Recently, I wondered what I disliked most about going to school. I decided the long reading assignments from boring, impersonal textbooks were the reasons I most detested nine months out of the year. "The Killer Angels" should be required reading for anyone studying American history and the Civil War. Instead of mere facts and figures, Shaara shows us what it must have been like to fight on that hilly Pennsylvanian countryside.

I'd like to write about the structure of this book; the way it was ingeniously organized by Shaara. Readers will frequently turn back to the Foreword. The descriptive information given makes it easy for the reader to remember who's who. The maps by Don Pitcher are marvelous. Uncluttered and informative, the maps appear in just the right places: they do not disrupt the flow of reading. Best of all, when Shaara gets into his best description (that of the third day of the battle) no maps appear. The reader can focus on the words, freeing the imagination.

The characters are what make this novel so good. I say characters, but in reality they are historical figures shown in all their honor, courage, shortcomings, and fraility. General Rober E. Lee, for example, is shown as a dualistic man torn between God and "winning the war for Virginia." The most refreshing thing about the book is its objectivity through Shaara's obvious extensive research.

Lawrence Chamberlain and James Longstreet will undoubtedly speak loudest to most readers. They both ponder the Cause of the war, and through their words, readers too will try to understans why the war and its bloodiest battle were necessary. In the past, history had not been one of my interests, but after reading this novel, I feel compelled to learn as much about the North and South as I can while I search for another great "10" of literature.

This novel almost single handedly pulled Longstreet out of the endless bog of minor history and back into the forefront of the Civil War. A man maligned after Lee's death, he faded into obscurrity before Shaara's moving work. However, Longstreet wasn't the main reason this novel was so amazing.

By following the thoughts and actions of several men on either side of the battle of Gettysburg, Shaara gave the reader insight into their lives and made the battle real. For me, one of the qualities of a great book is that after you are finished, you think about the characters for days afterward, as if they were friends you knew in life. "The Killer Angels" did that to me. Unlike almost all other books about history, in "The Killer Angels" you aren't reading about the battle , you are living it.
male, 17

Although I felt a little uneasy in the beginning of this book at what seemed to be the gossip like approach of the author, about who did or didn't like Michael Swango at school, whose favourite he was at home etc, the beginning serves to draw you in to his life through the eyes of friends acquaintances and relatives so that the real horror of his actions slowly dawns on the reader. In a state approaching disbelief you are witness to a horrible journey. Thanks to the American press and to patients such as Mrs Delbert Cooper Sr and to the author and to the nurses involved the mistakes made can be revealed, and discussed. A tad more humility by some doctors might have helped to prevent a lot of what happened in this story.

And to think that this guy is about to get out of prison!

The character of King, the American trader who lives high-on-the-hog through his wheeling and dealing, is fascinating in the feelings of hatred & envy he generates. Everyone wants to be close to him, not because they like him, but because he can afford to give away cigarettes, share an egg, pour coffee, etc. He has learned to manipulate the system totally to look out for #1.

He makes friends with unassuming British fighter pilot Peter Marlowe, who at first acts and translator and later as partner and friend to King. His character goes through lots of development, and he is really the conscious of the camp. Although not written in the first person, we really see things through his eyes.

The book is packed full of colorful characters, many sketched only briefly, yet Clavell makes us see them all, and understand them.

THere are moments of high drama, where our characters are close to being caught or captured, and the plot moves at a brisk pace.

I found the ending of the story to be just a tiny bit rushed, BUT it made some powerful statements. When the war ends, the fear that sweeps through the camp, first that the Japanese will take vengeance on the POWs and second, the fear of "what do we do now," is very convincing. It's not what I ever thought the liberation of a POW camp would be like, and it really made me stop and think. And the dynamics that occur when the first officers from "outside" show up to help liberate the camp are fascinating.

This book is an exploration of the human spirit that is dramatic, moving, occasionally funny and always unexpected. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Partly autobiographical, King Rat recounts the story of Phillip Marlowe, a character no doubt based on Clavell himself, and his years spent in the notorious Singapore POW camp known as Changi during WW2.

What is so stunning about this novel, is that perhaps because of the very real life experiences that forged its narrative, it becomes more than mere words on paper, it becomes a very real world where the old class lines are broken down as officers and enlisted men sleep in the same mud huts, where getting an egg in your rice for dinner constitutes a great day, a transvestite becomes the sexual icon of the whole camp and the very concept of traditional ethics and morals are challenged.

What makes this novel so very magical is that the depth with which the characters and their respective personalities and fates resonate with the readers, their laughter becomes your laughter, their sorrow becomes your sorrow, their joy becomes your joy, very rarely is a novel simultaneously able to so superbly entertain and make you affect your outlook on life, after the end of this short novel you will feel as if you have emerged from three years in a Singapore prison camp, and like the men in this novel, you will never be the same again.

My only complaint is there are some typos, but show me a technical manual without them. Also while the exam cram four pack comes with a cd of questions, the indivdual books require you to send them another five bucks for a test floppy - boo.

Anyway, I can't rave enough !!! Buy this books now !!!

They helped me pass networking essentials, NT Workstation, NT Server, and Frontpage 98 on the 1st pass! What more can I say.

Good Luck on you studies.

Use it the way it is intended, to help you past the test. When they say it is the first and last book you need to read to pass this test, don't forget the stuff in between! The method that worked for me was to read this book first, then take practice tests from it and Microsoft's site. Then, anything I had any doubts about or missed a question on, I researched in another thicker book (in my case, one by New Riders). That's how I feel those other books need to be used, more as a resource than teaching material.

I then took more practice tests and scanned through the exam cram book again, and passed with flying colors, without feeling like I 'cheated' and only know enough to pass a test, without the real world knowledge.

The book accomplishes it's stated goal -- to help you pass the NT Workstation exam with the least amount of pain and suffering.

I rated the exam cram for NT Server very high. I cannot, in good faith, do the same here. While this is still a great book for test preparation, there are far too many typos and outright errors to give this a better rating.

Most of the errors are not significant enough to confuse anyone with NT experience (which is highly recommended for MCSE certification anyway). For example, anyone who has gone through the installation documentation will know that there is no /OS option for WINNT (it is /OX) despite it's inclusion in chapter 3.

Overall, these types of typos/errors are more an annoyance than a showstopper, but they should be mentioned. There are a few that could confuse those who are not familiar with NT, but not enough to bring about a failing score on the MCSE exam. If you are diligent, this book will get you a passing score. My advice: get the exam cram pack so you can take the practice exams. I found at least as valuable as the books.

I read this book after covering Coriolis's larger Exam "PREP" book (which I can't recommend) a few days before my test. This book & its sample tests covered much material NOT found in the PREP book. This book, combined with the Transcenders, gave me the ability to score 933.

I have read many reviews that complain about the 11+ pages of errata that Coriolis has provided at its website for the various editions of this book, but I think they are overreacting. What many of these reviewers miss is the fact that most of these corrections have already been assimilated into the newer editions of the book. If your book's publishing date is 1999 or later, you have little to worry about. As Coriolis says, "This page was created so that even those with the earliest printings of each title can have access to the most current updates."

This being said, there are still a few lingering errors, and I even found one case where a question in the 1st sample test directly contradicted a virtually identical, but reworded, question in the 2nd sample test. I forwarded my findings to the publishers & was surprised when Ed Tittle personally replied within one day. They may not have wiped out every single error, but at least they're staying on top of things.

Overall, this is an exceptional review book & a darned good value for the money.