The Frozen Hours: A Novel of the Korean War Hardcover – May 23, 2017

Jeff Shaara is an author I follow and collect. I have not as yet read a bad or even mediocre book by him and I expect I never will. For those not familiar with Jeff's work it is "technically" historical fiction. I say technically because he does use a fictional element, dialogue, but beyond that his history is completely accurate. In his books he uses real people that lived through the events his books depict and invents realistic dialogue for these real people while attempting to keep true to their real in life personalities and character. He relies heavily on diaries, letters, interviews and other such sources in both selecting his characters and in inventing their conversations. This format makes for much more than reading a mere history. My first experience with this author followed reading his father's highly regarded book on Gettysburg, "Killer Angels" which established the format. By bringing the event to the reader through the eyes and words of a real person experiencing the action the impact is much more vivid and memorable. As a result of reading father and son's Civil War trilogy and Jeff's separate Civil War trilogy of the Western campaign the events of our Civil War are much more clearly imbedded in my brain. I learned something, a lot of something and isn't that an accomplishment for an author?In this book Jeff starts what I hope will be a new series of books devoted to the Korean War. His message "To The Reader" seems to indicate otherwise but I hope I am wrong. I attended an event in which Jeff appeared and asked him if he has other projects in mind since he seems to be running out of U.S. wars. He did mention that this book was coming but beyond that he only mentioned that he would like to do a book on the Cuban Missile Crisis. I didn't think much of that idea in light of the format that Jeff uses since that Crisis was fully documented and a TV movie made of the incident. It would appear there wouldn't be much room for fictional dialogue of the type Jeff uses. This book, however, only deals with the opening months of Korean War involving the North Korean invasion, the U.S. Inchon Invasion and then most of the book dealing with the disaster at the Chosin Reservoir. I think there is certainly room for another book or two and I hope Jeff's readers let him know that.As for this book to say I found it informative would be an understatement. While I am a history buff I must admit to knowing almost nothing about the Korean War. I have heard of the Inchon Invasion and the Chosin Reservoir and MacArthur's firing by Truman and that is about all I know. This book has really opened my eyes to an area of our history that I have lived through but am ignorant of and shall now take measures to correct. I was surprised to read of the North Korean Invasion of the South and the lack of preparedness by both the South Koreans and the U.S. I was even more surprised at the subsequent easy push back of the North into their own borders. What astounded me was what happened next and how it wasn't anticipated that the Communist Chinese wouldn't be antagonized by the U.N. actions and respond as they did. This seems like a war that didn't have to occur and that arrogance and stupidity once again were the dominant and shaping forces of history. This book is a seriously authentic portrayal of what real combat under the harshest of conditions must be like. The only thing I have read to compare was a book of conversations with Marine vets that fought in the South Pacific during WWII. Sadly, it once again the Marines that live through the hell illustrated in this "fictional" history. That this war is deemed to have been "forgotten" is truly sad because the veterans of this war deserve better. I am happy to report, however, that my wife and I visited Washington D.C. a few years ago. I have a cousin whose name is etched on the Viet Nam Memorial and I wanted to see that. While there we discovered the Korean War Memorial and were haunted by it. The Viet Nam Memorial is certainly moving but the Korean Memorial is really something else entirely and I found it incredibly moving and disturbing. If you have visited that memorial you know why and it is a very fitting testament to those that fought there. Jeff told his audience at the event I attended that this book is the result of being badgered by Korean vets. I am glad Jeff succumbed to the badgering a wrote this book and hopefully will write further about this war. If you choose to read the book I think you will feel the same. (less)

One battle in particular will remain frozen in time:The Battle of the Chosin Resovoir in late 1950 in North Korea.While the book is non-Christian fiction (there is a bit of swearing, but it's "normal soldier swearing" and not on every page), the characters are real and the events actually occurred, although one might not be too crazy about this particular book if you're a General MacArthur fan.As usual, Jeff Shaara put me smack in the middle of all of the horrors and misery of the march and battles,yet always put the people first. I never stop learning more about history, and this book just inspires me to read other books and keep learning about those men who fought in Korea.I'm reminded once morethat giving up isn't an option ....even if one is completely surrounded by an enemy.Since I had absolutely no idea I was walking into....I really learned a lot (I never really learned anything about the Korean War, other than it was a failure for UN Forces, led by USA).OK - I wanted COLD weather .... however ... I didn't know any better than the soldiers .... wasn't expecting -30 degrees!Thank goodness for the maps ... that really helped me figure out where everyone was and what was happening.I got pretty attached to the Marines of Fox Company, especially Pete Riley - that figures: he was a Pennsylvanian, after all, and a WWII veteran."Hamp" Walsh was also a WWII veteran."Irish" Killian was one of those guys who drove you nuts,but kept you sane at the same time.Even "kid" Morelli had his moments.Nor did I know that candy - Tootsie Rolls, Hershey Bars, and Jelly Beans were "the foods" to eat.Along the way, there were several other folks:"flyboys" - Corsairs in particular and helicpoter pilots,engineers battalion, medics and docs, British Marines,tank crews, officers who somehow kept things going,the gutsy colonel who drove his truck on the resovoir to bring Army guys to safety...Things went even worse for the Army than for the Marines,and that was pretty lousy.The commander who did all he could to help the men along the way: General Smith.Generals MacArthur and Almond I think we all could have done without ... they seemed to never figure out that they were the ones who helped put this whole mess into action in the first place.And what a long, miserable journey it was .. only to end up .. well.. right where they started from.There's a non-fiction book (released in Oct 2018) that tells the story as well:On Desperate Ground: The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battleby Hampton Sides

I have read many books about the wars the USA have been involved with. My father is a veteran of the Vietnam War and i have spent countless hours discussing that war and the two World Wars. In all those discussions we barely touched the Korean War. All dad would ever say was, “That is one of the most difficult wars to discuss”. And that was all he would say. Knowing what my father suffered in Vietnam that statement was enough for me. However, I want to thank Jeff Shaara for giving me the opportunity to learn more about this terrible conflict and the heroes who emerged. I love this book and feel that we are doing a huge disservice to our citizens by not making sure they know what happened.

Jeff Share is one of the great historical fiction writers of our time. Makes events of our timemore comprehensible. Any military "expert" needs to read this book about the Korean War.

Amazing writing, kept me riveted to the story from start to finish. Very faithful to the historical battles. The personal commentary from various ranks, adds an excellent context - and clearer picture of events on the ground. As former servicemen, I was able to relate an appreciated the details. Jeff Sahara has done a masterful job - reminiscent of his own father’s writing.

This is the best war novel that I've read in a long time. It tells the story of a forgotten episode of a forgotten but powerfully brings out the horrors of the war in Korea. It portrays three main characters brilliantly giving their perspectives of a tough campaign with a highly believable narrative. I would thoroughly recommend this book to any reader of war novels that are based on fact. Great stuff!!

This war should never be forgotten although this book is written from the American point of view we must not forget the number of British forces served in this Hell of a war

Fantastic story beautifully written, I’d recommend this book to everyone who enjoys history.

Very well researched, and very well written account of the initial actions of the Korean war. Grips you from start to finish.

A very readable storyline at a very reasonable price