the killer angels". this book is almost as well written, with a lot more cheap thrills. the movie was so bad that i couldn't fall asleep and had to walk out during the intermission.

Disappointing and flat
I must be one the few that did not read Killer Angels before reading Gods and Generals. So what I'm about to say has nothing to do with any comparison to a work by this author's father.

The Civil War should be a very rich backdrop for any historical fiction book. It has everything that an author would need to write a compelling novel. However, I must agree with the other criticisms of this work. Without knowing the names of the Generals, and there were what seemed like hundreds of them, there is no way to determine who is talking. I have never read a book where the characters were so intermixable. Not one character had any charisma or even a distinguishing trait. I couldn't tell Lee from Jackson or Jackson from Hancock. Not one of the starring Generals has any personality that manifests throughout the book. The tone was constant, droning without excitement. There was no interest to get back to the book in any hurry. I've read nonfiction with much more movement and pizzazz. This was downright disappointing. With all of the hype and potential, the author has failed to attract me to another of his works.

It might be that this is the author's first book and maybe he didn't receive the better editors and such, but my recommendation is to skip this book and move on to something else.

God's and Generals
This is primarily the story of 4 generals of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee, Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, Winfield Scott Hancock and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Shaara closely follows the history of the Civil War, but from much research reading diaries and other documents he assumes the dialogue of the generals and other men and women and this part of his writing is fiction. He does a masterful job and you feel like the dialogue is what really took place. It is though he recorded the conversations. His accounts of the battles of Williamsburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville pick up the feeling of how it really was. You feel like you are there.