Customer Reviews

Armageddon

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Mention the author Leon Uris and books like "Exodus," "Trinity," and "QB VII" come to mind. His novel ARMAGEDDON rarely makes such a list, which is a shame, as this powerful story reveals an accomplished author able to weave a riveting tale populated by a stunning array of complex characters.

I first read ARMAGEDDON over thirty years ago; it was my introduction to Uris--an intro that led me in an enthusiastic frenzy to his other works. While I have enjoyed them all (especially "QB VII"), I keep coming back to ARMAGEDDON as Uris' definitive accomplishment. Written during the height of the Cold War--detailing the alarming complexities of the Soviet blockade of Berlin following World War II and the subsequent Allied airlift--this novel explores post-war Germany from literally dozens of different perspectives.

This is a compelling read, beginning with the liberation of the Nazi death camps, when angry and frustrated Allied commanders ordered German citizens from neighboring towns to tour the prisons and see firsthand the atrocities their government had committed. As Soviet domination in eastern Germany threatens to choke the divided city of Berlin, Uris relates the fascinating events of the Allied airlift--a herculean task involving British and American cargo planes flying around the clock into the west side of the city to deliver supplies. If not for the airlift, West Berlin would have collapsed and succumbed to Soviet domination.

The story is told through the points of view of a multitude of characters: an American pilot; a young German woman; a former SS officer who was forced to perform unspeakable acts; British, American, even Russian commanders. The list of characters coming in and out of the story is formidable, yet convincing and essential. And, like Uris' other books, ARMAGEDDON is essentially a portrayal of the indomitable human spirit; for Uris fans unfamiliar with this book, or for fans of historical fiction this novel is highly recommended.
--D. Mikels

I read this book several years ago, unable to put it down - and its prose still affects me today! This is perhaps the most powerful story I'd ever read. A dazzling array of characters from General Marshall to working women gathering bricks on rubble strewn Berlin cities, they're all here. Your transportation back to post-WWII Berlin is so vivid that you'll hear the roll and pounding of allied bombs, you'll swear that C-47s are flying over your living room every nineteen seconds delivering aid to stranded Berliners! Yes, its THAT powerful.

Every character is human. They elicit empathy from you, even the SS candidate who must do the unthinkable upon graduation.

To be sure, this book was written in the late 50s, early 60s. You know who the villian was then. There is a certain slant to Uris's story. He is not entirely objective in his portrait of all the villians in this novel. But it still works powerful magic.

For an engrossing, absorbing history lesson, Read Armegeddon.

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Armageddon is my favorite Leon Uris, unless I just reread Exodus. The book is the story of one of three brothers serving as soldiers during World War II, each in different capacities. Sean O'Sullivan's war is not one of glory and flying but of thinking and strategizing how the United States will occupy Germany after the War. After his brothers are killed by the Germans he finds it hard to do his job and begin the rebuilding of this enemy state.

The story gradual turns to Berlin, the first front of the Cold War. The struggles of Sean O'Sullivan are set against the drama and escalation between the United States and the Soviet Union culminating in the Soviet blockade of Berlin in 1948 and the fledgling United States Air Force successful effort to supply Berlin by air. An air power buff will love this story of the logistics and planning it took to supply half of Berlin, by air, for almost a year.

The intermingling of the facts of rebuilding Germany, the political fight for Berlin and its eventual division into East and West, and the Berlin Airlift with the story of Sean O'Sullivan and Ernestine a young German woman he comes to love create a potent story that you don't want to end despite the long pages.

When Friday night turns into Saturday, and you have been up all night to finish a book, but sorry that it came to an end, then you know that you have read a classic. That is how I feel about Armageddon by Leon Uris.

It is set near the end of World War II in England and continues in Germany through the Berlin Airlift.The development of the characters is superb, their stories exciting.

Nevertheless, I found some of the assumptions about Germans quite incredible, even a little absurd. Uris describes their love of the forest as an almost mystical Teutonic reverance, which I never observed despite living amongst Germans of all backgrounds, and having travelled extensively through their forests above several tons of tracked aluminum.

Uris also describes Americans in a way that we would like to think of ourselves, which is, in a word, righteous. Unfortunately, if that ever existed during the Berlin Airlift, it is not in evidence today.

But against the backdrop of the airlift which was America's most spectacular strategic, tactical and propaganda victory ever against communism, the characters from the pilots, to the Germans, to the leaders of all sides, come to life in realistic and dramatic fashion.

Uris is a masterful storyteller, and this is entirely top notch writing. You cannot help but hope that the lives of his characters and their love triumph in the ordeal of rebuilding a nation from it's total collapse.

