Reviews (3)

Diplomacy and War like Chess
In this volume(and the 3 that will follow) Kagan sets out to write a military/diplomatic history of the Napoleonic period.The first 200 pages give an overview of how the war of the First Coalition came about. Then there are some 100 pages devoted to the french and allied war plans and the rest of the book covers the war itself.This is a work of explanation and interpretation and the focus is on the diplomats and generals who made the important decisions.There is no spotlight on the idiosyncracies of individuals perse ,but only if it is important to explain some decision taken by that person. Likewise the descriptions of battles are explanatory. There is no blood and guts. All in all it is a bit like a game of chess and the best explanatory book i have read about Napoleonic Europe. The author, in contrast to most other books about this time, devotes an equal amount of space to the French and the Allies and is evenhanded in the condemnation or praise he bestows on the belligerents.It is simply not true as an other reviewer has it that this is the old Napoleon as Ogre story all over again.Knowing the author's very rightleaning political views i indeed started reading this book with some trepidation, but was pleasantly suprised that Kagan did'nt let those views cloud his judgement.Repeatedly Kagan stresses that it was'nt Napoleon who wanted this war but Tsar Alexander. Of course you can take exception with the author's interpretation of motives and events but that applies to every thesis. At least Kagan does't parrot every other author and his analysis is based on thorough archival investigation. This is not a book for the novice but if you want to know the ins and outs of Napoleonic Europe, have an analytical bend and value clear and uncluttered prose this is the book for you. Highly recommended. Hats of for Frederick Kagan and counting down to the next volume.

The Myth of the Corsican Ogre...
This volume, while interesting in places, is neither brilliant nor monumental, except for its length.
An interesting thesis
According to Frederick Kagan it was the mistakes made by European nations and not Napoleon's brilliance that lead to France dominating Europe in the first decade of the nineteenth century. First according to Kagan distrust among Britain, Prussia, Austria, and Russia made them form an alliance too late, and in Prussia's case to opt out until the very last moment. Kagan is especially critical of Tsar Alexander I for alienating potential allies by his overly idealistic version of postwar Europe in which both Prussia and Austria would have diminished power in exchange for greater influence of the smaller states in Central Europe. Kagan is also critical of the Austrian leadership for putting too many soldiers in Italy instead of Germany and at General Mack for not retreating from his overextended forces from Ulm. Also Archduke Charles failed to move sufficient forces from Italy to help Mack in Germany. Kagan is especially harsh on Tsar Alexander I for overextending his forces in Italy, around Prussia, and the Balkans, while failing to concentrate them in southern Germany in order to cooperate better with the Austrians. Finally Tsar Alexander I ordered Kutuzov to on the offensive prematurely before the disasterous Austro-Russian defeat at Austerlitz. Although I strongly disagree with Frederick Kagan's personal politics, he does write excellent military history. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1769-1821    2. 1789-1815    3. 19th Century World History    4. Emperor of the French,    5. Europe - General    6. Europe - History    7. France    8. General    9. History    10. History - General History    11. History: World    12. Military - Napoleonic Wars    13. Napoleon    14. Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815    15. Politics and government    16. Battles & campaigns    17. Biography: historical    18. European history: c 1750 to c 1900    19. c 1800 to c 1900   

Reviews (22)

