SOLDIER BOY by Michael Shaara

 

Published in 1982 by Pocket Books (a Timescape book)

Back in the 1980's Simon and Schuster had a division called Pocket Books that specialized in paperback books. Pocket Books had an even smaller division called Timescape. Timescape published sci-fi books, including some of the earliest of the Star Trek novels so they were quite a successful line. Soldier Boy is part of that Timescape line.

Michael Shaara (1928-1988)

Michael Shaara won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1974 novel about the Battle of Gettysburg, The Killer Angels. Shaara had knocked out a few novels before then, but none were about the Civil War. Instead, a great deal of his writing was sci-fi. He started out selling stories to magazines in 1951. This book is a collection of 14 of those short stories.

If you read this book, I recommend reading the Author's Afterword first. He wrote commentary on every story and I used those notes as an introduction to each one.  Like all short story collections, they vary in quality. The book is named after the first story in the collection. Shaara really likes the story, but I found it so-so. But, I enjoyed most of them. There were a lot of them with a Twilight Zone gotcha moment at the end. I really enjoyed those.

This collection was an enjoyable read. I rate it 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Soldier Boy by Michael Shaara.

Note: Amazon is selling all of these short stories as individual Kindle stories. Be careful if you buy the one named "Soldier Boy" - it is not this book, it is just the first story. 

THE SMOKE at DAWN: A NOVEL of the CIVIL WAR (Civil War in the West #3) (audiobook) by Jeff Shaara

Published by Random House Audio in June of 2014
Read by Paul Michael
Duration: 19 hours, 42 minutes
Unabridged

 Jeff Shaara is well-known by fans of military historical fiction. The Smoke at Dawn is his fifth book about the Civil War, the third about the campaign in The Western Theater. This book picks up a few months after Grant's victory at Vicksburg and focuses on Chattanooga.

The crushing defeat at Chickamauga suffered by Union General Rosecrans was a terrible blow after the Union's massive twin victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg just two months earlier. Confederate General Braxton Bragg swept Rosecrans' army from the Chickamauga battlefield and they fled back to the safety of Chattanooga. Bragg's forces occupy the mountains that surround Chattanooga and have effectively laid siege to the city. Already, the Union forces are suffering and Rosecrans seems confused about what to do next. Luckily, Bragg is worried about dissension among his own junior officers more than the Union forces so an extremely tough situation has not been turned into an impossible one.

Union General Ulysses S. Grant is called to Indianapolis for a meeting and is told that he has been promoted to the command of the entire Union army on the condition the he resolve the situation in Chattanooga. Rosecrans is removed, General George Thomas is placed in charge and Grant is smuggled into the city so that he can break the siege.

I was critical of the second book in this series (A Chain of Thunder) and I was more than a little reluctant to listen to this one. I am glad to report that this was a much better book.

The brooding, repetitive nature of the second book was replaced with a more balanced approach. There was plenty of brooding but most of it was Braxton Bragg verbally accosting everyone in his army that he could reach - privates, captains, generals and even getting a little dicey with Confederate President Jefferson Davis who personally came the outskirts of Chattanooga to help his old friend Bragg sort out his army's personality conflicts, not that it did much good.

Confederate General Braxton Bragg
(1817-1876)

 The book was not entirely about generals and politicians. It also followed Wisconsin-born "Dutchie" Bauer and his friend Captain Willis to give a view from the common man's perspective. 

The reader was Paul Michael and he did an excellent job with the wide array of voices and accents. Pretty much everyone had their own voices and there were multiple Southern accents (they vary by region, of course) and even an excellent Irish accent.

This series continues on with a fourth installment.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: The Smoke at Dawn: A Novel of the Civil War (the Civil War in the West)

A CHAIN of THUNDER: A NOVEL of the SIEGE of VICKSBURG (audiobook) by Jeff Shaara

Published by Random House Audio in 2013
Narrated by Paul Michael
Duration: 22 hours, 5 minutes

Unabridged.

Just to establish where I am coming from - I am a huge Civil War buff. I have over 100 books on my shelf. Although I live in Indiana, I have managed to make it to three Civil War battlefields in the last two years (Murfreesboro, Fort Donelson and Chickamauga) and I just bought my father the original Shaara Civil War trilogy (the one based around The Killer Angels ) for Christmas. I own Shaara's World War I and World War II series as well as his original Civil War series and his Mexican War book.