This is one of those rare books that I can take from my shelf, turn to any page, and find in any one of them, the shear pleasure of reading.

Uris does it again! Regardless of the inaccuracies other reviewers find, this is a book that tells an important part of healing and history that few students hear in a classroom. Furthermore, Uris whets the reader's curiosity to learn the facts, to seek non-fiction sources and learn about post-War Germany and the power plays that were the first frost of the Cold War.

Uris is a master story-teller -- his characters come fully human, with strengths and weaknesses. His plot is gripping. His style is compelling.

It would be interesting to find out what was going on in the author's head and heart as he wrote the piece, as it evolved from his pen.

I agree that Uris is one of the best story tellers of our time.

This book opens in England in 1944, with the Allies preparing for the invasion of France. An elite team of soldiers looks beyond the invasion to the end of the war, and begins preparations for the occupation of a conquered Germany. Filled with a variety of colorful, yet believable characters, Uris provides a sweeping portrayal of the challenges facing the Allies as they struggle to rebuild a peaceful Germany after the war. The majority of this book focuses on Berlin, and the emerging conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. These former allies find themselves at odds over the future path of Germany, and gradually the U.S. comes to realize that the Soviet Union isn't interested in a free and democratic Germany. The tensions escalate until the Soviets blockade Berlin in a final attempt to drive the Western Allies from the city. The final quarter of the book describes the heroic efforts of the American pilots who flew supplies into Berlin in one of the most remarkable airlifts in history. This book provides a detailed glimpse at the earliest moments in what would come to be known as the Cold War, and helps to explain how Germany changed from being an enemy to an ally.

In this novel, Uris shows us the aftermath of the fall of Berlin. Uris tells the tale of how the 2 winning sides of the war will divy up the country of Germany. The beginning is pretty straight forward, but Uris quickly shows how the Soviets are trying to play mind games with the Americans. We are shown how the two opposing sides deal with their territories won in battle. We see how the Americans fix the pipes and sewage systems and are shown how the eastern Germans are treated like dogs from the Russians. While all is going on we are shown how the Cold War takes shape. Great story telling, and great charactors add to the mix. At some points he had me cheering, when the USA was pitted against the USSR. The section where the huge airlift operation took place was terrific story telling.
The complex nature of the book's charators, goes to show that Uris, is among the elite writers of his day. I only wish a movie could be made of this story.

I've read all of Uris' work and believe him to be amongst the great writers of all time ... his descriptions of immediate post-war Berlin, the power struggles of 4power occupation and the Berlin Airlift were magnificent.

Never has a book made me feel so much a part of the times and the struggles, nor given me agreater feeling for the emotions of the people who helped reshape the world after the worst of all wars.

Positively brilliant ... a MUST read

Leon Uris totally hit his stride in writing this book--and many of his subsequent books picked up on the same kinds of characters and themes discussed and witnessed in ARMAGEDDON.

-You have the Irish-American protagonist O'Sullivan who is given the duty to oversee American interests and policy in the newly defeated Germany - Uris's fascination with the Irish as a people would grow and become more apparent in such books as TRINITY, REDEMPTION, and A GOD IN RUINS.

-You have the bookish professor Faulkenstein, a German who was imprisoned in a concentration camp and mentors O'Sullivan throughout the text-pick a character from MILA 18.

-There is the beautiful German girl Ernestine who falls in love with O'Sullivan prompting him to question his beliefs about the German people after examining the events of the Holocaust-like Kitty in EXODUS and Shelly in TRINITY.

-And then you have the Soviets and their impact on the rebuilding of Germany and *that* is what separates this book from the others I have mentioned. This was Uris' first attempt of writing a holistic story told from all sides and he does it best in this book-though written at the height of the Cold War he goes to great lengths and pains to explore and try to justify all points of view. In his other works where this kind of holistic exploration takes (EXODUS and THE HAJ for example) it seems almost forced and fake.

If you are new to Leon Uris this book is a great place to start; historically informed and complex characters. If you are returning to Uris, give this book another read, it gets better and better with each page!

I have only stayed up all night to read a book twice in my life. Leon Uris's "Armageddon" provided one of those occasions. I remember this book often, and have always wondered why it was never made into a movie or mini-series. More important I wonder why it has not been re-published for over 30 years?
The sombre peace of the end of the WW2 in Europe as the beginnings of the cold war take hold are well portrayed in this evocotive and fascinating narrative.

Please re-publish a nice new copy, so I can read it again.

If Amazon was smart they might even get the idea to re-publish these older 20th century, out of print classics on the Kindle! There are lot's of 'em.