Sharpe's Escape, by Bernard Cornwell

Today I'm looking at another book in the Sharpe series, Sharpe's Escape. This book picks up shortly after Sharpe's Gold with the British and Portuguese making a fighting retreat against the invading French armies on the road to Lisbon. The Lines of Torres Vedras have been finished and now Wellington is just trying to get every scrap of food out of French reach and get his army safely behind the lines. Sharpe meanwhile has rejoined the South Essex as the captain of its light company, a position which has been made more difficult by the addition of Lieutenant Slingsby, an in-law of Colonel Lawford whose career is in need of a boost. Sharpe also runs afoul of a Portuguese crime boss called Ferragus when he prevents Ferragus from selling food to the French. Eventually Sharpe, Sergeant Harper, and Captain Vincente from a previous adventure, get separated from the South Essex and have to make their way through French-occupied territory to the British lines.

I'm not sure what to say about this book because I kind of find myself thinking the same things about it compared to the other books. This book was definitely less egregious in having Sharpe be responsible for everything important that ever happened in the Napoleonic Wars ever. Sharpe spends most of this book just trying to survive instead of saving the entire British army. So in some ways I appreciate that Sharpe is kind of being a regular guy in this book.

Like quite a few other books, Sharpe's kind of on a secret mission again, although in this case it's because he's trapped behind enemy lines rather than because he has to do something to save Britain. But it's different enough that it managed to keep me interested and keep me reading.

Otherwise, I'll be frankly honest, this book is the same as the rest, but the location's changed a little. There's a new woman for Sharpe to fall in love with and who we may or may not see by the time we get to the next book. If you liked Sharpe so far you'll probably enjoy this book. And if you're not into this series, it's not going to have anything to entice you.

- Kalpar

Sharpe's Gold, by Bernard Cornwell

Today I'm looking at what's probably the most fictional of the Sharpe series. Obviously the Sharpe books play a little fast and loose with history since Sharpe has to have something to do, but the only historical event that comes into play in this book is the siege of Almeida. Although it's not quite accurate to call it a siege because after the Coalition magazine exploded, taking a sizeable chunk of the town and its defenses with it, it was basically impossible for the Coalition to hold the town against the French. And of course, Sharpe has something to do with the magazine exploding. Otherwise this book is very heavily fictionalized.

At the star of this book, Sharpe has a meeting with his old acquaintance Wellington who is now in charge of the British armies in the Iberian Peninsula. Wellington orders Sharpe to take his light company and head off with an exploring officer to retrieve a cache of Spanish gold. Officially, the gold is supposed to be sent to the Spanish junta who are Britain's allies, but Wellington informs Sharpe that the gold absolutely must come to the British army and British victory or defeat is entirely dependent on if they can get that gold or not.

Sharpe and company head off once again into enemy territory and soon find themselves in a complex situation. The town where the gold is located is occupied by two troops of French cavalry and they're engaged in a running battle with the local Spanish partisans and guerilla fighters. Even if they can get the French out of the town, it doesn't seem likely that the Spanish will just let Sharpe walk away with the gold. Plus Sharpe knows it's only a matter of time before the French advance cuts off any chance he has of successfully getting back to the British army.

Overall I feel like this book could be safely skipped by the more casual readers of the series. Sharpe does meet Teresa who, thanks to a short story, I know he marries later, but in the book she doesn't stand out much beyond the other eight women he's fallen in love with in pretty much every previous book. Seriously, it's like: Sharpe's in a new book? Sharpe gets a new woman. Maybe Teresa will be developed more but she doesn't seem all that different from all the other women across Europe who seem to be swooning for Sharpe.

Otherwise, since it's so divorced from real events it's kind of hard to justify this book beyond, ''Sharpe has to get some gold for Wellington.'' As I said, there's the explosion of the magazine at Almeida, and Sharpe has a hand in that, but I think you could safely say the French shells were mostly responsible for the destruction. Otherwise he's chasing gold that didn't exist, fighting a partisan leader who didn't exist, to help Wellington build the Lines outside Lisbon which would stop the French army from conquering all of the Peninsula and let the British go back on the offensive.

I do enjoy these books, even if they're pretty formulaic in the extreme. But I think if you really wanted to skip this book, you wouldn't be missing out on a whole heck of a lot.