I am a fan.

Confederate Lt. General
John C. Pemberton
(1814-1881)

But, I am not a fan of A Chain of Thunder.

I have no problem with the authenticity of the book and there are parts that are amazing, intense and just about perfect.

But, the first half of this book feels like it is trying to be "The Great American Novel" and failing at the attempt. There is so much repetitious introspection on the part of General Pemberton (the Confederate commander at Vicksburg) and Bauer, a Union front line soldier who is brought into a new unit against army protocol in an effort to promote some continuity in the series, that I just wanted to yell at the narrator to get on with the story. There is a shockingly ham-fisted attempt to address the evils of slavery, a lot of description of marching (in rain, in mist, in heat and than we get descriptions of sitting in rain, heat and mist and then sleeping in rain, heat and mist) and a seemingly never-ending discussion about the proper duties of a Civil War general. 

Mostly, though, I was disappointed that this book just did not have the pop and sizzle of A Blaze of Glory , the first book in this series.

But, at about the halfway point (8 or 9 hours into this book - I continued listening only because I am a fan and I refused to believe that it would stay this bad throughout the whole book), the story finally gets into stride and tells the awful story of the siege of Vicksburg and tells it well. The awful details of a field hospital, the strange one-on-one fight of sniper vs. sniper in the middle of a battle of tens of thousands, the secret world of spies, the power of secure supply lines, and the danger of rivalry and politics among the generals. The conversations between Sherman and Grant feel so right that I cannot imagine that they would go any other way than how they are described in the book.

Audiobook narrator Paul Michael was good. Of course, he can only do so much with bad text and he made the better parts a joy to listen to. 

So, I give it 3 stars as an average score - 1 star for the first part, 5 stars for the last part.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: 
A Chain of Thunder: A Novel of the Siege of Vicksburg (the Civil War in the West)

A Blaze of Glory: A Novel of the Battle of Shiloh by Jeff Shaara

A Great Start to a New Civil War Trilogy

Published by Ballantine Books in May of 2012

Jeff Shaara returns to the familiar topic of the Civil War after writing two books about the Revolutionary War, one book about the Mexican War, one book about World War I and four books about World War II. Fans of Jeff Shaara and his father Michael know that they have a special feel for the Civil War and this book shows that Jeff's talents as a writer have only grown.

I don't know if Jeff Shaara could have written about just one battle (like his father did about Gettysburg in the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Killer Angels) when he wrote the first and third books that completed the Civil War trilogy about the war in the Eastern Theater. However, he pulls it off magnificently in A Blaze of Glory.

Shaara notes in his introduction that his previous books focused on the generals and he has since learned the value of seeing the battle from multiple perspectives. He does it very well here, moving from character to character to keep the pace of the story moving briskly and thoroughly covering this confusing battle.

Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston 
(1803-1862)

I was particularly interested in seeing how Shaara characterized the Confederate commander Albert Sidney Johnston and his second-in-command, P.G.T. Beauregard. Although I have read dozens of Civil War histories and novels, Johnston is always skimmed over, seeing as how he dies in his first major battle of the war. Typically, most authors try to make it as though Johnston's death was a fatal blow to the Confederates in the Western Theater, almost as if he were another Robert E. Lee. Shaara does not succumb to that temptation. Instead, his interpretation of Johnston shows him to be a complex man, certainly the strongest general in the field that day, but hardly a towering figure. That being said, Shaara suggests that the battle would have ended differently if Johnston had not been killed.

Let me take a moment here to discuss the portrayal of the death of Johnston in the book. Shaara's work in depicting his death is so well done that it is nearly poetic. He does not sugarcoat the foolishness of a general personally leading his men into battle (they tend to get shot) but he also recognizes that sometimes a general needs to be exactly that sort of fool in order to win the battle.

Shaara's treatment of Beauregard is about the same as most Civil War histories. Beauregard's innate need for self-promotion overcomes his talents, although the man clearly had a knack for getting his men to the fight and doing well. He won at the first Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), the Shiloh campaign was mostly his design and he was bedridden during most of it, he saved his army from being surrounded at Corinth, he saved Petersburg (and Richmond) in 1864 while grossly outnumbered. But, there is something about him that doesn't quite work in a large army and Shaara passes that feeling on to the reader as well.

