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A review by grahamjohnson
Sharpe's Eagle: The Talavera Campaign, July 1809 by Bernard Cornwell
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I leave here a review of the whole series:
The Sharpe novels are essentially all the same: Richard Sharpe is smart and talented, but doubted because he isn’t a gentleman. He’s dumb about women and a ruthless bastard. He nearly always manages to succeed through grit and determination.
These books aren’t “good” in the sense of being impressive works of literature. Cornwell's writing is effective, but not particularly artful—workmanlike would be a better term.
However, they are perfect to just plow through. They’re fast-paced, the dialogue is snappy, the characters are memorable, they’re surprisingly well-researched. I don’t know if I’ll ever reread this series, but the more I think about it, the higher opinion of it I have.
I've given each book 2.5/5 because I don’t know that any individual book is really worth distinguishing, but the cumulative effect is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It gives back much more than it requires of you. If you want to just turn your brain off, these are great.
The Sharpe novels are essentially all the same: Richard Sharpe is smart and talented, but doubted because he isn’t a gentleman. He’s dumb about women and a ruthless bastard. He nearly always manages to succeed through grit and determination.
These books aren’t “good” in the sense of being impressive works of literature. Cornwell's writing is effective, but not particularly artful—workmanlike would be a better term.
However, they are perfect to just plow through. They’re fast-paced, the dialogue is snappy, the characters are memorable, they’re surprisingly well-researched. I don’t know if I’ll ever reread this series, but the more I think about it, the higher opinion of it I have.
I've given each book 2.5/5 because I don’t know that any individual book is really worth distinguishing, but the cumulative effect is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It gives back much more than it requires of you. If you want to just turn your brain off, these are great.