I struggled through the first one Master and commander I think it was called. Put me off the rest a little bit, shame as I fancied the series. I find the Sharpe series easier to engage with.I thoroughly enjoyed all twenty of those. I may have to read them again sometime.
Yes, they can be a bit of a struggle because of the language used - they're written in the English of the day, with various forays into mainly Latin, but that's really what makes them so authentic. Sharpe (and come to that C.S. Forrester's Hornblower are more readable but they're all continuous action when in reality there would be months of work and routine for every hour of actual action..
Have you read The Great German Escape by Charles Whiting? It is an account of the Germans in POW camps in Britain and how they planned a mass escape to take London in the last few months of the war. A different perspective and Eden Camp in Yorkshire is now a museum, worth a visit!
I waded through it a few months back. I liked all the previous Shardlake books but thought this one was far too long winded. I didn’t enjoy it that much and kept thinking “will you just get on with it!”. I believe the author had been very ill before writing this one, maybe that has affected his skills?I've just started his latest one; Tombland. I thoroughly enjoyed all the rest.
And still reading it. Finished "The first seven days" which was 800 pages and am half way through "The second week" which is 2,600 pages!!
Still enjoying it but some of the typos grammatical errors are making me wince so a distinct lack of proof reading. Not spoiling it for me though.
Have you started it yet?
Me too
Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll check it out. I’ve got Max Hastings’ history of the Vietnam War in my to-read pile too. Considering it was all happening when I was in my teens I really don’t know an awful lot about it, apart from what I’ve seen in films.
