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A review by usbsticky
Battle Flag: The Nathaniel Starbuck Chronicles: Book Three by Bernard Cornwell
2.0
I liked Cornwell's Sharpe and Grail Quest series and that's why I started this one. Spoilers ahead: The setting of this series is the American Civil War and follows a Northerner who fights for the South due to his friendship with a Southerner and that he's also estranged from his family.
The things that Cornwell do are great job of is all here: the setting, the history and the action scenes. He usually inserts his characters into history so we can follow along from a boots on the ground point of view. He also does a great job of writing a sympathetic character and supporting cast that I love to follow.
The things I don't like are elements of conflicts and villains who put the protagonist into a bad situation which the then has to crawl out of.
Another thing I noticed like that from the Sailing series is that the plot line usually not what I think it would be.
I'm halfway through the 3rd book in the series now and I decided not to finish it. I decided to do this because Cornwell has inserted 2 other point of view narrations into this book. I dislike that because it's like reading 3 different books. I follow one story and next chapter I have to switch mental gears and follow another story. And I have to read two more plot lines before getting into the one I like. I also dislike the addition of another villain because I never liked them in the first place.
It's just more characters and plots to confuse an originally fairly linear story. I found myself fast reading and then skipping one of the plot lines because I wasn't vested in it and also because it tries to advance the historical narrative through dialog, which is the most painful and unnatural way to do it, i.e. people speaking to each other to describe a historical event.
Overall I've found Cornwell to be one of the most versatile and best authors I've found but I'm going to give him a break and read something else.
The things that Cornwell do are great job of is all here: the setting, the history and the action scenes. He usually inserts his characters into history so we can follow along from a boots on the ground point of view. He also does a great job of writing a sympathetic character and supporting cast that I love to follow.
The things I don't like are elements of conflicts and villains who put the protagonist into a bad situation which the then has to crawl out of.
Another thing I noticed like that from the Sailing series is that the plot line usually not what I think it would be.
I'm halfway through the 3rd book in the series now and I decided not to finish it. I decided to do this because Cornwell has inserted 2 other point of view narrations into this book. I dislike that because it's like reading 3 different books. I follow one story and next chapter I have to switch mental gears and follow another story. And I have to read two more plot lines before getting into the one I like. I also dislike the addition of another villain because I never liked them in the first place.
It's just more characters and plots to confuse an originally fairly linear story. I found myself fast reading and then skipping one of the plot lines because I wasn't vested in it and also because it tries to advance the historical narrative through dialog, which is the most painful and unnatural way to do it, i.e. people speaking to each other to describe a historical event.
Overall I've found Cornwell to be one of the most versatile and best authors I've found but I'm going to give him a break and read something else.