- Kalpar

Sharpe's Eagle, by Bernard Cornwell

Today I'm looking at what is the eighth book chronologically in the Sharpe series but was actually the first book published, Shape's Eagle, which focuses on events leading up to and concluding in the Battle of Talavera. In this book Sharpe and his platoon of thirty-odd riflemen are sent with Captain Hogan of the engineers to blow up a bridge along the British planned line of advance. As part of alliance politics a Spanish regiment and the fictional South Essex Regiment are sent along as an escort. What is supposed to be a nice, boring assignment turns into a disaster when the South Essex, led by an armchair colonel, gets badly beaten and loses one of their regimental colors to the French. The only way Sharpe can hope to regain the regiment's honor, and incidentally rescue his career, is to capture those most cherished of tokens: a French eagle, presented to the unit by Napoleon himself.

Honestly I haven't got a lot to say about this book because after eight books they're starting to feel all the same. This series has a formula and it works. Sharpe is usually put in a very difficult situation, and with pluck, determination, a huge dose of luck, and his willingness to kill anyone who gets in his way Sharpe manages to carry the day and things work out. Maybe not a lot better than last time, but at least no worse. And of course there's a girl that Sharpe falls for, instantly and hard, but alas his relationship is doomed because of his penchant to pine after women from the noble classes who he simply can't afford to support. Which makes her woman number six or seven Sharpe's fallen for by this point in the series.

Since this was the first book published I can see patterns which Cornwell basically kept with as he wrote this series across some twenty-odd stories and since this is the eighth one I'm reading it feels like very well-worn and familiar ground. So if you're looking for something new and engaging and different, I hate to say it but this book hardly provides that. There's nothing in this book that hasn't been done in the seven I've read previously and I fully expect the next dozen or so books to have pretty much the same plots. Cornwell does meticulous research and includes lots of detail about life in Napoleonic armies, but in terms of variation of plot there's a lot to be desired.

I honestly think I read these books as popcorn entertainment. There's not a lot of substance to them plot-wise, and Sharpe is kind of scary as a character, but I enjoy reading these books. So if you enjoy these sorts of adventures then you'll like this one as well, but if you're not interested in Sharpe you're not really missing anything.

- Kalpar

Sharpe's Havoc, by Bernard Cornwell

This week I'm looking at yet another book in the Sharpe series, Sharpe's Havoc, and I honestly hate to say it but I feel like this is another one of those books where we're in between waiting for things to happen. In the last book, Sharpe ended up, somewhat accidentally, in command of what was left of his company of the 95th Rifles, trying to make their way back to British lines in Portugal while evading the seemingly endless hordes of Frenchmen. Sharpe and his two dozen or so riflemen are still in Portugal, despite all of the 95th being safely back home in Britain at the moment, having spent the intervening time protecting a British military engineer who's been mapping Portugal. Very soon Wellington arrives to take command of the British forces in Portugal and Marshal Soult, who looked like he'd have an easy march to Lisbon, is now on the run and trying to extricate his army to Spain.

As Cornwell himself says, Sharpe has no business being in Portugal at the time because nobody of the 95th Rifles were in Portugal at that point. Sharpe's in an ad hoc situation only loosely attached to the army and spends a considerable portion of the book trapped behind enemy lines which puts him outside the British chain of command and forces Sharpe to rely on his own best judgment. I will say seeing Sharpe make himself a royal nuisance for the French is definitely more interesting than him sitting around the barracks in Britain so I can't say I blame the author for giving him something to do, even if it stretches the bounds of historical authenticity.

Plot-wise Sharpe is tasked with keeping an eye on Colonel Christopher, a man from the Foreign Office sent to gauge popular opinion in Portugal and to see if it's really worth Britain's time and effort to send troops to fight the French. Out of deference to his position in the Foreign Office, Christopher has been brevetted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, despite having no military experience whatsoever. For his own reasons, Christopher is not thrilled at the prospect of having Sharpe and his ragamuffin band of riflemen following him around the Portuguese countryside and is determined to get rid of Sharpe as soon a possible. It is only the winds of war that keep the two from going their separate ways.

Honestly, I feel like this book is just killing time. Wellington's arrival marks a turning point in the Peninsular campaign, but they're far from driving the French back across the Pyrenees. It's like Cornwell had some time for Sharpe to go on an adventure and kill some Frenchmen, and so that's what Sharpe did. And in a way I'm okay with that. The books are marvelously well researched and provide interesting insights into military life in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but there's not a lot of substance beyond that.

