text: Yet another historical novel into which a lot of research and work was clearly put, but the result is dissatisfying largely because the author doesn't know how to write.
  
  My single biggest objection to this book is the constant and annoying use of the author's alternative grammatical rules.  Comma splices and run-on sentences are not, and never will be, acceptable to me.  Occasional use can be overlooked, but Shaara peppers every page with them, tacking four or five or more predicates on to the same subject.  The effect is so glaringly obvious that it becomes difficult to continue reading.
  
  The following example is made-up, but it is a good imitation of how Shaara writes:
  
  "He turned in the saddle, rode toward his headquarters over the ridge, refused to look back toward the man receding in the distance, focused instead on the day ahead, forced himself to confront the bigger problems at hand."
  
  One often finds whole paragraphs composed of several run-on sentences in a row like this.  The result is a book that reads like a rough draft, or maybe not even that;  it reads like a collection of notes preparatory to writing a rough draft.  I don't understand how authors get away with publishing such half-finished work, and I don't understand why readers put up with it.
  
  Another problem is the lack of convincing characterization.  Everyone is vaguely noble here, with the exception of a few complete cads.  Washington loves his wife and longs for peace and home.  Cornwallis loves his wife and longs for peace and home.  Greene loves his wife and longs for peace and home.  I think you get the picture.  Few characters stand out on their own.  Even Lafayette is just another young officer.  The author assumes that we already carry our own perceptions about the major characters and will plug them in at the start of the book.  And Shaara's attempts at making his characters witty never work.  The result is a cast of characters that is tedious and dull.
  
  Beyond that, I'm doubtful about the author's device of switching focus among the various characters in each chapter.  It's fine when we leap across the Atlantic and jump into Franklin's mind.  But the rest of the time, it doesn't work well.  I find that I sometimes have to flip back to the start of the chapter to remind myself who has the focus.  Either I'm a lazy reader (and I'm not), or the device isn't working well.  In addition, this device constrains the author to keep the narrative focused almost entirely on Franklin in France, and Washington, Green, Cornwallis and Howe in America.  That means that we get only glimmers of the happenings in Parliament and the royal court in England, and the continental congress in America.  In effect, this novel is really about Washington's military camp and Howe's dinner table, which makes the narrative unbalanced.
  
  Some aspects of the story are interesting.  I enjoy reading about Washington's maneuvers, and the repeated frustration at coming up with an empty bag and finding that the British have eluded him.  I learned a fair amount about just where the various forces were, and when.  But I wish now that I'd just bought a decent beginner's history on the war.  Most of the book, as literary fiction, left me cold
  