A Wonderful Friendship
This is the next Hornblower chronologically, it was not the next one written. Now that the series is completed it makes sense to read it as Hornblower's career progresses in the Royal Navy.
Cunning and determination
A crew has mutinied and threatens to hang their captain and turn their ship over to the French if they don't receive pardons and their captain isn't tried for his cruelty.Simple force cannot subdue the mutineers, as they have only to sail into Napoleon's embrace to escape punishment.Their demands cannot be granted, lest every crew with a cruel captain take the law into their own hands.Our hero is summoned to solve the problem, which he does with aplomb. This leads to a gripping series of diplomatic and military moves, and the ultimate defeat of the French tyrant. This part is good; I would give it 5 stars.
Naval hero helps end the war.
After recovering from the typhus and attending to ceremonies of the knights of the bath, Commodore Hornblower is sent to Le Havre in Normandy to intervene in some mutineers who are demanding a pardon on threat of turning their ship over to the French.In typical Hornblower fashion he captures a very large French cargo vessel, the mutineers ship and another French navel vessel all in a couple of days.But Hornblower isn't done yet.He negotiates with the Mayor of Le Havre to turn against Napoleon with British naval support.Hornblower sails into the harbor with a few hundred marines and takes over.For some weeks he is bound up in administration of the port and it's defenses. A French siege army approaches but a daring row up river blows up their siege guns and powder. Captain Bush is killed in the explosion. The crown prince of France arrives and a whole entourage, along with Lady Barbara.With his army defeated in the south and Normandy held against him, Napoleon abdicates.Hornblower and the crown prince sail up the Seine toward Paris.For his achievements and for political reasons Hornblower is appointed "Lord Hornblower."Lady Barbara goes to Vienna with her brother for political peace talks, so Hornblower visits his friend from "Flying Colors." While he's there Napoleon retakes the country and Hornblower leads a small resistance force tying up several thousand men who might have made a difference elsewhere at Waterloo.Read more

Subjects:  1. 19th century    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - Historical    4. General    5. Great Britain    6. Historical - General    7. History, Naval    8. Hornblower, Horatio (Fictitiou    9. Hornblower, Horatio (Fictitious character)    10. Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815    11. Sea & Ocean    12. War & Military    13. Fiction / General    14. Modern fiction   

Features

• Illustrated

Reviews (6)

Tremendous value
What a book!This book is huge and contains just about everything you would want to know about the people, the ships and the battles.I was really impressed to see the hour by hour description of the battle and the detailed descriptions of the ships appearance as well as its statistics.
A GREAT book on Nelson's Navy
The Trafalgar Companion is probably the best reference book on the Royal Navy in the time of the Napoleonic Wars.It has about 550 pages of small type and is jam packed with information.However, it is much more than its title suggests.
Fantastic coverage of Trafalgar..
The Trafalgar Companion by Mark Adkin looked very much like his Waterloo Companion that he wrote earlier. The book covers three subject matters. First is the Trafalgar campaign and battle. Second is the biographical overview of Horatio Lord Nelson and finally the third coverage deals with anatomy of navies and ships of this period although the Royal Navy get most of the coverage. Each three subjects are spread apart into sections and interlocked with the overall coverage of the topic. There are also many side bars notes that inserts interesting trivial if not important information regarding the subject matter at hand.
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Subjects:  1. Military    2. History - Military / War    3. Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815    4. Military - Napoleonic Wars    5. Europe    6. European history: c 1750 to c 1900    7. GREAT BRITAIN_ROYAL NAVY_HISTORY    8. History / Great Britain    9. NELSON, HORATIO NELSON, VISCOUNT, 1758-1805    10. Naval forces & warfare    11. c 1800 to c 1900    12. France    13. Military - Naval    14. History    15. 19th century    16. History, Naval    17. Trafalgar, Battle of, 1805   

Reviews (1)

An Actual Book Review
The wholesale looting of the Baghdad Museum on Apr. 11-12, which U.S. troops did nothing to prevent, has lent a fresh plangency and interest to this remarkable new book about history, culture, museums, caretakers, theft, corruption and the dogfights between the West and Islam over antiquities vastly older than either culture.Read more

Subjects:  1. Ancient - Egypt    2. Antiquities    3. Archaeological museums and col    4. Archaeological museums and collections    5. Archaeology    6. Egypt    7. Egyptology    8. History    9. History - General History    10. History: World    11. Middle East - General    12. World - General    13. African history: BCE to c 500 CE    14. Cultural studies    15. Egyptian archaeology    16. History / General    17. Museums & Museology    18. Social & cultural anthropology    19. c 1800 to c 1900    20. c 1900 - c 1914   

