Here is the link to the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451450078
I have read every book of the Lost Battalion series (there are seven) and loved every minute. So often the books that become series have a thin story stretched to a breaking point over the span of numerous books. Not so here. Forstchen has a big story to tell in a complex world that needs every book he uses to tell it. I never got tired of it.
Forstchen brings such civil war knowledge to his piece that it is often a history of the weapons of war in a novel form. Still, his strength is in the power of his character creation. So many memorable and living people inhabit his books that you just keep turning the pages in amazement.
He is also keenly aware of the terrible price that war exacts from those who are caught up in it. No matter the rightness of your cause or the size of your courage violence has a personal cost. The material is extremely gritty at times and the horrors of prejudice and devalued human life is everywhere in evidence. And yet, Forstchen never loses his focus or his sight on the greater goal of civilization and democratic systems and individual liberties. It is an extremely wide canvas that he paints on but he is a master storyteller.
There are exquisite moments in these series that will stay with me as long as I live. His writing style has deeply affected my own. The series is well worth checking out.
