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A Chain Of Thunder (2013)

by Jeff Shaara(Favorite Author)

4.09 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0345527380 (ISBN13: 9780345527387)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Ballantine Books

series

Civil War: 1861-1865, Western Theater

review 1: This is the second book in the series of the Western Theater of the Civil War. It is an excellent book and brings the Vicksburg Campaign alive. This book has the view of the civilian Lucy Spence as she endures the siege of Vicksburg, her neighbors, and her venture into the field of nursing. This take gives us a view of life during war. It also gives us a greater appreciation of the advances we have made in medical care. Of course as field medicine improved so did ways of killing people on the battlefield, but that's another story for another day.We also get great insight into the politics of war from the lowest levels to the highest. We see how individual grudges can turn the outcome of a campaign and quite likely the outcome of the war. It was amazing to discover t... morehat the loss of Vicksburg came about in no small part to the desire of some Confederate Generals to see General Pemberton fail. That does not seem to be the way an army should work and indeed as history tells us it didn't work.I am looking forward to diving into the third book of the series.
review 2: I've read pretty much all of Shaara's books, to date, and a general trend I have found is that the further he writes into any given conflict, the less I like the books. Either the characters lose their realness or I just get sick of reading about the same people.This book kind of bucks that trend. Whereas Blaze of Glory just felt like a glorified Red Badge of Courage with predictable plot lines, this book felt much more original. A lot of that has to do with the campaign itself, being a siege rather than mobile battles. Additionally, Shaara introduces a civilian perspective for what I think is the first time. I'm sure it is the static nature of the battle which allowed him to do that, but it was still a nice change of pace.Also, as someone who has personally toured the Vicksburg battlefield, and walked 15 miles in the July sun to see it, Shaara's descriptions do a good job at showing the details of the terrain, etc. less

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