Feels like coming home

I know I'm not the only one racked with Firefly withdrawals, so I want to spread the joy that is The Killer Angels. Written by Michael Shaara, it is a novel based on the Battle of Gettysburg, and is cited as inspiration for the show.

Reading it, there is no doubt. The language, the characters, it feels dusty, familiar... and makes me miss Mal and the rest that much more.

Some passages tickle when held against the show, like Jubal Early being described as

A dark, cold, icy man, bitter, alone. ... A competent soldier, but a man who works with an eye to the future, a slippery man, a careful soldier; he will build his reputation whatever the cost. ...Lee calls him "my bad old man."

Some passages are just simply breathtaking.

The light was much clearer. He saw speckles of yellow fire through the mist: winking guns. The road ran black through misty fields. he saw one black cannon spout red fire at the limits of his vision. On the far side of the road there was a deep railroad cut - an unfinished railroad; he had not noticed it before. He saw horsemen moving behind the line. Then he heard that ripply sound that raised the hair, that high thin scream from far away coming out of the mist unbodied and terrible, inhuman. It got inside him for a suspended second. The scream of a flood of charging men: the Rebel yell.

Naturally there's an absence of things oriental, but still there's the feeling of growing into something new, incorporating the old world (in this case, Europe) into aspects of every day life. And the language. I've missed the word "oblige", and interestingly, there are compound exclamations. Instead of "Goram" and the like, we have "Strordnry".

I found my copy on Amazon for five bucks. (The book shop tried to sell it for $30)