And I like the Sharpe books, I really do. It's easy reading and while Sharpe is a brutal and vicious character, there's still something admirable about him and the fact that he's got more self-control than a lot of the other soldiers in the series. (Which is a pretty realistic portrayal of warfare at this time as well.) But they're just sort of quick, fun little reads for me when I feel like reading something set during the Napoleonic era. And I guess that's okay. Not everything I read has to be great literature.

Overall, the book's okay. If you're a fan of the Sharpe series you'll probably enjoy this like all the other books you've no doubt read by now. But if you're not a fan yet I'd recommend looking elsewhere for an introduction because this is definitely in the middle of things to say the least.

- Kalpar

Sharpe's Rifles, by Bernard Cornwell

This week I'm reviewing Sharpe's Rifles, which is actually one of the earlier books in the series in order of publication date, but actually sixth in the series based on chronological order. Also I've come to the realization I'm six books into this series which is a little daunting to say the least. This book is also the first to take place in Spain during the Peninsular War which apparently is a majority of the series. Much like in the previous book, Shapre's Prey, Sharpe is currently a lieutenant in the 95th Rifles and is serving as a quartermaster rather than a fighting officer. This book basically shows us Sharpe's transition and the forging of his partnership with Sergeant Harper, who I strongly suspect will be a very important character in later books. (And for people who've already read them, I'm aware that might be an understatement.)

The biggest issue I had comes probably from reading this series in chronological rather than publication order. This book feels like the biggest reset within the series because we see Sharpe reduced back to being nothing more than a misfit officer promoted from the ranks who isn't respected by the men under him and isn't trusted by the officers above him. Also all the riches and spoils he gained from India are long gone, actually disappeared between Trafalgar and Prey so he's back to being dirt poor again too.

If you're reading the series in publication order than it's probably less jarring to see Sharpe at his absolute worst. After all he's got to build up from basically nothing to become the god among men as portrayed by Sean Bean he eventually becomes. However, if you read in chronological order with his campaigns in India first, it's very jarring to see Sharpe as distrusted by everyone. Despite being a common soldier, people still kind of saw Sharpe as one of the best damn soldiers in the entire British army and there were a few willing to look past his more unusual background. Heck, even in Sharpe's Prey there are powerful patrons who may actually influence Sharpe's career which only makes it that much stranger when he's in Spain as a quartermaster.

Another weird thing that it only took me about six books to notice is Sharpe seems to have a different woman he falls in love with every book. Seriously, it's at the point where I'm suspecting Cornwell had something written into his contract where Sharpe had to meet a beautiful woman and fall in love with her every book, with Sharpe only occasionally getting the girl. It's kind of believable at first, when he meets one or two ladies, but after the sixth it's kind of like, ''Oh, she's the love of your life? Really, Sharpe, you don't say? Mhm, do go on.'' I hate to say it because I'm stereotypically one of those not interested in romance sorts of people, but it's cropping up so much it's practically formulaic. I'm afraid this has the potential to just be incredibly annoying as the series goes on.

I think overall my biggest problem was that I read other books where Sharpe's more developed and becomes the best damn soldier in the entire damn British army and everyone knows it, where now he's basically a nobody. It's a big disconnect, but I think a result of prequels more than anything else. It's okay otherwise. Fairly standard battle scenes but not much else to write home about.

- Kalpar

Sharpe's Prey, by Bernard Cornwell

This week I'm returning to my guilty pleasure, the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, which I've long since given up fretting about the Forrest Gump effect and I'm coming to learn to just accept it. This week I'm continuing in chronological order with Sharpe's Prey, a book set during the 1807 British expedition to Denmark which resulted in the shelling of Copenhagen and the seizure of the Danish fleet by the British. To provide a very, very short explanation of historic context: after Trafalgar in 1805 little Denmark was the only country with a navy large enough to challenge the Royal Navy of Britain. Denmark was officially neutral but Napoleon was exerting considerable pressure to get the Danes to turn their fleet over to the French. (And in a treaty between France and Russia, Russia had graciously granted the Danish fleet to the French, something which Denmark had not been appraised of whatsoever.)

