All felt a little too neat and balanced. Every main General on both sides was an apolitical, virtuous, smart, loyal family man? I have doubts. That said, the story is an interesting and important part of American history.

A poor imitation of his father's Pulitzer winner. Bloated, treacly, trite telling of the glorious southern "Lost Cause".

Good for fire tinder and not much else.

Read his father's work or the three volumes from Shelby Foote.

The writing style made this book much more difficult to read than it already was due to the technical descriptions of the battles and military strategies. The final chapters, which portrayed the human side and consequences of the war, pushed it to two stars.

A fantastic work. I felt like I was watching events happening.

Shaara's beautiful writing is earning the stars here because this topic isn't my favorite. I don't find stories that take place during the Civil War to be interesting, so I struggled to stay with this book.

A promising concept that ultimately fails in the face of the history it seeksseems so desperate to recount. I really appreciate Shaars’s ability to bring the details of hard living through desperatere times. The battle scenes are engaging, the relationships between soldiers meaningful. And yet, when it comes to depicting Chamberlain, whose well researched biography I just finished reading, the whole conceit of the book falls apart. Shaar first fails to understand the most mundane aspects of Chamberlain (the timing of his children’s births and deaths), but more disappointingly utterly misunderstand the intellect and character of the man. It’s like he read a one-line description, “Chamberlain was brand new to soldiering and leading men into battle” and turns him into a bumbling buffoon, startled that cannons are loud. Chamberlain was instead one of the most brilliant and courageous men to ever wear the uniform! Sahara gross oversimplification does him a disservice and raises a broader question for me—How many other men has he similarly failed to understand through this effort?

I will immediately start his father’s acclaimed novel about Gettysburg and hope to find that he was the more capable writer.

I liked being able to see the history in action. It helped me see the Civil War a bit better. However, the writing is not great and there is a serious abuse of ellipses... I wanted to read this before Killer Angels for chronology's sake, but I'm not chomping at the bit to read it now. Hopefully Jeff Shaara's father is a bit of a better writer.