Shaara made this battle come to life. It kept me riveted to the action on my phone, thus rates 4 stars. Interwoven with the history, the lives of five people are told and that's a pretty good way to learn about history, even if it's not precisely correct in every detail. Eagle's Claw came up, grabbed my attention and I finished it off. Great read. ( )

Jeff Shaara is definitely one of my favorite author's, making American battles and wars come to life more than a history book can. He does this again in The Eagle's Claw with the Battle of Midway quite well, and yet I find myself just a little disappointed ultimately. It's not that the book is bad, or different from previous novels, but I think an artifact of the battle itself. There is very little direct action between the players, the entire battle of actual "fighting" is measured in minutes, not hours or days. There's not *too* much to talk about there, the actual battle itself is only a few chapters of the book, the rest is the build up, which makes sense but doesn't work as well for a story. Plus he focuses too much on the fighters I believe, and far less on the dive bombers/torpedo bombers, I assume because he mostly spoke to surviving fighters pilots.

Also after reading Shattered Sword, you realize how much there actually is to the battle underneath and how some of the myths of the battle that survive due to previous authors (particularly Fuchida's account). Most any Japanese commander would have made the same errors as Nagumo from how doctrinal they were with how to launch planes, which Shaara repeats as being more a personal failing on Nagumo's part.

Regardless, it's a good book I read in a few days and makes for a fun read, but it is fiction, so one should keep that in mind before taking away too much from it historically. ( )

A short novel about the events just before and during the Battle of Midway. Included a characters are Admiral Nagumo and Admiral Yamamoto from the Japanese Navy, a US military sergeant,a pilot, and an intelligence analyst. An unusual cast for a Midway novel, so we get a different perspective. It is great to get these different perspectives though, and told in novel form, it was an enjoyable read. It felt a little incomplete. As the author is telling us the story of the people, he deliberately goes light on technical details and historical facts, a little too much so, in my opinion. Definitely intended for people not already familiar with the Battle of Midway. ( )

Jerr Shaara takes the facts of a complex battle and fills them in with narration and dialog that brings the Battle of Midway to life in The Eagle's Claw. I enjoyed the read and appreciate the additional follow-up factual information provided in the after-word.

Shaara, Jeff. The Eagle’s Claw: A Novel of the Battle of Midway. Ballantine, 2021.
The Eagle’s Claw is Jeff Shaara’s latest historical novel on the major events of World War II. In many historical novels, fictional characters are placed on a historical stage to act out private dramas. The Eagle’s Claw is more a novelization of history than fiction in a historical setting. Most of his major characters are historical figures and fictional characters play a very minor role. Shaara creates imagined dialogue but does not stray, as far as I can tell, from actions in the historical record. The pace is quick and the action exciting and clearly described. We get a good sense of the conflict between the admirals in the field and their Washington bosses and of the difficulty a nonconforming code breaker had in selling his discoveries to all his superiors but Halsey and Nimitz. We also get a big picture of the Japanese strategy. The idea was to lure American aircraft carriers out from the relative safety of Pearl Harbor and take Midway as a forward operating base. But communication problems, exacerbated by Yamamoto’s imposition of radio silence on his fleet, let the American Navy out maneuver him. His decision to divide his forces in the name of security also proved disastrous. The Japanese Zero was a faster, more maneuverable plane than anything Americans had at the time, but superior American combat tactics prevailed. The most moving story in novel is of the sinking of the aircraft carrier Yorktown. If you like historical fiction, this one makes a quick beach read. 4 stars. ( )