Britain responded by requesting, rather forcefully, that Denmark hand their fleet over to the Royal Navy's protective custody. Denmark flatly refused, much as they had every right to do, it being their navy, and the British responded with a military invasion which resulted in the events mentioned above. Denmark was driven into an alliance with France, but with their navy gone they were largely irrelevant in the ensuing campaigns. Cornwell admits that this is an event not often remembered by the British and widely regarded as a bit of an embarrassment. After all, shelling a city and specifically attacking civilian targets would be regarded as a war crime today so you can understand why the British may be reluctant to talk about it. However I feel, despite it being a work of fiction, that Cornwell manages to talk about the events with a certain amount of respect and dismay at the needless casualties and destruction.

Aside from the historical material, I feel like this is very much an in-between book that kind of ties between the earlier stories of Sharpe's experiences in India, which were pretty interesting in their own right, and Sharpe's later adventures in the European theaters of the Napoleonic Wars. (Although this and the previous four books were actually written after some of the later books.) There are a lot of developments between the last book, Sharpe's Trafalgar, and this one, which I feel are things that should have been shown to us rather than told.

Sharpe finally joins his new regiment, the 95th Rifles, which I have the benefit of knowing he's going to stick with through Waterloo. However once again he's snubbed by the aristocratic officers and assigned the odious duty of quartermaster, left feeling like he'll never fit in. On top of that he get to enjoy a few months of bliss with Lady Grace before she, and their child, die leaving him alone and, thanks to lawyers, poor once again and looking for a way to make some money and get out of the army. These are all important events in the life of Richard Sharpe and I feel like we should have seen at least some of them, but instead they're just told to us in the book. It left me feeling somewhat disoriented and like I missed a book. Maybe there's a short story that I missed that helps bridge this gap, but otherwise it's something we should have been shown instead of told.

The plot otherwise involves Sharpe traveling with Captain Lavisser, who's been dispatched to Denmark with over forty-thousand guineas in advance of the main fleet with the hope the Danish will peacefully hand their fleet over without bloodshed. No such expedition occurred, at least as far as we know, (although according to Cornwell the British spent millions on bribes during this era) but it provides a convenient excuse to get Sharpe into the right place at the right time. Although in an interesting aversion to what I've noticed in earlier books, beyond providing some basic intelligence for his superiors, Sharpe doesn't really do anything that affects the outcome of the attack on Copenhagen. He's really wrapped up in his cloak-and-daggers plot that moves him off of the battlefield and into the shadowy world of diplomacy. A world where he doesn't feel entirely comfortable if he's being honest. It's like Sharpe gets his own story and the Denmark expedition and bombardment of Copenhagen is just a convenient backdrop more than an integral part of the story. It's not bad. In fact on reflection I kind of enjoy it, but it's definitely different.

I'm left, though, with the feeling that Cornwell, and Sharpe for that matter, are just killing time until the serious business starts. And it makes me wonder why this book was written at all, beyond Cornwell just deciding to do something different and talk about an often overlooked event in history. Sharpe's already made it back to England after Trafalgar, and he's already joined the 95th by the events of the next book, Sharpe's Rifles. It's like there was an embarrassing gap in Sharpe's military record where it looked like he wasn't really doing anything and it needed to be filled in by something to make it look better. Sort of like the Pratchett jokes about towns being on maps only to help fill up embarrassingly large blank areas. It's an interesting diversion, but ultimately still a diversion.

Overall, much like the rest of this series it was pretty enjoyable for me. I'm a weird fan of military fiction and I like how Cornwell's able to show his research and make Sharpe's world, two centuries gone, really come to life. I think I really liked how Sharpe didn't save the day in any spectacular fashion, but I'm sure that he'll go back to meddling with history soon enough.

- Kalpar

Waterloo: The True Story of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles, by Bernard Cornwell

This week I'm taking a look at another book about the historic battle of Waterloo, in this case a book from historical novelist Bernard Cornwell. Before I get into the review I should preface this by saying that although Cornwell is the creator of the famous Sharpe series and does write a novel in which Richard Sharpe fights at the Battle of Waterloo, this book is not a historical novel. Instead it is a historical text, albeit somewhat short, in which Cornwell makes use of his considerable research to talk about one of the most studied battles in history. Cornwell himself somewhat undermines his book in the preface by stating that the subject of Waterloo's been studied numerous times and there have been perhaps countless books written on the subject before. However Cornwell argues that because Waterloo is such a fascinating battle he believes retelling the story is well worth the effort.

