Customer Reviews

The Rising Tide

5 star:		(77)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

In his (now regrettably past) prime, W.E.B. Griffin concocted wonderful war adventures from blending real people and events with fictional characters and circumstances. Jeff Shaara has gone miles beyond Griffin in taking real people, real events, adding just a bit of imagination and turning actual history into great fiction. Truly great fiction.

"The Rising Tide" is the first of a planned trilogy about WWII. For the first few pages, I wondered where Shaara was going. It was more on the order a well written history text. Then it segued to Rommell in the desert . . . and then it dawned on me.

Shaara is bringing us into a part of the lives of Rommel, Eisenhower, Patton, Montgomery, Bradley and ordinary soldiers that we can't touch: the internal happenings of their minds. Shaara's goal is audacious and his success breathtaking.

Most of Shaara's words are spent on the leaders, like Rommell and Eisenhower. Good move: Shaara is able to provide the big picture, the sweep and scope of the war. In less competent hands, I doubt that it would work. But Shaara makes it seem real. The frustrations of Rommel, faced with a deteriorating situation in Africa, the jealousy of other German generals, the incompetence of the Italian leadership, the increasingly delusional Hitler and his own declining health. Shaara puts you in Rommel's mind, so to speak, and he does it well.

The same holds true for Eisenhower, as yet untested as the leader of a never before attempted coalition. Eisenhower is not sure of his own capabilities, but he has virtually no one to confide his fears in. Shaara makes leadership the lonely place it is.

Without spoiling it for the reader, it is difficult to convey Shaara's triumph. To those familiar with WWII history, particularly the North African campaigns, virtually every event in Shaara's book will be known. Shaara wisely balances the big-time players like Eisenhower with some smaller fry, specifically two American soldiers. It's an impressive and very effective technique.

For those readers who are not overly familiar with the period, it's a painless and entertaining way to open a window on history.

Shaara has done something truly unique here and he's done it superlatively well. WWII history afficiandos and those simply interested in a solid war adventure will find it fascinating. I'm impatiently looking forward to the next two volumes.

Jerry

"The Rising Tide" (historical fiction) is the first of a trilogy by Jeff Shaara. This is a magnificent book - full of intimate and spell-binding details based on World War II. I thoroughly enjoyed it and eagerly anticipate the next book.

Mr. Shaara is a master of this type novel. Earlier works included spectacular depictions of the Civil War and eloquent portrayals of World War I. Like many of you, I did not think there was anything more to learn about World War II - due to countless movies and books on the subject. I was wrong.

The author manages to grab the reader's attention through an invigorating mix of key players. I encountered the usual suspects, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, etc. However, I was captivated by an interesting assortment of obscure characters - which brought texture, warmth, and appeal, to this exceptional read.

The chapter on Erwin Romnel (sometimes called "Desert Fox") kept me riveted. It had more action, suspense, and adventure than a James Bond movie! In the foreword, the author states his goal is to find a few voices, tell the story through their eyes, and put the reader in the same room. I visited that room, met some exceptional people, and had a memorable time. I encourage you to do the same.

Reggie Johnson, Success-Tapes.Com

Jeff Shaara's The Rising Tide is the first of a projected trilogy on World War II. Those familiar with his other works--such as his Civil War novels, Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure, his Revolutionary War and Mexican War works--will recognize the technique here. Shaara picks a handful of characters and uses their experiences to create the forward movement of his works.

In The Rising Tide, the key characters whose views are used to create the narrative include George Patton, Dwight Eisenhower, Erwin Rommel ("The Desert Fox"), Albert Kesselring, and a couple American soldiers, Jack Logan and Jesse Adams. The advantage of this is that you see the role of individuals, from different perspectives in a series of military engagements. This provides a certain richness of texture to the novel. On the other hand, there are limits to this. The reader does not get a bird's eye view of the action. All is through the eyes of specific individuals grounded in very specific circumstances. This works well enough, of course, but things can get left out.

