---
product_id: 3452265
title: "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War (Civil War Trilogy) Mass Market Paperback – August 12, 1987"
brand: "michael shaara"
price: "€ 1.62"
currency: EUR
in_stock: false
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.ie/products/3452265-the-killer-angels-the-classic-novel-of-the-civil-war
store_origin: IE
region: Ireland
---

# The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War (Civil War Trilogy) Mass Market Paperback – August 12, 1987

**Brand:** michael shaara
**Price:** € 1.62
**Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War (Civil War Trilogy) Mass Market Paperback – August 12, 1987 by michael shaara
- **How much does it cost?** € 1.62 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Currently out of stock
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ie](https://www.desertcart.ie/products/3452265-the-killer-angels-the-classic-novel-of-the-civil-war)

## Best For

- michael shaara enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted michael shaara brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

Full description not available

## Images

![The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War (Civil War Trilogy) Mass Market Paperback – August 12, 1987 - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/518bHNsL4nL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Fabulous insight into people dedicated to actions and ideals
  

*by T***S on Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 1998*

Fabulous insight into the military mind, the minds of men, the minds of people dedicated to actions and ideals greater than themselves. Kurt Vonnegut is said to have revealed the secret of fiction as, "Create  characters the reader cares about, then do something terrible to them." Mr.  Shaara gives us a dozen characters worth caring about -- from both armies  -- and then plunges them into one of the most terrible things to happen on  American soil: the cataclysmic Battle of Gettysburg. The book is a model of  storytelling, and beautifully written. My brother, who earned a Masters in  American History just for the fun of it, warned me to start it early in the  day because I would not want to put it down. Instead, I savored it for a  week; thinking often during my days and nights of these men and their  trials. I read a lot of history and biography, but this is the first  book I have ever read on the American Civil War, a/k/a the War Between the  States, unless you count the Red Badge of Courage. I was always repulsed by  the massive slaughter of Americans by Americans over human slavery. I  relented after a business associate suggested that the Gettysburg  Battlefield would be a perfect location for one of our sales executive  training sessions. He recommended the novel The Killer Angels and  Gettysburg , the movie it inspired, as the first steps in my personal  research. He assured me that The Killer Angels, though written in the style  of a novel, was a highly accurate portrayal of the action and the command  challenges at Gettysburg. Since he had taught Civil War history at West  Point, I took his advice. [The first words of the book are: "This is the  story of the battle of Gettysburg, told from the viewpoints of Robert E.  Lee and James Longstreet and some of the other men who fought there. ... I  have not consciously changed any fact."] Authors historical and  especially military to often find it tempting to display their research and  learning by filling each paragraph with jargon and arcania. Michael Shaara  stays with concretes and vivid emotions. The writing is so clear that I  stopped noticing the style. I was there in the camps, under the artillery,  behind the stone wall. I marched, I bled, I prayed that Lee would not order  the charge. Michael Shaara takes you there, as soldiers saw the war and  army life, with its comradely and outdoorsy appeal as well as its sorrow  and terror. "Yet you learn to love it. Isn't that amazing? Long marches and  no rest, up very early in the morning and asleep late in the rain, and  there's a marvelous excitement to it, a joy to wake in the morning and feel  the army all around you and see the campfires in the morning and smell the  coffee..." [p. 125] Leadership in those days, as it is today, was all  about character, competence, and conduct. As Shaara wrote of Gen.  Armistead: "He was one of the men who would hold ground if it could be  held; he would die for a word. He was a man to depend on, and there was  this truth about war: it taught you the men you could depend on." Other  aspects of war are not so clear, such as the reason for the conflict and  the motivation of the men who volunteered to fight. Shaara does a masterful  job of bringing the complex and unresolvable issues to the reader through  the thoughts and arguments of the participants. The conversation on causes  and conscience between a Union Colonel and his master Sargent fills the  best two pages of the book and explains the title, too. [See pp. 188-9]  There's no better summary of their relationship than when the proud and  practical Sergeant says, "Colonel, you're a lovely man. I see at last  a great difference between us, and yet I admire ye, lad. You're an  idealist, praise be." It takes both kinds to make an army. The  Killer Angels offers many such insights to the minds of the men who were  there, their agonized choices and their loss of choice to duty and  circumstance. As when Longstreet was ordered by Lee to command his men into  a charge sure to end in carnage and defeat: "What was needed now was  control, absolute control. Lee was right about that: a man who could not  control himself had no right to command an army. They must not know my  doubts, they must not. So I will send them all forward and say nothing,  except what must be said. But he looked down at his hands. They were  trembling. Control took a few moments. He was not sure he could do it."  Shaara gives us not just heroes, but humanity: raw and real. I would  add to Vonnegut's recipe one requirement to elevate a good story into a  classic text: "Show us people and circumstances which illuminate our own  lives." The Killer Angels also excels in that, with insights for all of us,  though mainly in safer careers and seeming to compete for lower stakes.  Death seldom visits us in our jobs, yet don't doubt that you are giving  your life for it, if only by the hour. The end is the same for us as it was  for them; glory now harder to find. As Shaara has Lee say, "And does it  matter after all who wins? Was that ever really the question? Will God ask  that question, in the end?" [p. 360] Forgive me, please, my trespass.  The Killer Angels spawns such thoughts. Therein lies its value.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Entertaining fiction book with lots of history
  

