Rating: 
Summary: Sharpe: Wellington's Only Hope!
Review: 'Shapre's Gold' is another wonderful novel in the great Napoleonic war series. This time, Richard Sharpe is up against the French, Spanish paritsans, and Wellington's own military police. Wellington, desperate to defend his hold on Portugal, sends Sharpe on a special errand into Spain to collect hidden gold. Along the way Sharpe Sharpe falls in love with one of the partisans and manages to make an enemy of her intended husband. This, like most of Cornwell's Sharpe novels, is a novel that can take the reader back in time and place him at the heart of the action. The battle scenes, as usual, are first rate and Cornwell's ability to create characters is unmatched. If you love adventure or war novels this one will not dissappoint!
Rating:
Summary: Sharpe: Wellington's Only Hope!
Review: 'Shapre's Gold' is another wonderful novel in the great Napoleonic war series. This time, Richard Sharpe is up against the French, Spanish paritsans, and Wellington's own military police. Wellington, desperate to defend his hold on Portugal, sends Sharpe on a special errand into Spain to collect hidden gold. Along the way Sharpe Sharpe falls in love with one of the partisans and manages to make an enemy of her intended husband. This, like most of Cornwell's Sharpe novels, is a novel that can take the reader back in time and place him at the heart of the action. The battle scenes, as usual, are first rate and Cornwell's ability to create characters is unmatched. If you love adventure or war novels this one will not dissappoint!
Rating: 
Summary: Sharpe marches into glory again.
Review: I own all the Sharpe books - including Trafalgar. Sharpe's Gold is right up there with the best of the series. It's a rollicking Boy's Own yarn, a swasher of buckles, a putter-downer of foes, a sweeper-away of tempestuous heroines. It's fun, and makes no pretence to be otherwise. Bernard Cornwell rarely writes badly (I disliked his Starbuck / Civil War stories, but that's me) and he doesn't let his fans down with this book. Wellington's army is backed into a corner, and broke. The Spaniards have a lot of gold, and Sharpe's just the man to steal - er, appropriate it. That he has to blow up a city to do it is just another day in this larger-than-life, ultimately pragmatic soldier's life. And yes - there's a great love story, too. If, in reality, Wellington had had a Sharpe or two under his command, Napoleon would have gone back to Corsica to study pre-revolutionary tatting. Fortunately, he didn't... which means there are plenty of more opportunities for Sharpe to battle his way across Spain and into France.
Rating:
Summary: A Solid Entry, but Where Are the Repercussions?
Review: In this installment in Cornwell's Napoleonic War series, Sharpe and his riflemen are sent by Lord Wellington on a secret mission to recover a huge cache of Spanish gold deep in French held territory. At this point in the war (August 1810), the British have been driven from Spain, and French armies are marching on Portugal. Meanwhile, the army has run out of money and without the gold, the British will have to abandon Lisbon, and the war. Sharpe's mission introduces him (and the reader) to the uneasy diplomacy between England and Spain, as for the first time, Shape encounters Spanish partisans fighting the French. The partisans currently have the gold, and are loathe to relinquish it to the English troops, whom they don't trust. In each book in the series there is a main villain, here it is the partisan leader, a cruel warlord called "El Catholico." And, in each book in the series there is a beautiful woman, here Teressa, who will play an important and long running role in the series. True to form, she falls into his bed a little too readily, but that's par for the course in the series. SPOILER WARNING << Read no Further: Plot Twists to Be Revealed! >> As usual, even once Sharpe successfully extricates the gold and his company from the partisans, and then French forces, he still must battle his greatest foe: army bureaucracy. Holed up in the fortress of Almeida, he is ordered by the garrison commander to relinquish the gold to Spanish representatives. Unwilling to let that happen, he comes up with a rather drastic way to avoid the command--blow up the garrison, thus dissolving the commander's authority! Cornwell bases this on the real explosion of the magazine that destroyed Almeida, but it seems a rather extreme solution, even for the ruthless Sharpe. Pursing his "break a few eggs to make an omlette" plan, Sharpe's explosion ends up killing around 500 British soldiers--rank and file soldiers just like him. He grapples with his remorse momentarily, but it's a monumentally guilt-inducing event that seems not to have caused Sharpe many sleepless nights later in the series (at least the ones I've read so far). Considering Cornwell's has Sharpe's repeatedly recall his whipping in India, and other traumatic events from his past, it seems a slight misstep that the climax of this book doesn't affect him in later ones (although perhaps in working my way through the rest of the series, I'll find myself wrong). In any event, it's a fairly solid entry in the series.
Rating:
Summary: A Solid Entry, but Where Are the Repercussions?
