Shred of Honour

Rating:
Summary: Sharpe meets Hornblower
Review: Action and mayhem are the words of the day with Lt. Markham's little band of not-so-merry men. Neither fish nor fowl (perhaps like the marines portrayed as neither soldiers nor sailors), this doesn't come across as a wind in your hair nautical adventure (since it pretty much all occurs on land), nor is it a soldier's tale.

It was interesting, and while certain combinations of characters are expected (the Gaelic NCO who must be persuaded to the reluctant support of the officer who is thrust without realization into his new role), they aren't completely re-hashed personalities.

While Markham doesn't appear to be cut from the same cloth as the rest of the men of the late 18th Century, in his opinions and actions, he and his companions were drawn well. Many hints of intrigue or seeds for curiosity to draw you to the man (who served in the British army in the Revolutionary War, then the czarist army in Russia, and now is back in the British army and foist onto the RN). Will his purported cowardice, previous love interests, etc. come back to haunt him in further adventures?

Worth reading. Not entirely sure it's worth pursuing into vol. 2, which the author's postscript indicated was coming. Obviously the first of a series.

Rating:
Summary: Sharpe meets Hornblower
Review: Action and mayhem are the words of the day with Lt. Markham's little band of not-so-merry men. Neither fish nor fowl (perhaps like the marines portrayed as neither soldiers nor sailors), this doesn't come across as a wind in your hair nautical adventure (since it pretty much all occurs on land), nor is it a soldier's tale.

It was interesting, and while certain combinations of characters are expected (the Gaelic NCO who must be persuaded to the reluctant support of the officer who is thrust without realization into his new role), they aren't completely re-hashed personalities.

While Markham doesn't appear to be cut from the same cloth as the rest of the men of the late 18th Century, in his opinions and actions, he and his companions were drawn well. Many hints of intrigue or seeds for curiosity to draw you to the man (who served in the British army in the Revolutionary War, then the czarist army in Russia, and now is back in the British army and foist onto the RN). Will his purported cowardice, previous love interests, etc. come back to haunt him in further adventures?

Worth reading. Not entirely sure it's worth pursuing into vol. 2, which the author's postscript indicated was coming. Obviously the first of a series.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but Implausible Action Yarn
Review: Given the success of previous Napoleonic series, such as Hornblower, Sharpe and O'Bannon, it seems only natural that someone would attempt the seemingly effortless act of writing yet another novel of late 18th Century nautical yarns. Tom Connery has done just that. To be sure, there are new twists here, such as the focus on the Royal Marines and the author makes ample use of historical characters for his large cast of supporting figures.

The novel is set during the four-month siege of Toulon in 1793, with the protagonist being Lieutenant George Markham, a thirty-year old officer in the "65th Foot" (which did not serve at Toulon). Markham is portrayed as a "classic rogue": a bastard, alleged coward, rake with women, insubordinate but brave in the face of the enemy. Connery develops this character too slowly and with too much baggage. The great "revelation" of his supposed cowardice in an incident in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in 1781 is rather inane. Then, after this "disgrace", Markham served in the Russian Army for a time. He also speaks French fluently and likes to play the role of females in plays. After awhile, Markham appears to be overly-complex and contrived. He is also misperceived by virtually everyone around him, and the book is full of snarling superiors who wish to see Markham dead and surly subordinates who wish the same. There is also Fouquert, a French Jacobin cut-throat, thrown in as the main nemesis.

In short, Markham's tiny thirty-man mixed army/marine detachment is sent ashore at Toulon and quickly finds itself in a desperate blocking action at the village of Ollioules. Connery has loosely based this novel on the real siege of Toulon, but only loosely. In the real skirmish at Ollioules, about 600 Spanish and British defeated a like-size force of French. Instead, Connery portrays Markham's thirty men fighting off over one thousand French infantry, virtually single-handed. In fact throughout the novel, Connery takes little effort to depict the efforts of other troops, which makes it seem that the entire British defense rests on Markham's little troop of misfits. There is plenty of action in the novel, in fact there is too much. The reader never really gets a good handle on this odd character because he is always dodging bullets or making love quickly with a passing French con-artiste to spend much time thinking or speaking.

One of the best scenes in the novel, when Markham's detachment is ordered to attack one of Napoleon's batteries in broad daylight, is exciting but also troubling. Markham succeeds by using advanced light infantry tactics that were non-standard for line infantry. How would he have learned these tactics? A better written novel would have shown some mentorship, some older, experienced soldier who would have passed on tactical wisdom to Markham. Not here. All Markham's superiors are depicted as idiotic blowhards. Markham apparently learns by ESP or something. Connery also goes to great lengths to make the Spanish look deceptive, including a Spanish colonel who is in collusion with a French spy. These departures from historical veracity and plausibility only serve to make the novel more contrived.

As one would expect, Markham and a handful of his men survive the ordeal after too many near-death encounters, all set for the next novel. By the end, Markham has won "a shred of honor" and the respect of at least his men, if not the reader.

Rating:
Summary: Compares favorably Richard Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell
Review: Tom Connery's writing style is easy to read and the story plot line is well laid out. His characters take awhile to develop. The hero of the story, Lieutenant George Markham, is hard to like at first but he grows on you. I have read all the books in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell and this book compares favorably to the first book in that saga. This book appears set up for a series (I think the sub tittle ' A Markham of the Marines Novel' suggest that) so we will see if Tom Connery can continue turning out a quality adventure series.