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Title: Promise of Glory: Library Edition by C. X. Moreau, Tom Parker ISBN: 0-7861-2160-2 Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks Pub. Date: June, 2002 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $56.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.11 (9 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Antietam Fleshed Out
Comment: Tom Parker's able reading of C. X. Moreau's terrific telling of the Antietam story works superbly on the one disc, 12-hour format. Parker maintains an authoritative, objective tone and recreates the individual voices--this novelization based on historical record depends on constant shifting points of view of all principals at Turner's Gap and Sharpsburg--with a non-histrionic authenticity. Indeed, his reading of Moreau's rendering of the thoughts and words of just about every major figure from Reno to A.P. Hill manages to sound genuine rather than offer the common stilted manner associated with so much of captured Civil War dialogue.

The novel itself gives needed attention to the preliminaries to Antietam, notably the actions at Turner's Gap from the shifting perspectives of D.H. Hill and General Reno, who died there. As one who has read a number of the major works on and accounts of the Antietam battle, and who has visited the site many times, including on last year's 140th anniversary, this novel really puts the flesh and blood into the historical event for me. As a historical novel should, Promise of Glory does not substitute for the analyses, anecdotes, and accounts. It simply provides them a dramatic narrative context which, at least for me, puts the real people into the hills and rills and cuts and corners of that hallowed piece of Maryland. I recommend the novel to readers and, with this valuable rendering, listeners alike. I read it last year and just finished the listening and am greatly improved by both encounters. I recommend it especially to those familiar with the battle already. I do not know how it would work as an introduction.

The MP3 format of this recording for those who have replay capacity for it on their CD players permits the handling of but one disc for the entire work. The studio work is very good--better than some other I have gotten from Blackstone--without the dropoffs, volume changes, echo chamber sensations, and telltale stop-and-restart pops lesser producers too often permit. The chapterization is a bit abrupt in the reading--I can't imagine there weren't a couple more seconds available to pause and go on more patiently--and the pitfalls of the CD versus tape system (the difficulty of replaying a missed or inattended section) remain, but the ten minute sectioning helps somewhat. None of these quibbles should dissuade anyone from getting this disc into his ear "as soon as practicable," as Lee himself might say.

Finally, I know there is another Moreau work out there, out of print, somewhere, and would welcome some assistance in obtaining it.

In the meanwhile, get this book and this recording.

Rating: 5
Summary: An Excellent Civil War Novel
Comment: "Promise of Glory" is a highly illustrative novel in many aspects. Moreau is particularily adept at character description and development and battle scene descriptions. It's almost as though he has battle experience himself. His accuracy and thoroughness are to be admired. Moreau's approach to describing the battle - the novel switches gears from one side to another and from one general to another - is particularily effective and keeps the reader turning the pages.

This isn't exactly a minute-by-minute, blow-by-blow description of the battle; it isn't meant to be. Rather it examines the vaious generals' thoughts and decisions - or lack thereof - all the while giving the reader what he needs to know about how and why the battle took place. For that alone it is worth the read. Moreau's dialogue - some fictional, some historically documented - is great and adds depth to the characters and battles.

A note to the tools who deride Moreau for his "similiarity" to Shaara: Instead of wasting your time writing hundreds of book reviews, of which at most *tens* of people will read, try and write a novel yourself and come up with a completely unique and new genre of writing style. Comparisions of Moreau's book to other Civil War writings are to be expected. But to more or less accuse Moreau of copying Shaara's writing style and characters shows you for what you really are: Trekkies who spend your time trashing others' work because you yourselves are more than likely failed authors.

Rating: 5
Summary: Bloodiest Day Revisited
Comment: If you are looking for a historical account of the Battle of Antietam this is not the book to read. If you are looking for a minute by minute, unit by unit account of this book, you are looking at the wrong book. This is a great novel on the men that fought the battle and the horrors of the battle. You see the battle through the eyes of many prominent civil war officers such as Lee, Longstreet, Jackson, Hood, McClellan Porter, Hooker, Burnsides and both the Hills. Moreau gives great descriptions of the battles and the men that fought in them. The nice thing is that this book isn't bias toward one side or the other. It's not another book written with the Lost Cause in mind, it shows the battle from both sides. There are similarities to the Killer Angels, Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure, which is fine because those are all great books too. This book can squeeze into the trilogy as a good account of the battle of Antietam. I recommend this book to civil war buffs and anyone who is looking for a good book to read.