Great beginning to a new trilogy. I can't wait until next year to get my hands on the second book.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: A Blaze of Glory: A Novel of the Battle of Shiloh (the Civil War in the West)

Reviewed on September 2, 2012.

The Killer Angels (abridged audiobook) by Michael Shaara

A Must for any Civil War buff

Published by HighBridge Audio
Read by George Hearn
Lasts about 6 hours
Abridged

This book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975.

Way back in 1989 I had to read The Killer Angels as part of a American Military History class while I was attending Indiana University. Since then I've read it 3 or 4 more times and I've recommended it to countless friends and students. Surprisingly, hearing it as an audiobook was an entirely new experience for me - it was much more powerful than I remembered.

The Killer Angels is the story of the Battle of Gettysburg told from a variety of points of view, but mostly from the points of view of Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet on the Confederate side. The Union side is largely represented by John Buford and Colonel

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
(1828-1914)

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of Maine who won the Medal of Honor for his actions on the second day of the battle.

The Killer Angels won the Pulitizer Prize in 1975 and is one of the finest pieces of fiction, let alone historical fiction, that I have ever read.

The audiobook was brilliantly read by George Hearn and uses music from Gettysburg,  the 1993 movie adaptation of the book (it is a faithful adaptation that just does not do justice to the power and tragedy of the book). This really is a beautiful production. More than once I had to stop it for the tears that came to my eyes due to the tragedy and spectacle of the battle (I am a Civil War softy - I tear up every time I watch the movie Glory as well). I do not particularly remember the soundtrack of the movie as being very moving, but it is used to great effect in the audiobook. It lasts about 6 hours and is well worth the purchase.

Highest recommendation.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This abridged audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: The Killer Angels.

Reviewed on June 1, 2008.

Rise to Rebellion and The Glorious Cause by Jeff Shaara

The Glorious Cause is the second in Shaara's two volume piece historical fiction concerning the Revolutionary War. Rise to Rebellion was the first, and I believe the superior of the two, but The Glorious Cause is an excellent novel as well.

Rise to Rebellion is the superior of the two novels due to the changes of heart that the readers sees in John Adams and Benjamin Franklin concerning the issue of independence from England. The Glorious Cause has little of that type deep soul-searching. However, it is a fantastic portrayal of the difficulties encountered by the Continental Army and George Washington, in particular.

If I were to have my druthers, I would have preferred that Shaara had broken the second 600+ page novel into two novels  to make it a trilogy and expanded them both by delving more into the politics of the day and the difficulties of fighting a war with the governmental structures and restrictions that the Continental Congress was hampered with.

In addition, more battles and fronts could have been explored, such as the ill-fated American invasion of Canada and Benedict Arnold's naval adventures on Lake Champlain.

That being said, these are still a highly recommended novels - either for the American Revolution novice or the enthusiast.

Well done, Mr. Shaara.

I rate these books 5 stars out of 5.

These two books can be found on Amazon here: Rise to Rebellion and The Glorious Cause.

Reviewed on December 23, 2005.

The Final Storm: A Novel of the War in the Pacific by Jeff Shaara

A bit disappointing.

Published in 2011 by Ballantine Books.


Jeff Shaara's European Theater World War II trilogy covered America's participation in that theater completely - from before the invasion of North Africa to the occupation of Germany. All of my reviews of those books can be seen by clicking here. He did a great job of discussing the grand strategies and showing the view from the trenches.

I really was hoping for the same treatment here. Shaara alludes to problems with his publisher in an introduction, but the reader is left with a truncated version of the war in the Pacific Theater. Shaara picks up this story with the dates he left off in his European Theater trilogy - Spring of 1945.So, no Pearl Harbor, Battle of Midway or threat of invasion of Australia. No occupation of the Aleutian Islands. No Bataan Death March.

The B-29 bomber Enola Gay

Instead, we are told the story of one major campaign (Okinawa) and the story of the Enola Gay and the bombing of Hiroshima. Those stories are told well. In fact, they are told brilliantly. The fighting in Okinawa was horrific and so different than the fighting in Europe that I was struck over and over again by how much the whole story needed to be told - not just the end of the story.

Reviewed May 7, 2011.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Final Storm: A Novel of the War in the Pacific by Jeff Shaara.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5 for failing to deliver the goods as they deserved to have been delivered.

The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II by Jeff Shaara

Originally published in 2006.

