Reviews - The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War

620 reviews for:

The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War

Michael Shaara

4.1 AVERAGE

vapfau's review against another edition

4.0

challenging medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

juanospina13's review against another edition

4.75

emotional reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

mmullerm's review against another edition

3.0

I give The Killer Angels 3 out of 5 stars. I listened to the unabridged audiobook (cd's), and enjoyed this production of the book. I VERY RARELY do audiobooks, but this was a fresh change for me because I got to listen on my drives to work, free time in the car, etc. (Plus this was the version available at my local library). I plan to try out more audiobooks because it allows me to have more than one book going at once, which I don't do otherwise.

The Killer Angels is a fictional history of the Battle of Gettysburg, and the author, Michael Shaara, did a wonderful job of personalizing this crucial battle in the Civil War. There were moments in the novel that were beautifully written, and it illustrated both the North's and the South's point of view and why each side fought the war. This 3 day battle fought on July 1-3, 1863, was the deadliest in the war, (it is estimated that around 50,000 soldiers died over the three days). That is heartbreaking to me that that many Americans died in that short a time span! Gettysburg is considered by many to be the turning point in the war, and this book tells the story of both sides with verve. I could tell that the author really put his heart and soul into this book. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and I could tell why, it had good descriptions and solid characters.

Where the book fell short for me was that it took so long to finally get to the action of the battles. There was a LOT of build up and dialogue that got tedious to me, which is why I knocked off 2 stars. The ending was very good (the battle scenes were my favorite part of the book), but getting to the end was tough for me at times.

While I am not the biggest fan of Civil War history, The Killer Angels was a very well written book, and Michael Shaara is a good writer. If he has any books about Revolutionary war times, or possibly another time in our history I will definitely check out more of his books. Thank you GR friend for the recommendation of this book! Keep them coming! Happy reading, everyone!

iamnotacentipede's review against another edition

2.75

I feel like I would enjoy this book more if I was interested in American history or the Civil War.
While the writing was not really all that bad, I just did not have a personal connection to this book which made for difficult reading in wanting to keep picking it up. Several times while reading it felt like the chapters and scenes were taking forever to get through.

I will commend the author for making these real life characters feel more "alive" instead of just names in a book, and there were moments where you feel very much transported into the war scene that was described.

I will admit that because of my general lack of history knowledge that it did take me 1/3 of the way through the book to realize that it was being told from alternating POV of The North and The South soldiers. And I did have to keep checking the front of the book to remember which person was associated with which side.

Overall this might be a very good book for someone who has more of connection with American wars and wants a better "entertainment" view of The Civil War but personally it's not my normal read.
Still giving it an average rating because the writing was very well done and I can't fault the book for it just not being my normal genre.