Inevitably, I am going to be contrasting Cornwell's work with the book written by Hamilton-Williams which I reviewed some time ago. One of the biggest contrasts I saw was that Hamilton-Williams puts a large amount of emphasis on the scale model of the Battle of Waterloo which he asserts has greatly influenced historical interpretation of the Battle in the years since. Cornwell mentions the model towards the end of the book and says Wellington believed it actually overstated the importance of the Prussians at the battle. But Cornwell points out that by the time the model was created Wellington had soured somewhat and so was willing to downplay the achievements of his erstwhile allies and take all the credit for winning the battle for himself.

In the key historical points Cornwell and Hamilton-Williams are in agreement, and it's very difficult to argue those anyway. Napoleon and his armies managed to defeat the Prussians at Ligny and fought the British, Dutch, and German forces to a draw at Quatre Bras on the same day, with one of Napoleon's corps marching between battles all day and playing no part in either. The Prussians, under Gebhard von Bluecher withdrew to Favre in the north with an intention of linking up with Wellington rather than retreating east back towards Prussia. Wellington also withdrew to the north, his position at Quatre Bras now exposed on two fronts, and took up a defensive position on a ridge south of the village of Waterloo which would allow Bluecher to join him, concentrate, and then fight Napoleon with a distinct numerical advantage.

On 18 June, 1815, Napoleon joined Marshal Ney's forces, who attacked Wellington's position on the ridge while Marshal Grouchy, under vague orders from Napoleon, marched towards Favre and engaged with the Prussian rearguard, a battle which he eventually won. However instead of tying down the entire Prussian army, most of it managed to march through back roads and eventually joined Wellington's forces in the afternoon, drawing off Napoleon's much needed reserves and eventually giving the allies the numerical advantage necessary to win the battle.

The main argument then comes as to why the allies won and Napoleon lost. Napoleon and many other French sources have long blamed Marshal Grouchy and other of Napoleon's subordinates who did not follow his orders properly. The standard British school of thought has given the lion's share of credit to the British and the King's German Legion forces there, while the other allies present have supported their own countries. And of course the Prussians, led by Bluecher's chief of staff Gneisenau, have stated the entire battle would have been lost without the Prussian contribution. The truth, as Cornwell states is somewhat more complex and for the most part Cornwell says we probably will never know the exact truth. The metaphor of a ball, apparently once used by Wellington, is repeated often in the book. Everyone will remember what happened to them and what they saw, but they will not have been everywhere and have seen everything. Everyone's individual account will vary depending on their location and their own opinions and memories. Some general facts may be agreed upon, but the specifics will be far more difficult to sort out.

For the most part, I think Cornwell does a good job talking about the whole story, keeping in mind the entire time that people's perspectives will of course be rather limited or downright wrong, especially on an early nineteenth century battlefield where the noise and smoke making seeing a few yards in front of you difficult and anything beyond that almost impossible. Cornwell works to incorporate a number of sources, although his perspective from Wellington's army is almost entirely British and only rarely mentions the Dutch, Belgian, or German allies. However, Cornwell does state that in their accounts the British charge their allies with cowardice, and the other allies charge the British with cowardice so the truth is they probably all performed admirably. However he does suggest the Dutch, Belgian, and German troops, who were more likely to be raw recruits compared to their British allies, were more likely to break, which suggests a slight hint of bias.

If there is any reason why Napoleon lost at Waterloo, Cornwell blames it on a combination of Napoleon's decision to wait until the ground was dry for use of his artillery, his decision to assault Wellington head on which only played to Wellington's strengths, his ambiguously worded orders, and some of Marshal Ney's decisions, who was making a very bad mess of things that day. Cornwell also states unambiguously that the Prussians arrived in time to help Wellington, whose army was at the breaking point, win the day and drew off much needed troops from Napoleon's reserves. Perhaps more importantly the Prussians, despite marching since the previous night, continued the pursuit of the French and ensured the complete destruction of Napoleon's army in the following night. If Cornwell's account is from a largely British perspective, it at least seems a rather even-handed if somewhat brief account of the battles.

I think my only strong complaint would be Cornwell's decision to, at points, move the narrative into the present tense. This is only a temporary decision and it's usually done at chapter breaks to ''catch the reader up'' so to speak on events that are happening on the battlefield when we rejoin the narrative. It just seems weird to me, personally, to shift between tenses like that and it's not something I've run into in other historical texts. I think that may be the historical novelist in Cornwell coming out during the book.