The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II is the first book in Jeff Shaara's series about World War II. It is the weakest in many ways. Shaara approaches most of his books with the docudrama format - a little bit of narrative history, a lot bit of historical fiction. His narrative history is quite well written and flows nicely.

The historical fiction in this book is its weak point. The action is very good, but there is not a lot of action - just a few pages in the Africa Campaign and some very solid stuff from the Sicily campaign. The majority of the historical fiction part of the book, among the Allied characters at least, is Shaara's characters putting themselves into place to fight Rommel and setting the scene for the second book. It would have moved more briskly if Shaara would have reverted to the historical narrative form, but it would severely limit the fictional aspects of the book.

Jeff Shaara

On the Axis side, Rommel is the compelling figure of the book. Clearly Shaara builds him up to be the ultimate professional officer of the war - not a Nazi, just a man fighting his country as he has always done. Shaara skirts around the issues that Rommel must have surely considered when those orders come from thugs like the Nazis. Perhaps he just assumed that Rommel chose to mostly ignore the uncomfortable aspects of taking orders from people like the Nazis. Perhaps Rommel was just as afraid of the Communists and just as angry at the Allies as Hitler was - we just don't know from this book. What I did not get from this series was a sense that Rommel was a real "super general". After all, for the layman he is the only battlefield German General with a "name brand" recognition. What I got from this portrayal of Rommel was a sense that he could have defeated two particular British commanders with ease if he had the resources and that he could see that Germany was extending itself too far.

There are plenty of great maps in this series, but especially in this book.

I rate this book 4 stars and it can be found on Amazon.com here: The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II by Jeff Shaara.

Reviewed on November 16, 2010.

The Steel Wave: A Novel of World War II by Jeff Shaara

Published in 2008 by Ballantine 

The Steel Wave is the second book in Shaara's World War II series and is a superior book to the first in almost every way. There is a lot more action (hundreds of pages) and it is intense. The political wrangling that Eisenhower had to endure and master is a theme in every book, but is strongest in this one. The title of the book comes from a comment that Rommel makes about the Allied invasion coming in like a wave of steel into France.

Rommel continues on as a major character throughout. It is interesting to note that he was correct to fear an Allied invasion of France (which most of the German high command poo-pooed) but picked the wrong place. Hitler picked the right place, although he doubted it would happen. It is also interesting to note that Rommel thought that D-Day was a feint and failed to respond correctly to it until it was too late. Rommel is still the most interesting "officer" character on either side - he knows that Germany will be ruined by the Nazis and that the Germans will lose the war but we get little sense that he was opposed to the Nazis for any reason other than that they will bring ruin to Germany. Still, the way Shaara deals with the last bits of Rommel's life is compelling reading.

Even more compelling is the way Shaara deals with the ground-level stories of the American soldiers during D-Day. This is riveting stuff - well told and compelling.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on November 6, 2010

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Steel Wave by Jeff Shaara.

No Less Than Victory: A Novel of World War II by Jeff Shaara

Originally published in 2009.

No Less Than Victory: A Novel of World War II is the final book in Shaara’s World War II trilogy. It is very similar to the second book, which makes sense since it is a continuation of the same campaign. The Allies continue their quest to push across France and into Germany. Patton looms as a larger and larger character. The part of the noble German soldier, previously played by Rommel is filled by Karl Rudolf Gerd Von Rundstedt, so much so that the reader may not even miss the Rommel character at all.

The battle sequences are stirringly told. The “Battle of the Bulge” is told quite well from the point of view of three of the very few soldiers of the 106th  that made it through the battle without being killed or captured (this was Kurt Vonnegut’s unit, by the way, but he does not appear in the book).

Eisenhower at Ohrdruf

 Shaara spends a lot of time in the book among the inner circle of Hitler’s loyal command, with people like Albert Speer and Martin Bormann. It is an interesting choice to do so, but I would have preferred that he had not done it. It would have been even more interesting to have looked at the common foot soldier that continued to fight after the war was completely lost and seen what their motivations were (perhaps this interest comes from a college class I had more than 20 years ago where we met a man who was just that – a common foot soldier who abandoned the Eastern Front and marched across Austria and Germany to surrender to American troops).


Shaara’s tale of the liberation of the Ohrdruf concentration camp was shocking, visceral and powerful. Very well done.

I would rate this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: No Less Than Victory: A Novel of World War II by Jeff Shaara.

Reviewed on November 6, 2010.