The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II
by Jeff Shaara
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jeff ShaaraEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-20
ISBN: 0345461371
Number of pages: 608
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II
Book Review: A review of the entire trilogy
Summary: 4 Stars
The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II
The first book in the series. It is the weakest in many ways. Shaara approaches most of his books with the docudrama format - a little bit of narrative history, a lot bit of historical fiction. His narrative history is quite well written and flows nicely.
The historical fiction in this book is its weak point. The action is very good, but there is not a lot of action - just a few pages in the Afica Campaign and some very solid stuff from the Sicily campaign. The majority of the historical fiction part of the book, among the Allied characters at least, is Shaara's characters putting themselves into place to fight Rommell and setting the scene for the second book. It would have moved more briskly if Shaara would have reverted to the historical narrative form, but it would severely limit the fictional aspects of the book.
On the Axis side, Rommell is the compelling figure of the book. Clearly Shaara builds him up to be the ultimate professional officer of the war - not a Nazi, just a man fighting his country as he has always done. Shaara skirts around the issues that Rommell must have surely considered when those orders come from thugs like the Nazis. Perhaps he just assumed that Rommell chose to mostly ignore the uncomfortable aspects of taking orders from people like the Nazis. Perhaps Rommell was just as afraid of the Communists and just as angry at the Allies as Hitlers was - we just don't know from this book. What I did not get from this series was a sense that Rommell was a real "super general". After all, for the layman he is the only battlefield German General with a "name brand" recognition. What I got from this portrayal of Rommell was a sense that he just could two particular British commanders with ease if he had the resources and that he could see that Germany was extending itself too far.
There are plenty of great maps in this series, but especially in this book.
I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.
The Steel Wave: A Novel of World War II
The second book in the series is a superior book to the first in almost every way. There is a lot more action (hundreds of pages) and it is intense. The political wrangling that Eisenhower had to endure and master is a theme in every book, but is strongest in this one. The title of the book comes from a comment that Rommell makes about the Allied invasion coming in like a wave of steel into France.
Rommell continues on as a major character throughout. It is interesting to note that he was correct to fear an Allied invasion of France (which most of the German high command poo-pooed) but picked the wrong place. Hitler picked the right place, although he doubted it would happen. It is also interesting to note that Rommell thought that D-Day was a feint and failed to respond correctly to it until it was too late. Rommell is still the most interesting "officer" character on either side - he knows that Germany will be ruined by the Nazis and that the Germans will lose the war but we get little sense that he was opposed to the Nazis for any reason other than that they will bring ruin to Germany. Still, the way Shaara deals with the last bits of Rommell's life is compelling reading.
Even more compelling is the way Shaara deals with the ground-level stories of the American soldiers during D-Day. This is riveting stuff - well told and compelling.
I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.
No Less Than Victory: A Novel of World War II
The final book in Shaara's World War II trilogy is very similar to the second book, which makes sense since it is a continuation of the same campaign. The Allies continue their quest to push across France and into Germany. Patton looms as a larger and larger character. The part of the noble German soldier, previously played by Rommell is filled by Karl Rudolf Gerd Von Rundstedt, so much so that the reader may not even miss the Rommell character at all.
The battle sequences are stirringly told. The "Battle of the Bulge" is told quite well from the point of view of three of the very few soldiers of the 106th that made it through the battle without being killed or captured (this was Kurt Vonnegut's unit, by the way).
Shaara spends a lot of time in the book among the inner circle of Hitler's loyal command, with people like Albert Speer and Martin Bormann. It is an interesting choice to do so, but I would have preferred that he had not done it. It would have been even more interesting to have looked at the common foot soldier that continued to fight after the war was completely lost and seen what their motivations were (perhaps this interest comes from a college class I had more than 20 years ago where we met a man who was just that - a common foot soldier who abandoned the Eastern Front and marched across Austria and Germany to surrender to American troops).
Shaara's tale of the liberation of the Ohrdruf concentration camp was shocking, visceral and powerful. Very well done.
I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.
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.
From the Hardcover edition.
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