Overall, this book is pretty good, if rather brief. It gives a nice overview of the battle and at least gives credit to both the British and Prussians at Waterloo, if perhaps once again the Dutch, Beligians, and other Germans are getting the short shift. It's certainly not as detailed as Hamilton-Williams work, but I think it manages to avoid the pitfalls that other book tends to fall into. And certainly Cornwell has done enough research on the subject matter.

- Kalpar

Sharpe's Trafalgar, by Bernard Cornwell

This week I'm making a return back to the extremely popular Sharpe series written by Bernard Cornwell. In keeping with my habit I've been reading the books in the series's own chronological order rather than reading them in order of publication. So far I've enjoyed the series and Sharpe's adventures in India, watching him rise to a sergeant and eventually an ensign before being transferred back to England with the 95th Rifles. (And greater fame and glory I have no doubt.) Of course, Sharpe has to get back to England in the first place which means a long ship voyage across two oceans. And Sharpe just so happens to be off the coast of Spain on an October day in 1805.

I will admit I kind of have a problem with this book and I ended up not enjoying it as much as some of the other Sharpe novel's I've read. And I think part of it may be because I'm reading these books in chronological order instead of publication order. For me it's really weird that Sharpe's at Trafalgar at all. I mean, the man's a footslogger, an excellent footslogger, and there's something fascinating about watching him fight on land. (Although I'm sure the fans of the television adaptations will admit Sean Bean isn't hard on the eyes either.) Cornwell himself admits that Sharpe has absolutely no business being at Trafalgar and he sent Sharpe there because he thought it would make an interesting story. On the one hand, it's kind of annoying because it's the Forrest Gump Effect dragging Sharpe into the course of history once again, but on the other it kind of makes sense. Let me explain.

A good example would be the Gaunt's Ghosts series, which is basically Sharpe IN SPACE! And yes, it's interesting to watch Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and the Tanith First and Only wandering around on a variety of planets and fighting the forces of the Archenemy. But it was somewhere in the middle of reading the second omnibus, The Saint, that I started to get bored with the series. There's just so many ways that you can tell stories about soldiers fighting battles before they start running together. Fortunately in the next omnibus, The Lost, Abnett managed to bring some new and interesting ideas to the series and so kept me interested as a reader. But if you have a long-running series like that it can be a challenge to keep the ideas fresh and interesting. So while Sharpe's Trafalgar is relatively early in the internal chronology, it's later on in the publication order. And for long-time readers of the series it was probably refreshing to see Sharpe do something different instead of the same old battles over and over. For a relatively new reader such as myself, though, it was sort of a weird installment.

I also should warn people that this book has a ton of historical information about the British Royal Navy in it. A lot. As in there are extended expository conversations among the characters about these sorts of things. A character at one point states what it cost to build a ship, down to the penny. It's very obvious that Cornwell did a ton of research in preparation for writing this novel, talking to people at the HMS Victory museum, which is a very good thing if you're writing historical fiction. There's nothing I hate more than historical fiction that gets things downright wrong when it shouldn't, and it's always nice to see how Cornwell has done his research. However it starts spilling over into the book and it almost feels like an information overload. Now, thanks to a certain other series  and my many hours logged on Empire Total War I have more than a passing familiarity with the history of the Royal Navy, but I felt like some of the information was just proving how much research Cornwell had done and didn't really contribute to the plot. While I as a history nerd found it all very interesting, I'm sure there are more than one reader who would be overwhelmed.

Unfortunately, for most of the book there just isn't terribly much for Sharpe to do. He's no sailor so he spends most of his time as a passenger, just passing time on ships and finding things to do to occupy his time. Sure, there are things going on but it feels like a distraction until we get to the final big event itself in the last part of the book. Maybe it really captured the tedium of traveling by sailing ship in the early 1800's, but it was a tedium I'd have rather avoided. When it comes to Trafalgar there is plenty of action and the amount of detail is almost excessive. Although personally I'm somewhat surprised considering the amount of carnage that goes on in these books when I find out how relatively light the actual casualties were, at least for the British. You read about ships getting blasted by broadsides and men getting torn apart, but the final tally for the British is just under 1,700 dead and wounded, a tenth of the British force. The combined Spanish and French force, though, loses half their ships and half their men in the battle, a decisive victory for the British indeed.

