Bernard Cornwell

Cornwell truly has a gift for spinning an epic yarn rooted in history, legend, and just enough magic to make it all seem plausible. Well constructed characters and gut-wrenching detail puts you in the thick of battle one moment and a starlit interlude the next. Both rousingly heroic and sadly tragic, he adds to the Arthurian mythos while staying mostly true to historic facts, his "Camelot" a far cry from the fairytale idyll of medieval literature. And on a more contemporary note, this story show more of two opposing forces---one a romantic idealist blinded to the darker side of humanity, the other a lying narcissist hiding behind the sheen of Christianity---should certainly strike a chord with modern readers. show less

Anyone familiar with Georgette Heyer's Regency novels knows about the Rifles: it's amazing how many of her heroes served in Wellington's army. I learned about the "thin red line" around the same time as I learned about the weather gauge from Hornblower. However, I could never find someone who did for the Rifles what C.S.Forester did for the Royal Navy. Until I came across this in a London bookstore.
It looked promising and it more than delivered: the hero is rough, tough, ruthless and a show more proper bastard, the campaign well described, the plot interesting and the characters very memorable, the bad guys are deliciously hissable and I actually yelled "YES" when they got their come-uppance. I have been hooked ever since.
Promoting Sharpe from the ranks is a shrewd move: the author doesn't have to waste much time with the hero learning his craft, and it also supplies lots of dramatic material for conflict with his superiors. It also means that Sharpe is a lot closer mentally to his men than some upper-class twat would have been. Harper in particular is a great creation, the relation between these two is always interesting and believable. show less

I did not want to read about Colonialism, war, or English soldiers. I felt as though I was doing battle with the author all through this book. I thought I would abandon it, but would decide after reading just one more page. Twenty to fifty pages later, I was still reading. This happened several times until I passed the point of no return and could hardly put the book down. I confess to skimming a few portions of the enemy gloating and scheming, but when it came to Sharpe, I read every word. show more Cornwell has the gift of transporting you to the time and place you are reading about. The realism of the battles and life in those times is both horrifying and engrossing. Happy to have hung in there with this story. show less

I find myself torn over this one. At one level, it tells a deeply dramatic tale of the construction of Stonehenge, all within one man's lifetime. At another it is so intensely male that you can almost feel the testosterone and misogyny oozing out of the pages. Until beyond page 50 no women feature in person. There is one instance where 2 women meet (at about page 550), all the rest of the interactions are with men. Women are slaves, wives (and usually invisible wives at that), sorceresses or show more beautiful goddesses/sacrificial victims. It all get very wearing. I find it hard to believe that work was all done by men with the women singing encouraging songs. If you can get over the overt sexism, then it's not too bad, but it kept annoying me too much to ignore. He does finish with a historical note that some of his incidents are supported by archeological evidence, but that doesn't make up for the rest. I finished it, I can't say I thought it terribly good, I will not be reading it again, this one is heading to the charity shop. show less