1914: A Novel

by Charles B. Smith

Overview

In the early days of August, 1914, Europe's great powers went to war, drawing millions of young men into the first truly industrialized conflict in history. The mass-production of powerful and devastating weapons ensured that those millions of men would face horrors of battle the scope of which the world had never seen before.

1914 follows nine young men on different sides of the Great War, serving in various branches of their respective armed forces. Throughout this fictional narrative weaved into the fabric of one of the defining events in modern human history, characters' paths will cross, they'll make new friends and deepen relationships with old ones, all the while fighting to stay alive in the harsh conditions on some of the deadliest battlefields on the face of the Earth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781494236007
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	03/15/2014
Pages:	650
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.44(d)
Age Range:	1 - 17 Years

About the Author

Charles B. Smith was born in 1983, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. He still lives there today, along with his wife and two cats, in the city of Negaunee. For more information visit him at www.charles-b-smith.com

Editorial Reviews

06/30/2014
Mind and bodies are shattered in this carefully researched yet meandering descent into the tragedy and triumph of war. Set against the allegiances, politics, and shocking trench warfare of WWI, Smith's novel follows nine men from various walks of life as they struggle to come to terms with war, violence, and themselves. Despite convincing physical descriptions of the agony of battle, a rambling narrative and unfocused plot sacrifice momentum and suspense in favor of exposition. From American Gordon to British friends Arthur and Perry, the characters—many of them underdeveloped—do little to summon reader empathy or interest. While the internal conflicts of characters can fascinate, the stagnant motivations of these combatants are less than engaging. Even German Lance Corporal Hentsch—who provides one of the more interesting perspectives on battle—seems to exist primarily as a vehicle for an author interested more in history than narrative.

Publishers Weekly

2014-06-06
This encyclopedic debut novel looks at the early months of World War I, as its initial, optimistic hopes for a quick conclusion devolve into dreary reality.Smith tells his tale through the experiences of nine people—German, French, British and American—who find themselves thrust into “The Great War.” The most winning character is Gordon Graham, an African-American from Dayton, Ohio, who, after being rejected by a U.S. Army recruiter, moves to France to join the French Foreign Legion in hopes of fulfilling his dream of becoming a pilot. He and other soldiers in the trenches experience the physical and emotional devastation of war. At one point, an English infantryman describes an artillery attack: “When the house blew apart, Vernon saw the front door fly from its hinges and strike the old lady’s back. It cut her in half.” Smith’s characters draw readers in as they quickly realize that they’re pawns in their leaders’ war, and become disillusioned by all the death and destruction. Overall, this novel is very well-researched. However, that fact is a double-edged sword, especially in the book’s first half, as the plot and characters get buried in lengthy descriptions of the minutia of military structure, weaponry and uniforms: “Their wool tunics were almost entirely gray, save for thin red piping down the front opening, around the collars and sleeve cuffs and a red crown and W (for Wilhelm) monogrammed on their shoulder straps”—and that’s but one sentence of a two-paragraph description. Such detail is important in historical fiction, but not to the detriment of the work as a whole. Also, as this is the first of a series, the engaging characters’ stories lack closure, and are frustratingly cut off in midstream.An information-packed but flawed novel of World War I.

Kirkus Reviews