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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.
From the Hardcover edition.
The Devil is in the details
| Customer Rating:   | I tried very hard to enjoy this book after happily reading many of the author's works set in 19th Century wars. The problem is that I am a 'detail oriented' person that has read extensively about U.S. WWII armor and weapons. I found myself wishing the author had spent just a little time researching U.S. Army organization and equipment of the period. His gross errors kept me from "staying in the story". I have hesitated to buy the second novel in the series because I shudder to think of the errors that might be in a work on the European Campaign.
This is a great book for the average person who wouldn't know a Sherman tank from a Stuart. If you know nothing about armor piercing versus high explosive shells; this one is for you. This book has its place in literature because the author makes history entertaining and may motivate the huge numbers of readers, who were taught to hate "History" in school, to learn more. In that it does a great service. Shaara is a great writer but should do more research on the details if he wants to write more works on WWII. One reviewer mentioned W.E.B. Griffith. Like Shaara, Griffith committed some pretty gross errors on equipment. I still liked his books and I will read more of Shaara.
I will take the time to correct one of Shaara's statments. He implies a scandal that U.S. troops couldn't get Sherman Tanks because those vehicles had been given to the British. Consequently, the U.S. troops had only Stuart 'light' tanks. That is a total falsehood! The British did get priority on Sherman production prior to U.S. entry into the war. One of the U.S. Armored Divisions that landed in North Africa was partially equipped with M3 'Lee' medium tanks due to the shortage of Shermans. The Lee had the same gun as the Sherman but not in a turret. There was no 'scandal'. All U.S. 'medium' tank companies were equipped with 'medium' tanks.
I will leave it there as I could fill pages with the other errors. I felt it was a disservice to Truth to let a totally false and baseless 'scandal' stand. |
Disappointing
| Customer Rating: | As a reader of historical fiction and a WWII buff I really wanted to like this book. I have plowed through about two-thirds of it and just given up, as much as I wanted to like it I just can't take the time to go on.
For me, this book fails on several levels. Shaara tries to tell the "big picture" and "small picture" stories by switching points of view between historical and fictional protagonists, but the brief vingnettes with the fictional characters left me unable to know or care much about them.
The historical characters are poorly rendererd cardbord cutouts. I realized part way through that the dialogue attributed to each man is indistinguishable in vocabulary, diction, and tone from each other. There is no sense of Eisenhower's optimism, Patton's fire, Rommel's leadership or Marshall's gravitas. All of them, in the book, speak in contemporay (and I mean currrent contemporary) slang. I realize that general officers sometimes address each other by first name in private, but I don't believe ANYONE ever addressed Marshall as "George"...and Marshall addressed Eisenhower as "Eisenhower" and never as "Ike" as Shaara has him doing.
By the way, there is an author's warning about the language in the book. It's limited to everybody saying "damnned" a whole damnned lot - from George Marshall (who seldom, if ever, used any sort of profanity) to George Patton (who was famous for his foul tounge, and was a much more creative cusser then using one mild expletive continuously).
The research seems to be correct in the large but superficial. The author refers to equpment (armored trucks) that did not exist in the U.S. Army inventory in 1942, and there are numerous small factual errors - for example American tanks are referred to as "more compact" then German ones - when in fact the high profile of US armor was a disadvantage compared to German armor.
In short, if you know anything about WWII history already, you will not enjoy the book because of the inaccurate characterization of historical figures that you already know and numerous niggling factual errors. If you aren't knowlegeable about WWII history, you will get tired of the cookie-cutter characters and won't care much about the fictional ones.
The story of a green U.S. Army facing the veteran German army and losing it's first battle (Kasserine Pass) and then recovering to win victory after victory over the nazis is a great one. It deserves better than this novel. Your time and money would be better spent with history - like Stephen Ambrose, Cornelius Ryan or Charles B. Macdonald to name a few. |
Rising tide
| Customer Rating: | | As in the succeeding book the introduction - which should be historically accurate - contains numerous mistakes the least one being where the author calls Rommel a Bavarian (I do hope that no Swabian reads the book because he surely would blow his top). The novel itself is impressive as it seems to describe the combat situations very realistically. The characters descriptions sometimes seem to be overdrawn and exaggerated. |
Page-turning story of the allied liberations of North Africa and Sicily
| Customer Rating: | Jeff Shaara delivers another historic fiction masterpiece in "The Rising Tide". In his preface to the book, he writes "What could I possibly add that hasn't already been written about so many times before? ... My goal is to find a few voices, and to tell their story through their eyes, to put you the same room with some of the most important and fascinating characters in our history." He continues "My goal here is to offer you a good story. I hope you find it so." After completing this book, I feel that he certainly succeeded.
The book begins with a quick introduction to the strategic environment leading to the rise of the nationalist socialist (Nazi) regime in Germany. Along with the rise of the Nazi party comes the political ambition of expanding Germany's borders and restoring prestige lost at the conclusion of World War I. With the strategic stage set, Shaara provides a brief biographical sketch of two main characters - Dwight Eisenhower and Erwin Rommel. From here, the reader departs on the fictionalized conversations of the people who set forth in motion the allies first counterthrust to the Wehrmacht juggernaut.
