Loved Redemption - if only just to finish the missing links from Trinity. ( )

I read and loved Uris' Irish masterpiece, Trinity, so when Redemption came out, I couldn't wait to grab hold. Very disappointing. Half the book was "flashback theater" of Trinity, then the next half was set on Gallipoli. The last few pages wrapped it all up, almost like an after thought. Uris is a powerful writer, but Redemption was a sorry sequel to Trinity. Pass this one by. ( )

I liked this better than Trinity, the predecessor that was published nineteen years before this book. In that time, it seems as though Uris learned something about dynamic characters, as this book, unlike the first, actually featured a few. In general, the characters in this book were just more likable, and that made it a better read, at least for me.

Like the first book, this one dealt with a turbulent slice of history. This one took the setting largely away from Ireland, though, placing it in Gallipoli during the early days of World War I as English and colonial troops dug in against the Turks after a botched invasion attempt. It was really interesting to me how the characters interacted in relation to their different backgrounds, and how the situation changed each of them. Granted, some of the character transformations were perhaps a bit unrealistically abrupt, but not entirely unbelievable for all that.

There was a fair amount of filler, recapping or rehashing events from the first book, that probably could have been cut. I suppose it was probably necessary in order to make this book make sense even for those who didn't read Trinity, and it did, in some instances, provide some additional insight, so I can't knock it too much. ( )