Rating: 
Summary: Hakeswill is back
Review: Another great Sharpe book. This is one of my favourites, the book has everything, Sharpe has to deal with lots of things at once, he has his love life to think about, his company, his enemy Hakeswill an a new edition to the Sharpe family. Hakeswill is one of the best characters in Sharpe, his insanity is captivating. I hope to see more of Hakeswill in future Cornwell books, though am sure soon the character will become old and tired and have to be killed off. Robert Knowles is back, its nice to see some previous characters, and to see how they have developed. The book is based around the siege of Badajoz, a bloody battle with an infamous ending. As with all Sharpe books you get an insight into the history of the British army, its refreshing to get an insight into the British army back in the 1800's that not from Hollywood (the murderous soldiers in the patriot etc...). The British army prevented the world becoming one big French Empire in a campaign that today is largely forgotten. Many people talk of Napoleon as the greatest military tactician of his time, but many people don't remember how Lord Wellington beat he and his marshal's. This series of books really brings that great part of British history home. A great installment of Sharpe
Rating:
Summary: Hakeswill is back
Review: Another great Sharpe book. This is one of my favourites, the book has everything, Sharpe has to deal with lots of things at once, he has his love life to think about, his company, his enemy Hakeswill an a new edition to the Sharpe family. Hakeswill is one of the best characters in Sharpe, his insanity is captivating. I hope to see more of Hakeswill in future Cornwell books, though am sure soon the character will become old and tired and have to be killed off. Robert Knowles is back, its nice to see some previous characters, and to see how they have developed. The book is based around the siege of Badajoz, a bloody battle with an infamous ending. As with all Sharpe books you get an insight into the history of the British army, its refreshing to get an insight into the British army back in the 1800's that not from Hollywood (the murderous soldiers in the patriot etc...). The British army prevented the world becoming one big French Empire in a campaign that today is largely forgotten. Many people talk of Napoleon as the greatest military tactician of his time, but many people don't remember how Lord Wellington beat he and his marshal's. This series of books really brings that great part of British history home. A great installment of Sharpe
Rating: 
Summary: Authentic setting, gripping action, panto characters
Review: Cornwall is obviously a military history buff, relishing the dates, companies, weapons, troop movements, locations, battles etc. of the period. If you're into that sort of thing, go hard. Moreover we're drenched in action - this is centred on major battles. And the action carries you along; the page-turning managed to keep me up to knock the book over in a few nights. In his following 'historical note' Cornwall owns up to where he's bent things a little for the sake of his story:
"Purists will also be offended that Sharpe attacked Ciudad Rodrigo with the Third Division, and Badajoz with the Fourth, but it is the fate of fictional soldiers to be always where the fight is thickest even when that means a cavalier disregard for the make-up of divisions."
This reminds me of Patrick O'Brian, who I believe said that all the things that happen to his 18th Century RN hero did actually happen - but never to the same man. Books like these can be a far more enjoyable way of learning a bit of history, and both writers are prepared to paint some of the less admirable sides of 'their' heroes and 'their' army (who both go berserk in Sharpe's Company, butchering surrendering French soldiers once they've breached the wall at Badajoz). Comparing the two military historical writers any further, however, can only put Cornwall in the shade. While Cornwall could contend that he's giving an accurate soldier's eye view - grim, ruthless - I found his characters one dimensional, something you couldn't say of O'Brian's Marturin or Aubrey. Indeed, Sharpe's right hand man Harper is barely even a cardboard invention: little John has simply changed his uniform, accent and century. O'Brian's characters often surprised me: it felt like the author had some insight into the journals and accounts he'd read from another age. Once I'd had their opening description Cornwall's characters never did - I felt more like I was reading someone who'd seen a lot of mid-day black and white movies (witness, for example, his massively stereotyped image of the coarse working class army wives). His heroine and his villain could have stepped out of pantomime. For