Customer Reviews

That Anvil of Our Souls: A Novel of the Monitor and the Merrimack

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Don't miss this book. Once more Poyer weaves his tale masterfully, but this time he's telling a story about an internationally famous and widely studied event. Many pitfalls no matter how he presents it. So he has taken us inside the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia, and shows us how it was to those on the scene. They have no clue to the outcome, and they know how many times in the battle a close call could go either way. Tragedy or victory, ending the war, seems within fingertips througout the epoch shaking confrontation. Technology makes a difference and individual personalities makes a difference, but no one could have predicted the end result of a standoff, the most tenuous of all possibilities. Rarely has historical fiction portrayed so well the context surrounding a famous event, showing that "nothing had to happen the way it happened when it happened", as David McCullough reminds us.

David Poyer is a naval writer of some distinction. Some years ago, I read one of his books and wasn't impressed with it. I returned to him to try again when I bought Fire on the Water, and then its two sequels, A Country of Our Own and the current book, The Anvil of Our Souls. Frankly, I think I'm glad I gave him another try, and I'm considering going back and trying his other stuff again.

The three books mentioned above are part of a series of novels that deal with the American Civil War, focusing on the naval aspects of the campaign. The first book recounts the experiences of the crew of a United States warship, most of the officers of which are Southerners. The second book follows the executive officer of that ship as he becomes a Confederate raider on the high seas. This third book instead focuses on most of the rest of the characters from the first book, following the black escaped slave who was a gunner, the doctor (a Southerner), an engineer who understands steam engines, and so forth. One of the main characters of this third volume is the ardent Southerner from the second book, Minter, who's portrayed rather negatively in spite of the fact he's a rebel.

The central portion of the plot of this book surrounds the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac. The author is obviously a sailor himself, and he's apparently done a prodigious amount of research, so everything is very authentic, right down to Worden's Elmer-Fudd-like accent and the method of pointing the guns in the Monitor's turret away from the enemy when reloading. The battle is recounted in considerable detail, and occupies what must be the middle 200 pages of the book. Even though you know how things come out, it's still suspenseful and interesting.

I enjoyed this book a great deal, and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

I enjoyed the technical detail of the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor, as well as the somewhat similar and yet very different personalities associated with each. One reviewer stated he thought Poyer had a bias toward one side or the other - I don't think so. I think the book is mostly agnostic and presents the well known arguments for and against both sides as part of the story, without being preachy in either case. It is really more a book about naval technology, strategy, and how the best laid plans can go awry. Poyer is a naval adventure writer who produces literature and not just pulp. He creates the sights, sounds, and smells of the battle. the only thing I did not like about this book was that it was a bit constrained by the conceit of showing the same event from the perspective of perhaps a few too many people. But each of the key characters is well-developed and engaging, even when they might be repulsive or admirable.

This book displays the author's fantastic knowledge of everything "civil war". However, if you know the history then there is nothing new. I got very bored reading about medical, food, poor attempts at human drama, and mechanics of the era. It seemed like this book was a tedious display of the author's knowledge via the eyes of mediocre characters than a good story. I already know what happened between the two ships, so the plot is non-existent and nothing about the characters adds to it.
As a series I found it left some of the main characters hanging. For example, the doctor is one of the only characters to appear in all three. I feel he is only there as a vehicle to display medical knowledge of the era. Another is the engineer who is a shallow character present to describe in tedious detail the engines. The best character in the series is not even present in this book. Perhaps future volumes would have picked them up, but I suspect the series is dead in the water (pun intended). Where else can they go except to the river battles. If more books are written, I would not follow this series.

As usual David Poyer writes a very thorough, very knowlegedable book, in this case the clash of the Merrimack and Monitor. so great is his expertise that the book in overwelming in its presentation of the technical aspects of this two historic vessals. A navy man will love it, as for the rest, they would probably like a little more about the characters themsleves.

In reading this novel it comes across as more about the Merrimack and some about the Monitor. It seemed that the author was sympathetic to the South and anti North. Even more so, it seemed to be anti Lincoln in that over and over again Lincoln was referred to in various deragatory manners by people of the south as presented by the author. I came away with the feeling that the author was presenting the South as noble and in a favorable light while the North in a less than favorable light in that they were usurping the free men of the South the right to keep people in slavery. Furthermore, the wife on one Southern naval officer being held by the North is raped by another Southern naval officer and totally gets away with this. Maybe there is another book that will follow that will redress this incident, but I do not think I will waste my time.