Fire and Steel, Volume One: A Generation Rising

This is a good read

This book is often pitched as a World War I historical fiction...and it is...but it is also oh. so. much. more!It is about a family that will live during the most difficult times in history.They are the Eckhardt family and after three daughters they finally have a son.A son who turns out to be brilliant.A son who is doted upon.A son who is given the chance for an education beyond the normal peasant child.But Hans is also young and foolish and caught up in the unrest that is descending upon the world.Choosing to go to the battlefront instead of the University will change young Hans perception of the world and of mankind.As this book is so appropriately titled this family will go through a fire so unquenchable that they will either become stronger like steel or they will break and shatter.Follow the Eckhardt family as they first-hand witness "an explosion of technology"-- electricity, the telephone, the automobile...And as they battle to live through the "War to End All Wars."AN AMAZING BOOK!AN AMAZING TIME IN HISTORY!DON'T MISS OUT ON THIS ONE!

I would recommend this book to anyone. It is a story of stolen youth and dreams caused by the horror of war. The characters are well written and immediately pull you into their lives. This follows a brilliant young man with a promising future, who gets pulled into WW1. It shows a gentle and kind people of Germany, it's beauties, it's hopes, and it's devastation. Besides the characters who you are drawn to immediately, it gives a wonderful look at the kind of people who lived in Germany before the war. This book is compelling I could not put it down and can hardly wait to follow the lives of the main characters into the next phase of their lives, now that the war has ended. You will meet a very compelling character towards the end of the book, a young survivor of the war, Adolf Hitler.

I was so happy to find this book, which may be going out of print, at such a good price, over half off, and have it come in excellent condition, brand-new.

Gerald N Lund has done it once again - an excellent historical fiction. I have lived with and been raised by a family of German descent, but I learned more about their history from this book than what I ever learned from them. For example, I was not aware that the Germans started as individuals of different groups that were raised and trained to put their customs and family traditions before everything else, including the ownership of land. He explained many of the character traits that I did not understand while I was growing up. Mr. Lund makes history very interesting and sometimes even makes it possible to understand why people think and act the way they do. I highly recommend this book for historians and those who just like a great story. Worth the read. I am anxious to read the next volume of this series.

Gerald Lund's vast knowledge and extensive research on the "war, that would end all wars," is masterfully woven into a tender, heartfelt story of a German family trying to survive amidst the turmoil. As Lund states, "Crushing circumstances reveal the best and the worst of human spirit."Lund compares the war-torn families to the early pioneers, tempered like steel by hardship. Some threw up their hands, gave up, and cursed God. While others were strengthened in adversity. Their stories continue to inspire us today.Life is indeed a different type of education, that often comes with great sacrifice and pain. Like young, Hans Otto, we must all take responsibility for our foolish choices, seize the day, and make the most of our lives.

I have always considered Gerald Lund to be the best of the "historical fiction" authors. While most of that genre write fictional stories with a little history sprinkled in as background, Lund usually narrates history with some fictional characters to move the narrative along. However, this book seems to be the exception. As with most Gerald Lund books, it is well written, but it is primarily fiction with European history as the backdrop. I will still look forward to the follow up volumes, but was slightly disappointed that the history of the times was not primary and that the book was rather short in comparison to his previous books.

Rated high because this gives the reader a much clearer representation of what WW I was really like from the Germans point of view and for non Germans. The treaty of Versailles, it seems, set the world up for WW II. The U.S. president foresaw the future repercussions of that treaty, thus wisely refusing to agree to it. Well written, thank you, C N

mostly I enjoy gerald lund

One of my favourite authors has done it again with the hard to put down book that will make you feel for German people during the Great War.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Very historically informative while weaving the lives of his characters through history. I recommend it.