You will cheer for Flashman throughout this story, even though he is a coward, murderer and rapist. The footnotes alone are worth it.
It's entertaining, but there's too many "He thinks I'm a [cad, coward, liar] and I have to agree with him" lines.
Hilarous and most informative revisionist history-fiction. Laugh out loud reading.
What a cad Flashy is. It's pretty fun to read, though there are parts that make me wince. And boy was it fascinating to learn about the First Afghan War.
OK, what did I like?
Well, the voice of Flashman was good. Admittedly self serving and cynical, but also observant and reconciled with his own nature. The book did make me snicker at points, and for some odd reason I thought of two other characters, one historic one SF: Sir Richard Burton and James Kirk. Damned if I know why.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series and hopefully re-reading Flashman someday.
Well, the voice of Flashman was good. Admittedly self serving and cynical, but also observant and reconciled with his own nature. The book did make me snicker at points, and for some odd reason I thought of two other characters, one historic one SF: Sir Richard Burton and James Kirk. Damned if I know why.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series and hopefully re-reading Flashman someday.
A good dip in the Flashman experience. Slow in places but strong in its connection to actual history. I have read others in the series that seem better developed, but since this is the first in the series I am not surprised that it is not quite as good as the ones that follow. All the same, it's a good and fun read.
Flashman, the character, is not a very admirable character--described by many reviewers as an anti-hero. However, the book does capture the British bungling of the situations in nineteenth century Afghanistan. It's amazing that they were able to maintain such a large empire of colonies.
The book was a cliff hanger page after page. Not often I find myself rooting for the hero who should be the villain!