*by K***R on Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2023*

Couldn't put this book down, best I've read in a while! Interesting portrayal of some of the major characters of the battle of Gettysburg. However keep in mind this is a fiction book

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    The Alliance Said They Were going to waltz through Serenity Valley and we choked them with those words!!!!
  

*by M***L on Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2016*

So if you're wondering about why I wrote that quote as the title to my review you might not be a geek. Hell you might be asking yourself  "What's the Alliance or Serenity Valley, what's that quote even mean?!?!" well I'll tell you! So if you're a geek like me you know that this novel is actually the novel that Joss Whedon read that inspired him to create the cult classic tv show Firefly and the sequel film Serenity. He created Firefly after reading this novel and imagining a world in the future where people lived on the fringes of society. If you read this novel you can see where he got his ideas for the show. For example the main character in the show is a man named Captain Malcolm Reynolds while a character in the novel is named John Reynolds. In the show the Alliance (totalitarian government) soldiers are called purple-bellies while the Union is called Blue-Bellies in the novel.  The Killer Angels is a fictional account of what happened over the days leading up to and during the days of The Battle of Gettysburg which is named by some as the turning point of The American Civil War (In Firefly, The Battle Of Serenity Valley is listed by some as the turning point of the war against the Alliance and the Independents).  It tells the story of the battle in graphic detail through the eyes of both sides, The Confederacy and The Union. It was written using notes and historical documents that were left after The Battle Of Gettysburg.  What I love about this novel is how descriptive the author writes without insulting my intelligence. One thing a lot of authors do (looking at you George R.R. Martin) is they will be descriptive to the point of making me feel stupid. I'm going to hate on Game Of Thrones here (love the show hate the books) but George R.R. Martin will do this. He will spend 4 chapters on a dinner describing a sword to me as if I don't know what a sword looks like. He is so descriptive to the point of sheer annoyance that instead of me seeing the battle in my head or the conversation in my head I just feel like i'm in Kindergarten. Michael Shaara doesn't do this. Instead he writes as if you're in the front lines with the men. He writes as if you've grabbed a Colt or a Griswold and Gunnison (btw the Griswald was the Confederate copy of the Colt and it makes an appearance in a conversation in Firefly but it's listed as a Griswold Grenade rather than a revolver) and you're pushing those blue-bellies or grey coats back. When you read this book you hear the bombs bursting and you hear the shots ring out. You feel the cold air and you smell the smoke as if you were right there with those men on those days.  Now sadly I have to give some cons to the book and it's why I deducted a star. Thankfully it's really only one thing that bugs me about the book but it's big enough that I had to deduct a star. The book's characters are a bit hard to follow. Now we know the main characters such as Lee, Hooker, Grant, etc. However smaller characters like John Reynolds for example are harder to follow. The reason I say this is because it's hard to follow which faction they are a part of. The way Michael Shaara writes is rather than going from Confederate to Union and stating as such he will just jump right in. So you'll be reading about General Lee and then he'll bring up a new character by name who will be a Union character. Well the thing is he'll just state him by name and not by rank or by faction. So for an entire chapter I may think that this character is part of the Confederacy when he's actually a part of the Union. It makes it a bit hard to follow when a character you think is part of the Confederacy is actually part of the opposing side. You can go multiple chapters with that mindset until the author will list them as talking with Grant and then you put two and two together and go "oh okay he's with the Union we switched factions in the story". This get particularly annoying as the books go on and they start naming more and more and more Sergeants and Officers that are not as well known as Hooker or Reynolds or Grant. If you're a history buff, major, or professor with extensive knowledge of the American Civil war this won't be a problem at all but for people like me who've only studied it in passing or watched a bit of Ken Burns Civil War it's a tad bit annoying. However it doesn't take too much away from the fact that this book is a fantastic read and well worth the money. The author also adds maps within chapters to show you troop placements and where certain regiments are stationed which I thought was a really nice tough and it added a lot more to the experience.

---

## Why Shop on Desertcart?

- 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016
- 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories
- 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price
- 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members)
- 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection
- ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews

**Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.ie/products/3452265-the-killer-angels-the-classic-novel-of-the-civil-war](https://www.desertcart.ie/products/3452265-the-killer-angels-the-classic-novel-of-the-civil-war)

---

*Product available on Desertcart Ireland*
*Store origin: IE*
*Last updated: 2026-01-23*