The novel begins with Rommel's combat against the English in North Africa and his ability to win against long odds. However, the weight on British and then British and American troops is too much, as his army cannot receive enough gasoline, replacement troops and tanks , and so on to compete effectively. After the allies defeat the German and Italian forces in North Africa, the action of the novel moves to Sicily, where the hard fought campaign is described well. The conclusion of the novel points to the nasty Italian campaign and the early days of organizing the invasion of France.

The reader is left looking forward to the next volume in this series. While the structure of Shaara's novel has lost its novelty, it can still be effective as a story telling device.

Jeff Shaara has written a masterpiece in the 1st of a much anticipated trilogy. The characters are richly drawn, Rommel, Eisenhower, Montgomery, Clark, Patton and a memorable list of others. The bulk of the novel takes place in North Africa as an uncertain and untested American force joins the British in an attempt to drive Rommel and his Panzer divisions from North Africa. Then the action leaps to Sicily where Patton takes center stage and adds to his illustrious reputation. I loved how the action and history propels you through the pages. The characters literally jump off the page at you and you become to know them so well. Interesting in how the story weaves back from the Allied point of view and the German point of view. Highly recommended.

This book is a good complement to the recent non-fiction "An Army at Dawn" by Atkinson. The latter described the US Army's experience in North Africa during World War 2. Shaara's book is also mostly about the same theatre, though it also ventures into the subsequent Italian campaign. For Shaara's fans, the format of the book will be quite familiar. There is the rendition of fictional dialogue by historical figures; in this case Patton, Eisenhower and Rommel. Plus a smattering of purely fictional, low ranking characters. Here, a tanker and a paratrooper.

As usual, Shaara has performed impressive research. So that when a well known historical figure makes some remark, you can be confident that even though it may be fictional, it is consistent with what actually transpired. Plus, the narrative shows many of the difficulties encountered in the field. Something that standard history texts might not sufficiently portray.

However it has to be said that the book is like his others in this regard. Barely more than a pure non-fiction historical treatise. The overwhelming focus is the actual events. The fictional characters are little other than cardboard. None are truly memorable. One could reasonably say that the narrative is essentially non-fiction.

You disagree? Here is another take. Do you read science fiction? A common and accurate criticism of much science fiction is that the idea (usually technology oriented) is the true hero of the story. Any human characters are often just window dressing, to buttress the idea. If you can recognise that in science fiction, so too with Shaara's books.

Still disagree? There have been some memorable novels set in World War 2. "Winds of War" by Herman Wouk, and "From Here to Eternity" by James Jones, for example. Written in the 1960s, these are now generally considered classic. The characters are far more fully fleshed and thus likelier to remain in your memory long after you have read the books. Yes, you can be a fan of Shaara. But you should still also see that he has never produced anything as comparable.

Jeff Shaara once again writes an outstanding historical fiction. The North African/Sicily/Italian Campaign is often forgotten in coverage of the war falling as a footnote to D-Day and other battles. This well researched novel places the reader as an intimate witness to the American introduction to war and their subsequent maturing as a dominant fighting force. You are exposed to the delicate politics and frustrations experienced by the planners as well as the bravery of the common soldier. The writing is swift and engrossing. It is a shame we will have to wait another year for the next installment in the trilogy.

This is an interesting book and would be a painless way for those unfamiliar with the story of the North African campaign to learn the history. The author fictionalizes the thoughts and conversations of historical figures like Rommel and Eisenhower plus he adds a few fictitious characters to round out the story. It is well done but the characters do not have the depth of the WEB Griffin characters or those of Herman Wouk in his novels The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. Both Griffin and Wouk use minor characters to tell the story and make much less of an attempt to present the thinking of the historical figures. I think both Wouk and Griffin draw better and deeper characters although I understand some of the impatience readers have with recent Griffin books. The early Griffin series about Army Aviation and about the Marine Corps in World War II are better novels with fully rounded characters. Wouk's characters are the work of a master. Tom Clancy writes less in a historical genre although his novels are written for the same readers.