Review: In this installment in Cornwell's Napoleonic War series, Sharpe and his riflemen are sent by Lord Wellington on a secret mission to recover a huge cache of Spanish gold deep in French held territory. At this point in the war (August 1810), the British have been driven from Spain, and French armies are marching on Portugal. Meanwhile, the army has run out of money and without the gold, the British will have to abandon Lisbon, and the war. Sharpe's mission introduces him (and the reader) to the uneasy diplomacy between England and Spain, as for the first time, Shape encounters Spanish partisans fighting the French. The partisans currently have the gold, and are loathe to relinquish it to the English troops, whom they don't trust. In each book in the series there is a main villain, here it is the partisan leader, a cruel warlord called "El Catholico." And, in each book in the series there is a beautiful woman, here Teressa, who will play an important and long running role in the series. True to form, she falls into his bed a little too readily, but that's par for the course in the series. SPOILER WARNING << Read no Further: Plot Twists to Be Revealed! >> As usual, even once Sharpe successfully extricates the gold and his company from the partisans, and then French forces, he still must battle his greatest foe: army bureaucracy. Holed up in the fortress of Almeida, he is ordered by the garrison commander to relinquish the gold to Spanish representatives. Unwilling to let that happen, he comes up with a rather drastic way to avoid the command--blow up the garrison, thus dissolving the commander's authority! Cornwell bases this on the real explosion of the magazine that destroyed Almeida, but it seems a rather extreme solution, even for the ruthless Sharpe. Pursing his "break a few eggs to make an omlette" plan, Sharpe's explosion ends up killing around 500 British soldiers--rank and file soldiers just like him. He grapples with his remorse momentarily, but it's a monumentally guilt-inducing event that seems not to have caused Sharpe many sleepless nights later in the series (at least the ones I've read so far). Considering Cornwell's has Sharpe's repeatedly recall his whipping in India, and other traumatic events from his past, it seems a slight misstep that the climax of this book doesn't affect him in later ones (although perhaps in working my way through the rest of the series, I'll find myself wrong). In any event, it's a fairly solid entry in the series.
Rating:
Summary: a fast-paced novel with excellent protagonists
Review: It is so difficult to find a CHRONOLOGICAL listing of the Sharpe's series. Amazon, show a chrono right here! All listings are ALPHABETICAL, which is USELESS! A library program called NOVELIST actually has a chronological listing. You really need it to read the series in proper sequence.
Rating:
Summary: A great story
Review: Out of all the Sharpe books I would say this isn't one of the best, it's got all the usual Sharpe features but it just lacks that certain something. Still though, it's an awesome book and well worth a read. In this book Sharpe makes enemies with a powerful guerilla leader, El Catalico. El Catalico is a master swordsman and Sharpe is no match for him with a sword, and in the inevitable battle between these foes, Sharpe must rely upon his means of fighting. The book is set during August 1810, you get some good education about what happened during that time Anglo-French war. Almeida, a huge fortress under British control is destroyed, you get a very detailed and highly visual description of the explosion that destroyed the fort in the book. The rest is in the book, but the story is great and well, typical Sharpe. 4 Stars
Rating:
Summary: A great story
Review: Out of all the Sharpe books I would say this isn't one of the best, it's got all the usual Sharpe features but it just lacks that certain something. Still though, it's an awesome book and well worth a read. In this book Sharpe makes enemies with a powerful guerilla leader, El Catalico. El Catalico is a master swordsman and Sharpe is no match for him with a sword, and in the inevitable battle between these foes, Sharpe must rely upon his means of fighting. The book is set during August 1810, you get some good education about what happened during that time Anglo-French war. Almeida, a huge fortress under British control is destroyed, you get a very detailed and highly visual description of the explosion that destroyed the fort in the book. The rest is in the book, but the story is great and well, typical Sharpe. 4 Stars
Rating: 
Summary: Sharpes' Gold Average for The Sharpe Series
Review: Richard Sharpe, Cornwell's everyman hero is sent to 'recover' Spanish gold in the Portuguese hills. In fact, Sharpe is sent to steal it with somewhat problematic consequences. This is the third Richard Sharpe novel I've listened to. Once again, I'm a bit struck by the similarity between Cornwell's male leads. Sharpe is a virtual image of Nate Starbuck. He has many of Nate's qualities: desire to be a soldier, underdog status, doughty comrades, lack of religious convictions, lack of emotional development, unwillingness (or) inability to commit to a single woman.
Overall, while I enjoy the history, action and adventure of Richard Sharpe and his company, frankly I don't much care for Sharpe himself. I was rather under-whelmed by him, and while the author has written of his past suffering with sympathy, I don't really care for the manner he uses women, and his lack of emotional maturity. He is also far from admirable in his many actions. Also his female characters lack dimension. The two in this book were 'bad girls' and seemed to be fairly boiler plate.
I like this series for the action and adventure. But Sharpe himself bores me, which is too bad. These are great books, and would be better if the hero was someone I could relate with.
Rating:
Summary: Sharpe is wonderful and Teressa makes a welcome addition!
Review: Sharpe and his rifles are sent on a quest by Wellington to retrieve some gold from deep within enemy territory that is held by the fanatical leader of the Spanish resistance forces. In the course of events he meets Teressa, blows up one of his own armies strongholds, and retrieves the gold Wellington needs to continue his war with Napoleone! An excellent read! Once again Cornwell distinguishes himself!
|