Shaara is the master of weaving the tactical, operational, and strategic viewpoints of the same events. He begins the story by relating the experiences of a British tank crew facing the onslaught of the Afrikakorps Panzers. Contrasting this perspective, he provides the reader with the conversations on strategy between General Rommel and his staff.
You share the thrill of the Afrikakorps Soldaten as they shred the predictable defenses of the British in Libya. You feel the anguish as Winston Churchill relieves the British Commander Auchinlech and replaces him with the flamboyant Bernard Montgomery. Montgomery relieves Auchinlech in time to prepare the British defenses at the Egyptian town of El Alamein. The flow of story travels with British army as they chase the Desert Fox across Libya.
The American characters are introduced as Shaara discusses the Allied planning to bring the battle to the Germans. Shaara accurately portrays the debates between British and American strategists between opening the "second" front in France, or in North Africa. With the debate settled, the next order of business was the selection of the command structure for the invasion of North Africa. Again, Shaara captures the nuances of the decisions to appoint an American as the overall commander with British officers as the component commanders.
No book on the American operations in North Africa would be complete without a discussion on the generals who made the operation a success. Readers gain an appreciation for the meteoric rise of stars like Omar Bradley, George Patton and Jim Gavin, to the firing of Fredendall who was responsible for the American debacle at Kasserine.
Shaara's story supports Clausewitzian adage of "warfare is a continuation of politics by other means." Shaara introduces the reader to Robert Murphy, the American State Department diplomat who worked behind the scenes to neuter the possibility of Vichy French resistance to the American invasions.
After the German surrender in Tunisia, the book continues with Operation Husky, the liberation of Sicily. While telling the story of the race to Messina, readers are introduced to the infamous Patton slapping incident. With Sicily secured, the invasion of Italy proper can begin. At this point, Eisenhower and a large portion of the American forces move to England in preparation for the invasion of France.
Shaara's story of these historic events is absolutely spell-binding. He masterfully wove the stories of men like Sgt Jesse Adams, a paratrooper from the 82d Airborne, with the tales of the key decision makers who put him in harm's way. Shaara also showed no preference for the side of the conflict. His fictional conversations were factually accurate and told the stories both the Axis and Allied warriors. This book will be a page-turner for the World War II history fan! |
Historical Fiction at its Best!
| Customer Rating: | Admittedly, I'm not familiar with Jeff Shaara's work outside of the movie "Gods & Generals," the sequel to the movie ("Gettysburg") inspired by his father's own historical fiction, "The Killer Angels." While I was not as impressed with the movie's take on history, I was led to the conclusion that aside from the title, much of the book is left out of the film. That being the case, and since I am an avid WWII history buff, I decided to give "The Rising Tide" a chance. How very glad I am that I did!
If you're looking for spoilers, you might consider reading another review, as I do not like to ruin anything for anyone. However, if you know your WWII history, especially in those early years of US ground operations in North Africa and Sicily, then you likely already know many of the outcomes, subplots and personalities. Instead, let me address the book itself, rather than the content.
What I most enjoyed was the fair portrayal given to both the Allied forces and the German army. In particular, we follow the careers of Eisenhower, Patton, Rommel and Kesselring through the North Africa and Sicily campaigns. Instead of merely villifying the Germans as all Nazi collaborators, we see a more sympathetic figure, full of brilliance and energy, but also flaws and setbacks. The same can be said of the Allied forces. Rather than merely glorify their wonderous deeds, we also explore the human aspects of the men in charge, their own shortcomings, fears, worries and personal struggles. It humanizes these icons in a way that is attainable to any reader, puts them on a level almost equal to our own.
What I next liked was the in-depth struggles of the soliders in the field. Instead of the omniscient voice constantly dictating the action on the battlegrounds, we see the side of the army from the lowest level, a private with a tank, and a sergeant with a 'stick' of paratroopers. In both cases, the war is brought home to a human level, to our own experiences and history. We identify with these men, and we share in their anxieties, fears, joys and confusion. The surreal nature of the conflict is only broadened by these more intimate experiences, and we can plunge ourselves deeper into the history because of it.
Bear in mind, the third-person-omniscient is present, and at times, we are handed the inner thoughts of generals and enlisted men. Sometimes, the action is moved forward, with a recapping of the interlude given to us by the narrator. Still, the pace is quick, the action is enveloping, the language is not too cerebral, but it also is not dumbed down for simplicity's sake. On the whole, this work by Jeff Shaara is very readable, hard to put down, and engrossing for any fan of historical fiction, WWII, war stories in general, or even the occasional generic fiction lover. It is a work of fiction, this much is true, but its sources are real-life persona, men who had fought in the sands and rocks. I do not believe the fiction goes much further than to supply the actual conversations that we know took place, just perhaps not the actual words. The battles, the people, though, are drawn straight from the pages of history.
I cannot recommend this book enough. If you are turned off by war stories, or if WWII is not your fancy, then you might not get as much enjoyment out of it as someone else who is a fan. I would still recommend it, though, as history is always worth revisiting, especially if it demonstrates the best and worst aspects of human nature. (We could always use a little reminder of what should and should not be repeated throughout our lives). If you are a WWII buff, though, I suggest you add this first book of a planned triology to your collection right away! |
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