Editorial Review

You won't come away from this energetic biography thinking much of the French emperor either as a man or as a general. Historian Alan Schom depicts Napoleon (1769-1821) as a cold-hearted manipulator: Schom's blistering accounts of the 1798-99 Egyptian campaign and the disastrous 1812 retreat from Russia show the French army decimated due to its leader's failure to inform himself about the lands he was invading or to properly plan for provisioning his troops. The fun of this book comes from vigorous prose that vividly evokes Bonaparte's titanic personality and the colorful band of schemers surrounding him. ... Read more

Reviews (93)

French glory is always preferable to the truth eh?
Napoleon was a butcher, the Hitler of his age.Three million dead from the armies or europe, millions more forced into his armies and taken from their homes, only to return mangled both physically andmentally.He created a police state, with a vast internal spy network, with no real freedom, his enemies siezed and executed.He stole and extorted from everyone, particularly his own people.He destroyed the entire economy of europe and particularly France.He reintroduced slavery to France's colonies.He turned a potential democracy into a dictatorship and used his power for his own glory and enrichment without a thought to the death and destruction he left in his wake.He routinely executed prisoners of war, and despite repeated pleadings from his docotrs, he never established even the most basic care for the wounded, allowing them to die in the ditches and fields where they fell - nothing to him anymore.He lied incessently and constantly overstated his victories and his role in them. He was a coward and deserted his armies at least three times (Egypt, Russia, Waterloo) and in the end he lost far more than he won.
Poorly written
After several attempts, I gave up on this book at about page 20. It reads like a high school book report.

ugly but decent
I agree with the basic points of other reviewers: this book is extremely biased against Napoleon even though the author proclaims himself neutral; the maps are inadequate; and the treatment of psychology and motivation is shallow.I want to add that the writing style is primitive, poorly edited, with awkward grammar, sometimes confusing basic points.It reads like the work of an amateur scholar.The author is in command of his facts but not of his story.Nonetheless, the facts are there, and the inherent quality of the subject matter makes up for bad craftsmanship.This a readable book, though not a great one.Somebody tell us if another book is better: McLynn?Tulard? ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1769-1821    2. 1789-1794    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Corsica (France)    7. Emperor of the French,    8. France    9. France - History - Revolution And Napoleonic Empire (1789-1815)    10. Historical - General    11. History    12. Military    13. Napoleon    14. Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815    15. Political    16. Biography: historical    17. European history: c 1750 to c 1900   

Reviews (37)

Excellent Book - Suffers form the Usual Poor Maps
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.That said, this book suffered from the usual trouble of military history books: maps.The problem in most such books is a simple lack of maps, but in this regard, Campaigns of Napoleon ranks pretty well.The troubles here are more subtle:
The best single reference on the campaigns of Napoleon
This is, without question, the best single volume reference in English on the campaigns of Napoleon.This book is not perfect, and I would agree with some of the negative points made by other reviewers, but I cannot understand how anyone would give this less than five stars.There is simply no other book that is even comparable to this one.This book is to the Napoleonic Wars what Shelby Foote's series is to the American Civil War, absolutely indispensible for any serious (amateur or professional) historian or student of the era.
Return of the Champion
I first read Chandler's "Campaigns of Napoleon" in the late 1960s as a teenager. I was enthralled then with the subject material, and with Chandler's vivid portrayal of Napleon's fundamental doctrines and thought. This recent purchase is a re-acquisition after 20 years of not having this splendid book. I will agree that Esposito's and Elting's "A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars" has the edge in terms of presenting the campaign movements and battlefield evolutions clearly with their excellent and numerous color maps. But it is equally true that Chandler's work offers more context on why events unfolded in a diplomatic or economic sense. And Chandler's work has far more examination of the character and personality of Napoleon's principal generals, as well as of his adversaries. And the maps and battlefield discussion in "The Campains of Napoleon" are excellent in their own right. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1769-1821    2. 1789-1815    3. Emperor of the French,    4. Europe    5. Europe - France    6. France    7. History    8. History - General History    9. History, Military    10. History: World    11. Military - Napoleonic Wars    12. Military leadership    13. Napoleon    14. Napolâeon    15. History / General   

