Rating: 
Summary: Some lads will praise anything old Flashy writes?
Review: Don't misunderstand me. The old scoundrel still has the style and manner he did at Balaclava or India or Harper's Ferry but still I began to think the old dotard was stringing me along for the price of a meal and drinks. When most of his tale (which again does him no credit) consisted of the details of a sordid affair with a French spy with a name like an American stripper and a sneaky journalist, I could scarce keep my eyes open. Only the frequent references (e.g., "See `Flashman and the Angel of the Lord," "See `Flashman and the Great Game,' etc.) to his former greatness, and some minor swordplay near the end (after a bungled assassination attempt) kept me from claiming a previous engagement.I certainly would not recommend "Flashman and the Tiger" as a first Flashman book, and I think it suitable mostly if you must read everything the blackguard has recorded. The two stories that follow are also remembered with verve and dash but (good god man!) the longer one concerns a gambling scandal and well, ... I think this a tame enough occupation for one who's assisted at as many major catastrophes as Flashie has and a poor setting after the camps and battlefields of the mighty. Yes, I heard the old general's reply "I was getting on, and as the good book says, "There's a time for racketin' about crying ha ha among the trumpets and a time for sitting back with your feet dipped in butter watching others fall in the mire...not all adventures are to be found amidst shot and shell, thank god!" However, the last, shortest and best yarn actually includes our hero's flight from the disaster at Isandlwana and the desperate battle of Rorke's Drift, so there are some traces of the Flashman legendary luck and cowardice in action. It is an interesting tale and well worthy of naming the book after it. After all, who would look forward to, "Flashman and the Tranby Croft Gambling Scandal"? I wouldn't.
Rating: 
Summary: Still good after all these years!
Review: First off, this isn't the book you've been waiting for. It consists of one novella and two short stories which take place many years after the American Civil War. This is the first time Mr. Fraser has made such a temporal leap between books. The first story, from which the title of this book comes, is pretty standard Flashy fare. Nothing too fancy with plenty of sex, violence, and abject cowardice throughout. Fraser handles the aging of Flashman very well which incites many a nastolgic thought of "yeah, but they never would have caught him when he was younger!" The story is very formulaic and any true Flashy Fan will spot the twists coming but, in reality, that's the whole point. Flashman's life is SUPPOSED to read like bad swashbuckling fare. The second story is less exciting and really only serves to showcase flashy when his life ISN'T in mortal danger. It also shows a darker side of Elsbeth we hadn't really encountered yet. The third story is a give or take one. Many people will be ecstatic over what Mr. Fraser does. I for one was not. For me it spoiled the whole fantasy aspect of Sir Harry Flashman. Read it for yourself and decide, though, as I'm sure plenty will disagree with me. Overall a very worthwhile book if you're a fan of Flashy's.
Rating: 
Summary: 3 Flashies for the price of 1
Review: Flashman and the Tiger is more a collection of 3 Flashman short stories than a single coherent novel. As a result, it is sort of a mixed bag. The first (and longest of the three) is also the best. It deals with an attempt on the life of Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz-Josef's life, and true to Flashman form is full of debauchery, double-crossing, and cowardice mistaken for courage and honor. The second centers around a gambling scandal with the Prince of Wales, the third with a matter of honor and Sir Flashman's granddaughter. Both of these stories were good, but sort of a let down after the delightful and complicated first story. Nonetheless, Flashman fans will be sure to enjoy the book as did I.
Rating:
Summary: 3 Flashies for the price of 1
Review: Flashman and the Tiger is more a collection of 3 Flashman short stories than a single coherent novel. As a result, it is sort of a mixed bag. The first (and longest of the three) is also the best. It deals with an attempt on the life of Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz-Josef's life, and true to Flashman form is full of debauchery, double-crossing, and cowardice mistaken for courage and honor. The second centers around a gambling scandal with the Prince of Wales, the third with a matter of honor and Sir Flashman's granddaughter. Both of these stories were good, but sort of a let down after the delightful and complicated first story. Nonetheless, Flashman fans will be sure to enjoy the book as did I.
Rating: 
Summary: You'd think Flash would have to repeat himself
Review: Fraser squeezed another Flashy episode into that brief human life and me, I'm glad. So will you be also.
The Flashman Papers continue to offer up new episodes in this series. In this one Flashy's reflections are more more mature, but his cynicism remains intact, his wisdom a human one recognizing our weaknesses as humans, none more than his own.