Having said that, this is a good novel with lots of detail that, having read a lot of history about this period, sounds accurate to me. For someone who knows less of the history and wants to learn it, this would be an excellent read. It is a fictional version of An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy.

Many books have been written about WWII, but I would include Jeff Shaara's novel "The Rising Tide" in the must read category for anyone that enjoys reading about WWII. The book is well written and unlike many WWII novels, Jeff explores and developes characters from both the allied army and the axis army. Jeff also provides perspective from the leaders down to the men in the field. The first book of his trilogy provides great detail on Africa and Italy for any WWII history enthusiast. Looking forward to Jeff's next novel.

I read a lot of historical novels, and World War II is one of my favorite topics. After reading "Gods and Generals" last year, I knew Jeff Shaara was a very good writer. The Rising Tide is an excellent beginning of a WWII trilogy. Covering the North Africa, Sicily, and Italy campaigns, Shaara does a nice job of weaving the combat scenes into the political goings-on in the background, and describing the various politicians (Roosevelt and Churchill) and generals (Eisenhower, Patton, Rommel, Montgomery, Clark, and Bradley) who were involved. After reading about all of the strife and disagreements between the Americans and the British, it's a wonder that the Allies won the war!

Shaara describes the main characters well enough to give a good picture of their personalities and thinking. All except two of the characters are high-level politicians or military leaders. Two are GIs: a tank gunner and an airborne sergeant. The emphasis is on the high-ranking folks, with fairly limited time spent with the GIs, but in any case, the author paints the overall picture pretty well.

The book has excellent maps for each major battle. Some of the map scales were wrong, giving an erroneous idea of the distances, but other than that, the maps were very helpful. Some photos would have been nice (for example, showing some of the types of tanks involved), but I imagine most serious students of WWII already know about that.

Overall, Shaara does a very nice job with The Rising Tide, and I'm looking forward to the second book of the trilogy, which will be Overlord, the Normandy invasion.

Definitely a must for the WWII buff, especially if you haven't read much about the campaigns in North Africa and Italy in 1942-1943.

The Rising Tide is Shaara's entry into the WW2 genre of his popular style of historical fiction writing. It begins with the US entry into WW2 in North Africa. It proceeds from here into Sicily and Italy. If you are familiar with any of Shaara's other works covering the American Revolution, US Civil War and/or WWI, then you will easily be familair with his writing style as he continues his typical format. This involves devoting individual chapters to a particular person such as Patton or Rommel and then proceeding into the next chapter to another character and then returning as events unfold.

This book is the first in a planned trilogy dealing with the subject of WW2. To date I have read all of Shaara's historical fiction books. I found this book well written and interesting. However, it was not up to par in holding my attention as were his previously books. The lone exception was when Rommel was addressed as a point of focus. Shaara seems to have spent more care with these chapters and it shows through in the writing and character development. One gets a fairly good sense of the man himself and what he faced.

I'm not entirely sure why this book failed to hold my attention as well as the others. It may be that the genre was more foriegn to Shaara as compared to the earlier militray eras or it could be that the point of view from the different general's perspectives was "behind the lines" as compared with other wars, where they were more in the heat of battle with their troops. This created a less dramatic sense when compared to his other books. The exception again is Rommel who is found more on the front lines than Eisenhower. Another reason might have to do with the particular theater of the war. Desert warfare itself did not lend itself to the easiest of detailing in the tank battle scenes. The battle scenes did pick up once the action in Sicily began. It was here that my attention was held much longer and I began to get the typical sense of the events in richer detail that I have come to expect from Shaara.

Whatever the case the book is still worth reading, especially if you are a Shaara fan. If you haven't read Shaara before, then you might best be introduced to his books via his US Civil War trilogy. I fully intend to read the next book in the trilogy and expect that the depth will increase and the detail will be enriched with the progressing theaters of the war.