Overall, I found this book somewhat less enjoyable than the others I've read so far. I know some people really enjoy it and maybe you just have to be an Age of Sail navy fan to really enjoy it. Personally I'm much happier on the land, thank you very much. And if you're not eager to learn a bunch of Royal Navy statistics I'd recommend avoiding this book. If that's your thing then read away, but be prepared for lots of details.

- Kalpar

Sharpe's Fortress, by Bernard Cornwell

So, after taking what I realized was nearly a year-long hiatus, I decided to go ahead and check out the next (chronological) book in the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe's Fortress. This book deals with newly-minted Ensign Sharpe and his struggles in becoming an officer. It's also Sharpe's (and by extension, Wellington's) last adventure in India, before they both return to Europe to take the fight to those dastardly Frenchmen. This book in specific focuses on Wellington's last campaign in India, the battle of Argaum and the siege of Gawilghur, which helped to further cement British dominance in India.

As I've mentioned before whenever I read a historical fiction novel, I usually have extreme pet peeves with the genre in general. The worst is when the books are poorly researched, which thankfully is not the case here, but the Sharpe series in general seems to suffer extremely from what I like to call the Forrest Gump effect: where one fictional person is responsible for so many important things in history and it turns out they were best friends with (or simply met) most of the people we usually read about in the history books. Of course, in the case of Sharpe it makes sense to have his career follow Wellington's because Wellington is much easier to research, opposed to some poor blighter in the ranks. But I often find myself pretending that this all happens in an alternate timeline separate from our own so that it all makes sense.

Of course, there's also the author's need to give their main character something to do as well, which leads to fictional characters elbowing in on the real achievements of historical people. To his credit, Cornwell does explain that the 33rd Regiment of Foot was nowhere near the Siege of Gawilghur, and it was in fact Captain Campbell of the 94th Regiment who manged to storm the walls with his company and open the gates for the British attackers. Captain Campbell does get a cameo, but within the narrative Sharpe is credited with the idea. I am a little worried about the next book, Sharpe's Trafalgar, which I feel may be the most egregious example of this casual alteration of history, considering Sharpe is a footslogger of the infantry and has no logical reason to be at a naval engagement. At least, as far as I can tell, anyway.

I'm also getting the feeling that the Sharpe books are going to be fairly formulaic, which is an issue I ran into with the Warhammer 40,000 version of this series, Gaunt's Ghosts. There's a war going on, Sharpe has to do some fighting, Sharpe fights, Sharpe wins, day is saved. Well, maybe not saved, but carried for the British at any rate. And I can see how this might drive people away from the series because (at least since we know Sharpe survives at least to Waterloo), that he's going to at least survive that long, so where's the tension? While the series was new, I'm sure the concern that Sharpe might not survive was very real for readers, but that might make it a tough sell for new readers.

So despite my issues, why do I keep reading the Sharpe books? Well, quite simply, I really like Sharpe as a character. Sharpe is in many ways, the ultimate underdog. Now promoted to an officer, Sharpe has been shoved into a world he doesn't belong to, and his fellow officers constantly remind him that he doesn't belong there. The officer corps of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars is dominated by aristocrats and gentlemen, people who are able to pay the hundreds or thousands of pounds necessary to gain a commission. But Sharpe is a common, lower-class person. Maybe not much in common with you or me, but an ultimate underdog who's been kicked around a lot of his life and hasn't had a lot going for him. And it feels good to watch Sharpe fight, to watch him struggle and, ultimately, succeed. It just feels right somehow, and because of that I love reading these books.

And I think that's really the main selling point of this series, the character of Sharpe. He is the main character after all. There's a certain amount of charm in his defiance against all odds and determination to fight and survive, no matter the odds. Sure, he may be uneducated and perhaps a little brutal, relishing in the fight a bit much, but that doesn't make him any less fun to watch. As long as I'm still enjoying the character of Sharpe, which I think I will, then I'll keep reading these books, no matter how historically silly they may get.

