The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II
by Jeff Shaara
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jeff ShaaraEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-11-07
ISBN: 034546141X
Number of pages: 576
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II
Book Review: Shaara's Introduction to WWII.
Summary: 5 Stars
When it comes to US Military historical fiction, Jeff Shaara has no peers. I had to wait over a month to get my hands on this book (Christmas and all that and "don't buy anything with Christmas coming!"), but the wait was well worth it. In THE RISING TIDE, Shaara introduces the first of what is to be an extraordinary WWII trilogy. This volume introduces the reader to American involvement against Germany, beginning with troop landings in North Africa, across the rugged terrain of Sicily and finally into Italy, with a brief introduction to the planning stages of Operation Overlord.
Shaara follows the same format he has used in all of his books; a format introduced to us first by Sharra's father Michael in his extraordinary Civil War novel, Killer Angels. This format implements varying viewpoints from a cast of characters ranging from Commanding Generals down to never before heard of enlisted men.
The Africa Campaign revolves around of course, Rommel, Montgomery, Eisenhower and Patton, as well as an American tank gunner named Jack Logan. Each chapter tells the unfolding events from the different viewpoints of the characters involved. The descriptive narrative is beyond description. This is by far the largest portion of the book, absorbing the first 2/3rds of the 500+ pages.
The reader is then introduced to a new character, Sgt. Jesse Adams of the 82nd Airborne as the campaign moves into the troop landing in Sicily. This section of the book was, to me, the most gripping narrative of the book, giving battlefield detail that puts the reader right there in the action. Paratroopers scattered across a 60 mile drop zone to survive against German tanks. This portion of the reading is Shaara at his best as he possesses an uncanny ability to accurately depict battle scenes in the readers mind.
The book concludes with Allied forces landing in Italy. This portion of the book falls a little short as the whole landing is rather skimmed over. I would have liked to have seen another hundred or so pages devoted to such scenes as Anzio and Monte Cassini. That may be in store for the next volume, but the way this volume ended, it looks to me like the next book will concentrate primarily on Normandy and beyond.
Overall, this is not what I would consider Shaara's best work, but being only the first part of a trilogy, one cannot definitively make that assessment at this stage of the game. One must also consider that, again, being a part of a trilogy, many pages were consumed here with simply laying the groundwork and introducing the personalities involved. At any rate, this is superb historical fiction that is historically accurate. I anxiously await the next installment.
Summary of The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II
A modern master of the historical novel, Jeff Shaara has painted brilliant depictions of the Civil War, the Revolutionary War, and World War I. Now he embarks upon his most ambitious epic, a trilogy about the military conflict that defined the twentieth century. The Rising Tide begins a staggering work of fiction bound to be a new generation?s most poignant chronicle of World War II. With you-are-there immediacy, painstaking historical detail, and all-inclusive points of view, Shaara portrays the momentous and increasingly dramatic events that pulled America into the vortex of this monumental conflict.As Hitler conquers Poland, Norway, France, and most of Western Europe, England struggles to hold the line. When Germany?s ally Japan launches a stunning attack on Pearl Harbor, America is drawn into the war, fighting to hold back the Japanese conquest of the Pacific, while standing side-by-side with their British ally, the last hope for turning the tide of the war.
Through unforgettable battle scenes in the unforgiving deserts of North Africa and the rugged countryside of Sicily, Shaara tells this story through the voices of this conflict?s most heroic figures, some familiar, some unknown. As British and American forces strike into the ?soft underbelly? of Hitler?s Fortress Europa, the new weapons of war come clearly into focus. In North Africa, tank battles unfold in a tapestry of dust and fire unlike any the world has ever seen. In Sicily, the Allies attack their enemy with a barely tested weapon: the paratrooper. As battles rage along the coasts of the Mediterranean, the momentum of the war begins to shift, setting the stage for the massive invasion of France, at a seaside resort called Normandy.
More than an unprecedented and intimate portrait of those who waged this astonishing global war, The Rising Tide is a vivid gallery of characters both immortal and unknown: the as-yet obscure administrator Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose tireless efficiency helped win the war; his subordinates, clashing in both style and personality, from George Patton and Mark Clark to Omar Bradley and Bernard Montgomery. In the desolate hills and deserts, the Allies confront Erwin Rommel, the battlefield genius known as ?the Desert Fox,? a wounded beast who hands the Americans their first humiliating defeat in the European theater of the war. From tank driver to paratrooper to the men who gave the commands, Shaara?s stirring portrayals bring the heroic and the tragic to life in brilliant detail.
A new level of accomplishment from this already acclaimed author, The Rising Tide will leave readers eager for the next volume of this superb saga of the war that saved and changed the world.
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