Amazon.de
As Stephen Lang reads the final installment of Michael and Jeff Shaara's American Civil War trilogy, he conveys the horror and exhaustion that overwhelmed the battered soldiers by allowing a hauntingly weary quality to color his voice.
The Last Full Measure picks up where the previous novels (
The Killer Angels and
Gods and Generals) left off, after the devastating Battle of Gettysburg, as the Confederate Army begins a long and fiercely contested retreat. The author writes, "As the war enters its third year the bloody reports continue to fill the newspapers and the bodies of young men continue to fill the cemeteries. To the eager patriots, the idealists and adventurers who had joined the fight in the beginning, there is a new reality, where honor and glory are becoming hollow words. The great causes are slowly pushed aside and men now fight with the grim determination to take this fight to its end." Lang puts his theatrical experience (
Hamlet,
Death of a Salesman,
A Few Good Men) to good use here, delivering the narrative with sincerity. Although his effort is occasionally distracting, he creates a multitude of voices for the many historical characters, adding an element of emotional authenticity to this exceedingly powerful story. Once again Shaara uses an evocative blend of historical fact and well-researched fiction to create a powerful portrait of the men, great and small, whose actions determined the outcome of the war. (Running time: six hours, four cassettes)
--George Laney
-- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
Pressestimmen
"Riveting . . . Vivid . . . Brilliantly depicted. . . . THE LAST FULL MEASURE IS MORE THAN ANOTHER HISTORICAL NOVEL. It is rooted in history, but its strength is the element of humanity flowing through its characters. . . . The book is compelling, easy to read, well researched and written, and thought-provoking. . . . In short, it is everything that a reader could ask for."
--Chicago Tribune
"A WORTHY COMPANION TO ITS TWO PREDECESSORS . . . These characters come alive as complex, heroic, and flawed men. . . . You are with [Robert E.] Lee, a deeply religious man, as he first begins to wonder if the Confederate cause will prevail. . . . You ride with [Ulysses S.] Grant to see the mounds of Union dead at Cold Harbor, and you share his sickening realization that thousands are dead because of his miscalculation. . . . You are at [Joshua] Chamberlain's bedside as he fights to recover from nearly mortal wounds. . . . Each book is masterful in its own way and taken together, they are unmatched in the body of Civil War literature."
--The Baltimore Sun
"AN AMBITIOUS WORK . . . [Shaara] writes with considerable sensitivity and skill, setting vivid scenes and adding drama and suspense to a familiar tale."
--The Seattle Times
"Exhaustively researched, infused with a profound understanding of the great issues of a nation and the small quirks of the human heart and ego, The Last Full Measure is fiction that brings history brilliantly to life."
--Newsday