Yes, it’s a classic book. Arguably one of the best historical fiction novels ever written.

That said, if you’ve seen the movie Gettysburg, you’ve read the book, because the screenplay for that movie is practically the entire book. I’m not kidding– at well over 3 hours, and with Killer Angels itself being such a short book, the screenplay captures pretty much every line verbatim, every subplot, ever nuance that’s in the novel.

Of course, reading the novel allows the reader to visualize the events on their own, using their own imagination. Trouble is, if you’ve already seen the film, you already have your visualization for you, because again, the screenplay is verbatim Michael Shaara.

Now, *Jeff* Shaara’s books. . . a better choice there, because while they’re not as good as his father’s, they’re a LOT better than “Gods and Generals” the movie (which as most will agree was awful in all the ways that Gettysburg was good).