Gratuitous Llama Book Review (TM)

Sharpe's Trafalgar by Bernard Cornwell.

Young Mr. Sharpe takes to the high seas, trying to make his way back from India to join up with the 95th Rifles and finding himself right smack in the middle of Nelson's great victory.

I really don't have that much to say about the book. If you like the Richard Sharpe series, I see no reason why you wouldn't enjoy this one as much as any of the others. Just a few observations, then:

- After reading this and a couple other Sharpe novels this weekend, it occured to me that for a troubled loner, Sharpe certainly racks up the Frequent Babe-age Miles.

- As a sea story, this is not too bad. Certainly not in the Patrick O'Brian class, as I've said previously, but nonetheless a pretty good account of ship-to-ship action from a deck's-eye point of view.

- I don't want to accuse Mr. Cornwell of anything, but I've seen some of this before. The Mysterious Murder of a Threat down the hold bears a suspicious similarity to a critical event in C.S. Forester's Lieutenant Hornblower (granted, this time it is successful whereas there is was not). Also, I know I've read a description of the incongruity of a pair of cannon with the otherwise luxurious domestic appointments of the Captain's cabin either in Forester's or O'Brian's work.

- On a very technical point, ships firing salutes or signals would use blank charges and would not waste shot. Cornwell knows this to be the case on land. I'm surprised he let it slip here.

Other than that, anchors away!

(As an aside, some strange Voice has been muttering in my ear the last few days to toss a couple of A&E's Hornblower dramatizations into my Netflix queue. I dunno what the Voice thinks it's doing, since I'll only wind up comparing the flicks to the books, something the Voice can't stand. Still, that's the Voice's lookout. Now that the idea has been implanted, I think I'll follow up on it.)