When Jeff came into my office, he started out by saying "Now one thing we can't do is cut this manuscript. It was actually easier than one might think, because Jeff had made a typical first-time novelist's mistake-he started his story too early. The biggest challenge of editing GODS AND GENERALS was cutting it down. Strangely enough, he was born exactly ten years to the day before my best friend, so perhaps it was in the stars that we would work well together. He and I hit it off right from the beginning. After beating out Turner Books (which has since gone out of business) for the right to publish GODS AND GENERALS, I met Jeff, and we began to get to work. After about 400 pages, Jeff began to find a comfortable style and method of telling the story of Lee, Hancock, Armistead, Chamberlain, Longstreet, and Stonewall Jackson before the battle of Gettysburg. I quickly read THE KILLER ANGELS to get a feel for the subject, and then started plowing through G&G. This was the original version of GODS AND GENERALS by Jeff Shaara. I arrived at Ballantine shortly before then-publisher Clare Ferraro dropped a 1,200 page doorstop on my desk, practically causing it to bow in the middle. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. James McPherson, Author of Battle Cry of Freedom Readers of The Killer Angels won't want to miss Gods and Generals". This new novel by his son Jeff Shaara describes the interconnected paths that brought these men together at this crossroads of our history. "The battle of Gettysburg featured a cast of characters dramatically and poignantly portrayed in Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels. succeeds with his historical novel through fully realized characters who were forced to decide their loyalties amid the horrors of their divided nation". "SHAARA'S BEAUTIFULLY SENSITIVE NOVEL DELVES DEEPLY into 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. Though the story of the Civil War has been told many times, this is the rare version that conveys what it must have felt like". His accounts of the battles of Williamsburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville are exciting. He also concisely shows how the early parts of the campaign unfolded. Shaara brilliantly charts the war, the exploits of the combatants and their motivations. THANK GODS AND GENERALS THAT IT WAS PASSED FROM FATHER TO SON".
"BRILLIANT DOES NOT EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE THE SHAARA GIFT.
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