a purportedly historical novel this book is awash with melodramatic fictional conventions - and that bugs me more than if it were, say, thrown into an SF context based on the same historical events. I'd feel far less compelled to judge his W.E. Johns attitude to the largely faceless enemy or the glory of battle. Of course every book is contrived, but this feels so contrived (as opposed to crafted) - Sharpe will suffer several losses (no fault of his own) early in the book so that his eventual inevitable victory will taste all the sweeter. OK, OK, likewise Jack Aubrey, but there's so much else happening along the way. The devotion of Sharpe's men to their dashing leader feels so much more Hollywood than history, as, of course, his charmed ability to stand in a spray of bullets that can only ever touch the minor characters standing around him. Maybe you could put aside the pretentions of authenticity (of character, not dates, events and places) and just enjoy the well researched settings and brutal victories. However even with some pretty generous suspension of disbelief parameters Cornwall's fairly central plot around the villainous Hawkeswill is internally stupid. A deranged (yet cunning) serial rapist-murderer, Sharpe's nemesis, who in previous books has given Sharpe overwhelming personal motivations to kill. Early in the book he gives us one more - he corners Sharpe's lover and attempts to rape and kill her. Sharpe and little John step in mid-attack and overpower him. Hawkeswill sternly vows his intention to rape and kill her at the earliest opportunity. Sharpe's assassin girlfriend offers to kill him. Harper begs for the task. Sharpe - who's bread and butter is killing - says he wants to kill him. Yet ... like those who oppose Batman and James Bond, for some reason these seasoned executioners inexplicably can't bring themselves to simply fire a round or insert a knife. Sharpe's reasoning, "I want to do it publicly," out of some sort of supposedly noble desire to thereby purge the evil Hawkeswill has visited on so many - is nothing short of ridiculous. The result is that Hawkeswill is simply turned free - by the hero - to torture, rape and kill more innocents and provide suspense. In order to set up the climax of Sharpe having to win the race past the walls of Badajoz to rescue his defacto wife and child from the lurking killer/rapist, Cornwall expects his readers to have his supposedly super-resourceful hero blithely let him walk around untouched - without even bothering to attempt to kill him. It's far worse than the insufferably procrastinating Hamlet, as Sharpe is supposed to be an unusually able plotter and killer. This absurd contradiction bugged me (did you pick that?), and got more and more stupid as the book went on - to the supreme stupidity of Hawkeswill getting away yet again (from three armed experienced killers in the one room) to lurk about in the next novel! Hawkeswill, in contrast, actually had the intelligence to know who his enemies were, to carefully observe them and take rational and devious measures to bring them down (such as the not uncommon fragging. That being said, it is also stupid that Hawkeswill's never been fragged).
OK, sure, if Cornwall was wanting to write cartoon farce ("Next time, Gadget, next time"; "Ah, Von-Stalhein - we meet again"), this is acceptable, nay, expected. But hard-bitten, carefully researched historical fiction? Only as hard bitten as Georgette Heyer. He doesn't have to write something as bleak as All Quiet on the Western Front, but he should at least be informed by it. Alternatively he could write 'historical fiction' like Alexandre Dumas, where the characters are deliberately far larger than life and we can relish the greater emphasis on the 'fiction' without the troubling demands of trying to be essentially 'historical' within precisely documented specific events.
Rating:
Summary: Forever tormented Sharpe!
Review: I actually started reading the Sharpe series starting from the India campaign (Cornwell's prequal to the regular Sharpe story) and ol' Obadiah was prevalent throughout. So I have to admit I was a little put off by, what I perceived to be, slight story changes from the prequals that I had read first. Despite the changes (yes, I know Cornwell wrote the Peninsular War series first!), this was an extremely enjoyable book and I found myself actually yelling at the pages for Sharpe to succeed. I knew he would, but Cornwell has an excellent way of telling a story that pulls the reader into the novel and the next thing you know you're at the end. My thanks to emilyh for putting together an outstanding chronological history of the Sharpe books. Otherwise I would have been completely lost and not have enjoyed this series as much as I have!
Rating:
Summary: Forever tormented Sharpe!