Reviews (25)

Not the typical Napoleon biography
Swords Around a Throne is not your typical Napoleon book.Elting concentrates on topics which MAY rate a sentence or paragraph in other biographies.Elting concentrates on the different divisions of the Grand Arm�e including uniforms, in-depth looks at his marshals and the navy instead of regurgitating the different battles he fought.Swords Around a Throne is a good change of pace to the other biographies of Napoleon as it provides a different aspect to the Napoleonic Wars and his empire.Well worth the time to read.

Generalization
The problem with thick books that try to capture large subjects is that they must generalize and leave out a lot of data, and here there is no difference. If you are looking of a general overview of the Grande Armee during more then two decades of the French First Republic and Empire, this book will inform. However it is not meant to provide or be a definitive statement on any of the topics discussed in the chapters. Its a guide, rather then a scholarly work. This is particularly true where armies other then French are discussed, or where equal space has been given to its largest corps, the Infantry or Cavalry.
Informative and Interesting
This is an excellent book, both informative and interesting.Even while discussing rather dry topics, the author manages to work in humourous anecdotes or observations.
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Subjects:  1. 1789-1815    2. Armee    3. Armâee.    4. Europe - France    5. France    6. France.    7. Grande Armee    8. Grande Armâee    9. History    10. History - Military / War    11. History, Military    12. Military - Napoleonic Wars    13. Military History (General)    14. Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815    15. Regimental histories    16. History / General    17. History of specific subjects    18. Land forces & warfare   

Reviews (13)

Great deal
Book arrived in time and in the conditions annouced. I'd buy from you again. Great deal!

A MASTERPIECE
It is quite dificult to find a History book who is well written and also makes you think about the subject. This is the main diference about Hobswamn. He makes you think, and Ibelieve this is the main aim for a Historian. Excellent
The author has, with this book, achived something great. He has managed to write about one of the most complex periods in European and World history in an acurate and detailed manner, whilst keeping it throughly readable. Why past reviews have attacked a lack of mention regarding the American Revolution escapes me. I would suggest that it is the French Revolution that warrents far greater attention due to its profound effects on political systems worldwide, and this book dose just that. For anybody interested in the transformation from absolutist to nationalist Europe, this is a mst read. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1789-1900    2. Education    3. Europe    4. Europe - General    5. History    6. History - General History    7. Industrial History    8. Industrial revolution    9. Military - Napoleonic Wars    10. Modern - 18th Century    11. History / Modern / 18th Century   

Reviews (1)

Piece of cake...
This is a remarkable book-very odd in its way-a swashbuckler with hardly a dead man in sight. Pope seems to have challenged himself to imagine a string of seven actions which spill hardly a drop of blood and gore. A particularly telling scene, I think, is the night attempt to blow up a French 3rd rate in harbor: you see a mighty flash and are deafened,then...next chapter. Avast there, what happened, really? The emphasis is on the astonishing ingenuity of Ramage and his men to anticipate, out think, manipulate, and outmaneuver his enemies time and again during the second part of his independent cruise in the Mediterranean (a true continuation indeed of "The Ramage Touch"). Ramage comes up with one wiley ruse de guerre after another to humble and discomfit the French. Just think of the potentialities if you could get your hands on the new French semaphore towers ashore.... It takes extraordinary luck, very stupid or drunk enemies, and an inventive author to pull the capersoff in an entertaining fashion. It's amazing to how much deviltry and destruction Pope can put Ramage in one book. The seamen enjoy the cruise enough to make good jokes, too. Read more