- Kalpar

Sharpe's Triumph, by Bernard Cornwell

This week I've decided to continue with Cornwell's much-acclaimed Sharpe series, continuing in chronological order with Sharpe's Triumph. It has been four years since the siege of Seringapatam, where Sharpe earned his sergeant's stripes, and he's been peacefully serving in the armory of the now British-controlled town. However, Sharpe's peaceful existence soon comes to an end when his old friend Colonel McCandless recruits Sharpe to help him hunt down an English officer who has deserted, joined one of the Indian princes now opposing the British, and taken an entire company of highly trained sepoys with him. Along the way they must join up with Sharpe's old colonel, Arthur Wellesley, who's been promoted to Major General and is leading the next British war in India.  In addition, Sharpe's old enemy of Obadiah Hakeswill returns with his vicious vendetta against Sharpe.

Overall I rather liked this book, much like the previous one, and I get the feeling that most of the books in this series are not going to stray too far from what's definitely a winning formula. The novels in this series are going to drag Richard Sharpe from one conflict to another in the many wars that Britain was involved in during the early nineteenth century, and along the way he's going to have plenty of interesting adventures. I'll admit it doesn't really break new ground but the formula works if you go into it accepting it is what it is and not expecting too terribly much beyond some exciting nineteenth century action. Again, Cornwell manages to capture the visceral realness of warfare in this time period and it's a bloody, messy affair, rather than something noble and glorious, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the thrill regardless.

I will admit, and this is kind of a weakness of historical fiction regardless of time period, that it kind of relies on what I like to call the Forrest Gump Principle: that the fictional protagonist who is in no way particularly special himself was in some way connected to some famous event, or knew famous people, or both. In a particularly long series it can become almost preposterous, such as the Young Indiana Jones series your protagonist may end up being on a first name basis with numerous world leaders and still somehow be just an ordinary joe like the rest of us. It is by far one my biggest peeves with historical fiction, yet at the same time I recognize that it's necessary because history is usually written just about important people and events and the little guy often gets overlooked, so if you want to talk about him he's still going to be tied to the important things. Thus Sharpe's career rather closely follows Wellington's and Sharpe, being a hero after all, will usually be in the right place at the right time.

If you liked Sharpe's Tiger or any of the other Sharpe novels I'm sure you'll enjoy this one as well. I will definitely continue to read the series, but I will probably intersperse it with other books because I do not expect terribly great variation beyond location in these books.

- Kalpar

Sharpe's Tiger, by Bernard Cornwell

So I decided once again to go into the field of historical fiction, deciding this time to go with the well-received Sharpe series, following the adventures of Richard Sharpe in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. I'm actually familiar with a sort of spin-off of this series, Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts, which is basically the Sharpe series, but in space! Since I quite liked the Gaunt's Ghosts series I decided I'd give Sharpe a try as well. I must admit that I still had some apprehensions about going into this series because it's historical fiction, which I usually have issues with. Overall I thought this book was rather good, though, and I look forward to reading more about Sharpe's adventures in the future. (I should note that this is the first Sharpe book chronologically, but by far not the first written in the series.)

Sharpe's Tiger is set during the Siege of Seringapatam in 1799, which was the final battle of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War. To provide a very broad and somewhat inaccurate description, the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War was a war between the Indian state of Mysore and their allies and Great Britain and their allies. Great Britain was interested in political and economic control of India and Mysore was interested in keeping them out of India. For those of you that payed attention in world history you're no doubt aware that India became the crown jewel of the British Empire so the end result of the campaign is never really in doubt. Much of the drama comes, instead, from the uncertain fate of the characters during the novel and hoping that they'll survive.

What I really liked about this book was that it was incredibly honest about the nature of warfare. There is a tendency within military fiction, even in the best-written, to make it very clean and honorable. Sharpe's Tiger, by comparison, shows you the blood, the gore, the looting, and the brutality of warfare, even in the early 1800's. You really get a feeling of the visceral and brutal nature of warfare which I personally haven't seen anywhere else in the fiction I've read. I found the subject material a refreshing change of pace from the usual sci-fi or fantasy pulp that I've been reading, although it's very similar to a lot of the Warhammer 40,000 books I've been reading, unsurprisingly I guess.

The other thing I really noticed was a lack of character development in this novel. I think a lot of this was because this was a prequel novel in the series so we're supposed to be already familiar with the characters. We see Sharpe get a little ambitious and begin his ascent through the ranks, but other than that there isn't a lot of development. I'm hoping when I get into the core books of the series there will be better fleshing out of characters making me more interested in their fates.

Overall pretty good and I hope to read more about Sharpe in the future.

- Kalpar