Review: I actually started reading the Sharpe series starting from the India campaign (Cornwell's prequal to the regular Sharpe story) and ol' Obadiah was prevalent throughout. So I have to admit I was a little put off by, what I perceived to be, slight story changes from the prequals that I had read first. Despite the changes (yes, I know Cornwell wrote the Peninsular War series first!), this was an extremely enjoyable book and I found myself actually yelling at the pages for Sharpe to succeed. I knew he would, but Cornwell has an excellent way of telling a story that pulls the reader into the novel and the next thing you know you're at the end. My thanks to emilyh for putting together an outstanding chronological history of the Sharpe books. Otherwise I would have been completely lost and not have enjoyed this series as much as I have!
Rating:
Summary: Cornwell's genious shows once again
Review: I have found other accounts of siege warfare to be quite tedious but once again Cornwell is able to deliver an exceptional piece of work. Richard Sharpe is truly a heroic figure whose lack of popularity in the United States baffles me. It must be the Telivision Sitcom addicted American public that has allowed this to happen. Long live Richard Sharpe and long live Bernard Cornwell!
Rating: 
Summary: I'm an American and am not addicted to sitcoms.
Review: I read this book and was quite pleased. I am addicted to theSharpe series. Bernard Cornwell is one of the greatestauthors... ever! I love the Sharpe series and this book, I suggest anyone should buy it. END
Rating:
Summary: A Thrilling Adventure For Richard Sharpe
Review: I'm a little more than halfway through Bernard Cornwell's 'Sharpe' series and so far 'Sharpe's Company' is my favorite. This novel has Richard Sharpe fighting for his command and his family while waging war against the French held fortress of Badajoz. And as though this task wasn't daunting enough, Sharpe's nemisis Obidiah Hakeswill returns to settle an old score. Consistently entertaining, Cornwall's attention to detail is nothing less than awe-inspiring. I would highly recommend 'Sharpe's Comapany' to anyone interested in military fiction or to lovers of great action and suspence novels.
Rating:
Summary: All the Sharpe books are good... but this one
Review: is great. I own all the Sharpe novels, and this is one of the best. Sharpe's exploits on the Iberian Peninsula rank alongside those of Horatio Hornblower at sea - except that Bernard Cornwell's writing style is probably more accessible for the modern reader. The Sharpe stories follow the exploits of a poor officer in the British army as it battles Napoleon's Marshals in Portugal and Spain. Badajoz was a pivotal battle in the campaign, and the seige was a masterpiece of engineering, and a triumph of courage and spirit. Naturally, Sharpe is in the thick of things, battling not only the French, but his enemies in red jackets: the malicious Hakeswill being chief amongst them. But Sharpe, and his ever-trustworthy partner, the huge Irishman Harper, fight through one of the grimmest descriptions of a battle you're ever likely to read. A great episode in the lives of Richard Sharpe, Patrick Harper - and the man who relies so much on them: Arthur Wellesly, the Duke of Wellington.
Rating:
Summary: Bloody Napoleonic Sieges Galore
Review: Let me preface my review by confessing to be a fan of the Sharpe series of books. Sharpe's Company tells the tale of the British Army led by Wellington and the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz. As usual Sharpe is in the thick of things. I didn't enjoy this book as much as some of the others, mainly because all the action revolves around the sieges. Personally, I favour action in open country, with battalions of soldiers manoeuvring for tactical advantage and cavalry pitted against infantry. Nonetheless, Cornwell still provides the reader with an articulate depiction of siege warfare, that is grotesque yet mesmerizing. The detestable Sergeant Hakeswill makes a reappearance and the plot centres around his hatred for Sharpe. Frankly, I have had a guts-full of Hakeswill and I wish Sharpe would just finish him off and ...... (but I will let you read the story to find that out). A couple of the fateful encounters Sharpe has with Hakeswill in this episode of the series, just don't seem to gel, and I'm left with the feeling Cornwell has placed too much emphasis on this aspect of the story. This is a well researched book. The historical notes at the end are very interesting, and some readers might consider reading this part at the beginning or during the book. Again this book leaves me in no doubt that Bernard Cornwell has had a previous life as an infantryman during the Napoleonic wars. Recommended for military enthusiasts, but may be too gory for the squeamish at heart.
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