Subjects:  1. 19th century    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - Historical    4. Great Britain    5. Historical - General    6. History, Naval    7. Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815    8. Ramage, Nicholas (Fictitious c    9. Ramage, Nicholas (Fictitious character)    10. Sea & Ocean    11. Ship captains    12. War & Military   

Reviews (40)

Not one of Keegan's better works
This is a disappointing work by the esteemed historian John Keegan.His thesis is that, despite many platitudes to the contrary, intelligence is rarely if ever the decisive factor on the battlefield; battles and campaigns are won by the application of maneuver and firepower.Unfortunately, the campaigns that Keegan uses to illustrate this fail to do so.
Some good examples of intelligence
From the title, we would think that we would get as much about Al-Qaeda as about Napoleon; however, that is not the case.The former is merely a bit of an afterthought on the rest of the book, which goes into specific instances where intelligence went awry through misunderstanding or misuse.
Not Keegan's best, but still an important book
It would seem that many of this book's reviewers have completely missed Keegan's point in writing `Intelligence in War'. This book was never intended as a comprehensive account of any particular campaign or battle (much less an entire theatre of WW2!) and nor was it intended as a general history of the role intelligence has played in wars throughout history (though the publisher does seem guilty of marketing it as such a general history, which may explain why many people who purchased the bok were disappointed with it).
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Subjects:  1. History    2. History - Military / War    3. Intelligence Operations    4. Intelligence service    5. Military    6. Military - General    7. Military - Intelligence/Espionage    8. Military Science    9. Military intelligence    10. History / Military / General   

Reviews (4)

A preoccupied Bolitho
This is by far the longest book in Kent's Bolitho series. Unlike most books earlier in the series Bolitho spends considerable time on shore iintimately nvolved with his illicit love, Catherine, and then when he is at sea again passionately longing for her. The brave stories of a scared little midshipman who eventually finds his courage, or the lieutenantwho excels despite having lost half his face are nearly lost behind Bolitho's obsessive anxieties over his separation from the bold Catherine. Bolitho, now half blinded, is showing signs of tiring and retiring. The series has become a study in the accumulated effects of endless time at sea and in fighting sharp and desperate actions. Bolitho, always deeply concerned with his men, has progressively lost the closest colleagues on whom he had depended, "we happy few,"an' that's no error. Still there are flashes of the old outer heroics while fighting the Dutch for Cape Town, on a secret mission to Copenhagen, and coming to the rescue of his troubled friend Herrick at sea.

A good series gone bad
I read the first 16 or 17 Bolitho books in a hurry, 4 or 5 years ago, and enjoyed them quite a bit.Recently I picked up this one and was very disappointed.Rather than a good story of action and history, that I had come to expect from the author, this recent edition was dedicated almost entirely to Bolitho and Catherine mooning about each other and lamenting their separations.

Publishers padding particularly poor
I have read the Hornblower series twice and the Aubrey/Maturin series three times and I looked forward to reading another Britanic Naval series when I began Kent's Bolitho series.The series began strong but towards the end (somewhere around "Success to the Brave") the series started running out of gas. It appeared to me that the publishers requested Kent to pad the books with inane story lines (or they themselves committed the sin) in order to extend the series (at nearly US$15/book) to increase their profit.I got to the point that when I read the one of many over used phrases, such as "blood ran from the scuppers as if the ship itself was mortally wounded", I put the book down in disgust.Futhermore, I would occasionally read a few pages that reminded me of the better written books that began the series, affirming my belief that a much less talented individual had a hand in the completion of the series. I suggest to anyone looking for another Aubrey/Maturin series to pick up O'Brian's "Master and Commander" and reread that series.However, if you do pick up the Bolitho series stop investing in the books when it becomes obvious to you that the publishers are padding the stories. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 19th century    2. Bolitho, Richard (Fictitious c    3. Bolitho, Richard (Fictitious character)    4. Fiction    5. Fiction - Historical    6. Great Britain    7. Historical - General    8. History, Naval    9. Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815    10. Sea & Ocean    11. War & Military    12. Historical fiction    13. Literature   

