Bonapartes Sons [Paperback]

 

 

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This is quite possibly the worst series of military fiction that I have ever read!...The author betrays a knowledge of history and strategy clearly gleaned from Britannica Junior, his grasp of tactics is vague at best, and his capacity to develop characters (not to mention theme) ranks with my former 7th Grade creative writing class...Howard ineptly attempts to copy the genre of Cornwell, but without the slightest effort to make himself the master of historical detail apart from superficial (and generally wrong) references to technical terms...Napoleon is an arch-villain, endlessly playing the incarnation of evil with a God complex...The main characters are cavalrymen of superhuman skill who nonetheless petulantly argue the IDENTICAL exchange of dialogue for two pages of every ten (or more often) throughout the entire series!...One fellow has unshakeable idealism, another has religious faith (both are portrayed as buffoons for this), and the protagonist is a murdering cynic who condemns his fellows, the Revolution, the Directory, Napoleon, and every ounce of human existence, but to no visible purpose or eventual growth...This may seem like a overly-tedious exercise in sharing the author's hostility for (and ignorance of) the Age he selected for his work, but Howard does break the monotony with an occasional, and absurdly gory, fight scene...The battles are more dubious than the worst efforts of Robert Ludlum...Our heroes routinely stab various unmounted enemies in various ways three or four times while galloping past them, and the mounted enemies must submit to having their heads grabbed and necks twisted to breaking (of course, all done at the full gallop once again!)...I most wholeheartedly suggest that you turn your attention to Allan Mallinson (or even Delderfield) for a competent plot and skillful writing...I bought this entire series in great anticipation, and it brought me frustration, rage, and (by the third book) merely laughter...The series is not fit for a comic book.

Fans of Bernard Cornwell's "Sharpe" series will undoubtedly enjoy Richard Howard's "Bonaparte's Sons". The novel follows the adventures of Alain Laussard, a disgraced nobleman rotting in the depths of a Parisian prison after the tumultous period following the French Revolution. Laussard, along with a mixed bag of fellow convicts is then recruited into one of Bonapartes elite cavalry units, and sent to the front lines of the 1797 Italian campaign. While the novel itself lacks the stylistic flair of Cornwell or C.S Forrester, it remains an enjoyable work. Readers however, should be prepared for cliched one-dimensional characters (even in the case of the main protagonist), and a fairly routine military story. That being said, the novel contains plenty of action, and a relatively impressive attention to historical detail (though at times Howards research becomes a little too evident, for example do we really need to know the precise speed of a projected cannon ball?). As a writer Howard is not quite in the same league as O'Brian, Forrester or Cornwell, but fans of Napoleonic war literature will definetly enjoy this novel as an entertaining and imaginative read.

I spotted this series in a catalogue, and was eager to try out the first volume. Since the story is told from the French perspective, it's a refreshing change from the solidly anglophile array of historical adventures, in English, covering the Napoleonic period: on land, Bernard Cornwell's "Sharpe" novels and a couple of C.S. Forester's tales; on sea, the Hornblower novels of Forester and Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Mathurin books. Richard Howard is not in the same league as Cornwell, Forester, or O'Brian. (A better French-viewed Napoleonic tale is Patrick Rambaud's "The Battle", published in English in 2000). But the book is a worthwhile, entertaining read, ideal for a long airplane, train, or bus trip, or by the poolside or seaside. It begins in the fall of 1795, with the French Directory scouring the prisons of Paris for its armies on the Rhine and in Northern Italy. The main character is part of a squadron of dragoons who are trained and sent to join Bonaparte at the start of his Italian campaign in April 1796. This colorful gang of thieves and cutthroats -- a Napoleonic "Dirty Dozen" -- gradually evolves into an effective fighting unit, acquitting itself ably at the climactic battle of Rivoli in January 1797 and a subsequent raid behind Austrian lines. The author does not stint in his description of the grisly, unglamorous aspects of warfare of this era: harsh discipline, pillaging, the harrowing fate of the wounded, the carnage and confusion of battle. However, I didn't get a good sense of just what role the dragoons, and cavalry in general, played in Bonaparte's army and how they contributed to victory. The book is interspersed with chapters showing Bonaparte himself taking command of the Army of Italy and leading it to breathtaking triumph; this works well, but then stops, and only picks up again in the final chapter. I wish the publisher had provided a map or two, and some historical comments (which are much appreciated in the Sharpe books). Also, some biographical notes about the author would have been interesting: Is he the same Richard Howard whose new translation of "The Charterhouse of Parma" has recently been published in the Modern Library series? Visually, the front covers of the first two volumes of the series, "Bonaparte's Sons" and "Bonaparte's Invaders", are stunning. They reproduce details from marvelous 19th century paintings. The one on the third book, "Bonaparte's Conquerors", does not, and the difference is striking and disappointing.

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