To the Last Man

Seen from the eyes of the fighting men, the author's engaging novel captures the Great War's infamy for futility and needless death. Told in an unconventional style using abundant short phrases and incomplete sentences, the scenes of exploding action and personal tragedy contain riveting detail. Using skilled accents in four languages--American and British English, German, and French--Paul Michael develops his many characters' individual personalities. Since the narrative switches among concurrent, separate stories, Michael's changing accents magnify our ability to follow and enjoy the novel. The compelling production transports listeners to the suffering of the entrenched infantry living in lice-filled uniforms and the pilots who stood in their cockpits to reach the firing mechanism of their machine guns. In a thick German accent, the historic Red Baron comes to life in a way that no printed page could ever portray. J.A.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

October 11, 2004
Moving on from the American Revolution and the Civil War, Shaara (The Glorious Cause
, etc.) delivers an epic account of the American experience in WWI. As usual, he narrates from the perspective of actual historical figures, moving from the complexity of high-level politics and diplomacy to the romance of the air fight and the horrors of trench warfare. Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing commands all American forces in France in 1917–1918 and must prepare his army for a new kind of war while resisting French and British efforts to absorb his troops into their depleted, worn-out units. Two aviators, American Raoul Lufbery and German Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron) fly primitive aircraft in an air war that introduces new ways to die. And Pvt. Roscoe Temple, U.S. Marine Corps, fights with rifle and bayonet in the mud and blood of Belleau Wood and the Argonne Forest. These men and a supporting cast of other real-life characters provide a gruesomely graphic portrayal of the brutality and folly of total war. Shaara's storytelling is occasionally mechanical—he has yet to rise to the Pulitzer Prize–winning level of his father, Michael Shaara (The Killer Angels
, etc.)—but his descriptions of individual combat in the air and the mass slaughter on the ground are stark, vivid and gripping. He also offers compelling portraits of the politicians and generals whose strategies and decisions killed millions and left Europe a discontented wasteland. (Nov.)

Forecast:
Numbers-wise, this should match Shaara's previous efforts, helped along by a 12-city author tour and vigorous promotion.