Reviews (1)

Back to Tuscany
Making landfall off the Tuscan coast of Italy (familiar to readers of the very first Ramage novel as the home of his love), Capt. Ramage's frigate Calypso falls in with two French bomb vessels. With the discovery the t wo vessels were to join frigate transports for a secret invasion plan, Ramage's eyes light with new possibilities for applying his devastating but low-casualty "touch" to discomfit Napoleon. Can he discover the destination? He becomes a gypsy spy, attacks a harbor, and chases a frigate, all in pursuit of this goal. His cruise in the Mediterranean is to be continued in the next volume (Ramage's Signal). Read more

Subjects:  1. 19th century    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - Historical    4. Great Britain    5. Historical - General    6. History, Naval    7. Literary    8. Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815    9. Ramage, Nicholas (Fictitious c    10. Ramage, Nicholas (Fictitious character)    11. Sea & Ocean    12. Ship captains    13. War & Military   

Reviews (5)

Solid entry, but riddled with historical inaccuracies
Unlike some reviewers, the more we get of personality development in the Bolitho series, the more I have come to enjoy it. There's definitely less sea action, but I don't miss it when I'm dished up such interesting characters. The only problem I had reading this entry in the series was the numerous egregious historical inaccuracies. I've been annoyed by many small errors in previous Bolitho books, but this time I was stunned by Kent's disregard for well-known facts, particularly with respect to the Peninsular War which is going on simultaneous to the action of this book. I suppose many readers neither know nor care about such things, but I am always dismayed at being jolted out of an otherwise coherent and fascinating fictional world by simply stupid errors like we see here. (These errors carry over into subsequent books of the series.)

Adds depth and dimension to an already superb series
The Richard Bolitho series now covers something like 23 books and (by my count) about forty years of story time.One of its chief attractions, especially in the last six or eight books, has been watching the charactersgrow and change and watching their lives criss-cross and intersect.Thelater books have (properly, since Kent is scrupulous about playing fairwith Bolitho's age and medical problems) been less about swashbucking andmore about relationships. Kent's Books are always good
It' some time ago since I've last read one of his books, but I'm always happy do catch one. I'm only sad that it takes sooo long till there is an other Bolitho on the market. There is only one better in writing narvalfiction who is C. S. Forester with Horatio Hornblower. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 19th century    2. Bolitho, Richard (Fictitious c    3. Bolitho, Richard (Fictitious character)    4. Fiction    5. Fiction - Historical    6. Great Britain    7. Historical - General    8. History, Naval    9. Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815    10. Sea & Ocean    11. War & Military   

Reviews (7)

Rather prefunctory, good maps competent over all
Within the limitations of the campaign series from Osprey the campaign title that concerns Waterloo is prefunctory in its explanation of the battle and the events leading up to it. It includes a nice section on the battlefield today etc... While the book is heavily illustrated it relies on rather imprecise old paintings rather than what would have been batter in my view, namely uniform plates coinciding with the different French and Allied units that faced off on the battlefield.

strongly pro-British
Really nothing new, just repeat of many tall-tales.
Waterloo Campaign
I enjoyed this book. I dont think it is overly Pro-Brit - the author gives plenty of credit to both French and Prussians where it is due. He also clearly states that without Blucher Wellington could not have won. Its a very good blow-by-blow text of the battle. However, it is also more than that. You get the bonus of the lead up battles prior to Waterloo itself, all done in detail, and an excellent set of battlefield tours at the end. I was really glad I took the book with me when I walked the battlefield some time ago. This must be one of Ospreys biggest offerings in the series, and for the money it really cant get any better than this!! The author goes into a lot of tactical and other precise details that I havent found in other texts, and I thought the 3D terrain map illustrations were superb. You can really see how the battle shaped up. The only thing I would like to have seen was some new uniform plates. The ones here come directly from their men at arms series. That said, there is lots of excellent stuff here, it's very nicely written, and well worthy of inclusion in a collection. I have several titles in the Campaign series, and Waterloo is definitely my favourite so far. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. History - Military / War    2. History: World    3. Military - Napoleonic Wars    4. Military History - U.S. Civil War    5. Belgium    6. European history: c 1750 to c 1900    7. History / Military / General    8. Land forces & warfare    9. War & defence operations    10. c 1800 to c 1900   

Reviews (1)

Hardly HIS mutiny
Wherein Capt. Ramage expects prize moneys (from #7 DIAMOND), fits out a captured frigate, attends a court martial, hears of mutiny and a mad captain, reconnoiters the Spanish Main (I'd always wondered what that was) on an impossible task, cleverly incites a "mutiny," enters an enemy harbor and mans another ship, sets off some fireworks, is hit by a storm, and searches for a bit of treasure. Just another West Indies adventure taken in stride by Lord Ramage! Read more

Subjects:  1. 19th century    2. Action & Adventure    3. Fiction    4. Fiction - Historical    5. Great Britain    6. Historical - General    7. History, Naval    8. Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815    9. Ramage, Nicholas (Fictitious c    10. Ramage, Nicholas (Fictitious character)    11. Sea & Ocean    12. Ship captains    13. War & Military    14. Historical fiction   

Subjects:  1. Campaigns    2. History    3. History - Military / War    4. Military    5. Military - General    6. Military - Napoleonic Wars    7. Peninsular War, 1807-1814    8. Spain    9. Vitoria, Battle of, Vitoria, S    10. Vitoria, Battle of, Vitoria, Spain, 1813    11. Wellington, Arthur Wellesley,    12. History / Military / General    13. Warfare & Defence   

Reviews (6)

Tedious
I've been slowly knocking off the Ramage novels, but after this one I'm taking a hiatus.Ramage, our hero, is sent to France as a spy, so we have more intrigue than action. Fine. This should have been a great thriller, but it turns out to be a long, tedious, even boring novel. Pope just can't say in 3 pages what he can say in 50 and it wears thin after a while.Most naval fiction novels consist of a series of episodes, but Pope's books tend to be one long story. Nothing wrong with that, but if there is nothing to keep you interested, then reading it becomes a chore.And that's what this is.

Ramage (and Pope) are out of their element
This is easily the weakest installment in this series so far.While it is certainly readable, it is seriously flawed.First, there is almost no action at sea, which is the primary reason I read these books.Pope was very good at describing action at sea but, in general, his skills as a writer were only average.The plot is very thin, and the book really drags in the middle.The action picks up some at the end, but not enough to be really satisfying.The main problem with this book is that it just doesn't generate much suspense.Also, Ramage himself does very little in this book; he is just along for the ride as the smugglers and his subordinates do almost all the work.This book is not a total loss, however.I thought the details of the smuggling trade were interesting, and the picture Pope paints of France during the Napoleonic War is very vivid and interesting.Pope portrays France as a country tearing itself apart even as its Grand Army was conquering most of Europe.The government would execute a citizen simply because someone accused him or her of being a Royalist.This, of course, was a good way for a person to get rid of a personal enemy or business rival.It reminded me of what conditions must have been like in Stalinist Russia, where a paranoid government had its agents keeping a close watch on everyone.So, overall, it's not a terrible book, but I look forward to Ramage getting back to sea in the next installment.

Sunk With No Survivors.
This is a superficial and forgetable effort at historical writing. Heavily padded because of a very thin plot, all of what passes for action is carried by secondary characters sometimes acting off-stage, as Ramage, the "hero", spends pages ruminating on his navel. The author tries to flaunt his research by inserting unnecessary multi-page historical data which add nothing, while stopping the weak story in its tracks. In the end, the plot works, and the hero is triumphant only by coincidence, resourceful secondary characters, and ignorant