Rating:
Summary: Flashman times three
Review: George MacDonald Fraser has been writing a wonderful series of novels for about three decades now. Fraser had another career, as a screenwriter, first, and garnered an Oscar for the screenplay of The Three Musketeers. Since, he's garnered a small but obsessed band of followers here in the states. The following has gotten large enough that the books are all in print now (for many years they weren't, and you had to hunt for them, like Patrick O'Brian) and the release of a new Flashman book draws considerable interest among men here and (I would presume) around the world. Notice I say men. Flashman is a misogynist of the first order, rapes, betrays, robs, defrauds, and generally misuses most of the women who cross his path. Most women don't consider this too fun. In this volume, rather than one story with a (sort of) interconnecting theme, we have three. In the first, which runs to a little more than 200 pages and is almost a novel, Flashman encounters the son of a character from a previous book, and various other interesting characters, and thwarts the attempted assassination of Franz-Joseph, the Emporer of Austria. In the second, shorter story (about 50 pages) Flashman is mostly a spectator in a card-cheating scandal involving the Prince of Wales, whom Flashman despises. The third story, the same length as the second, has Flashman trying to kill an old nemesis, and running afoul of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who are after the same individual. As with everyone else, Holmes and Watson are presented in a slightly different light in Flashman's account. You have to get used to Fraser, and Flashman. Fraser adopts Flashman's voice to narrate the story, and it's a bit hard to take unless you're a devoted Anglophile and history buff. Every simile he utters is a reference to a historical figure or adventure Flashman was part of, usually. I have one friend who thought the premise of the series interesting, but couldn't take Flashy's cowardice and rapacity. He wound up passing his books onto me. Given that, I enjoyed this book. I would agree that this isn't perhaps the best of introductions to the series, but on the other hand, the stories are shorter, so you could perhaps try someone out on the series with one of the shorter ones, assuring them that there's more to the novels than these stories.
Rating:
Summary: Three Flashman Shorts
Review: George MacDonald Fraser has been writing Flashman stuff for about 25 years now. He's also an accomplished writer in other fields: his memoir of his own service in WW2, "Quartered Safe Out Here" is one of the best personal accounts to come out of that war, and he wrote the screenplay for "The Three Musketeers." In short, he's an accomplished guy. Flashman and the Tiger is only the second time, by my count, that the author has written something much out of order (the other time being Flashman and the Redskins, which contains a section from 1876). In this volume, Flashman recounts three adventures from his later life, one involving an attempt to assasinate the Emporer of Austria-Hungary, a second involving Flashy in a card-cheating scandal with the Prince of Wales entangled in it, and the third, the title piece, involving our hero deciding to kill a mortal enemy, and running into Sherlock Holmes in the process. The first of the stories is by far the longest, longer than 200 pages, and really almost a novel itself. It's a good story, even if it is a bit reminiscent of an earlier novel he wrote, and the characters are fun. The second story is a bit more mundane, though I'll confess the ending had me laughing for several minutes. The thirds story, which takes place partly in Africa during the Zulu War, is amusing, though I agree that this does somewhat preclude a full Zulu War novel. The Sherlock part is hilarious, and quite the best part of the book, to be honest. I'm a Sherlock buff of a kind (read all of the stories when I was in high school, twice) and I enjoyed it immensely. All in all, I wouldn't recommend this as an introductory book for the series, though you could have someone read one of the shorter stories and see if that's the sort of thing that interests them. I do know that some Americans find it hard to read a book written in the vernacular like this, and a short story would be a good way to figure things out. The first story's too long for this, but one of the other two might do. Given that, it's a worthwhile addition to the series, and fun.
Rating:
Summary: More Falshman!!
Review: George MacDonald Fraser relates a selection of Flashman's adventures. Rather than containing the standard book-length story that follows a single theme, Flashman and the Tiger is a collection of three distinct stories. As usual, there are references to the rest of Flashman's colorful career, historical context and, of course, the period setting and society is brought to life. The Flashman series is a great work of historical fiction. George MacDonald Fraser always uses Flashman to tell a great story. Integrating fictional characters and situations with thoroughly researched historical facts. A kind of "Boy's Own Adventures" for grown ups and history buffs. Flashman, the central character, is a kind of antihero, bringing a cynical, and in many ways modern, sensibility to the world of the 1900's. A self-confessed cad and coward, he often seems the most humane and reasonable character in the situations he gets himself involved in. In this collection, Flashman finds himself part of a political crisis, escaping from one of Britain's most notorious military defeats in Africa, immersed in a social scandal involving the Prince of Wales and a game of cards, and even meets Sherlock Holmes. This is an excellent book and essential reading for any Flashman fan. My rating of just 4 stars is not meant to imply any criticism, but is more of an indication of personal preference for the longer Flashman stories that, to my mind, really highlight the wonderful writing and story telling ability of George MacDonald Fraser.
Rating:
Summary: Welcome back, Flashy!!
Review: I've been an avid Flashman fan since stumbling across the first book in the series waiting for the plane to take me home from Vietnam in 1970 and have eagerly awaited each new volume. This adventure gets 'only' four stars for two reasons: first of all, it is three seperate stories in one book, an unusual format for a Flashman book and two (and most damaging) the title story is just simply not up to the usual standards maintained by Fraser. Don't get me wrong, it is not bad, by any means, it is just that regular readers of Flashman get spoiled by Fraser's ability to keep you interested and this one just does not quite measure up.
The first two stories are very good without being particularly memorable, the first being the best of the book. Flashman deals with peace treaties, then in what is basically a repeat of the second Flashman book 'Royal Flash', finds himself kidnapped by the son of Count von Starnberg, (one of Flashy's more memorable villains)and is embroiled in a plot to assassinate the Kaiser. Telling more would give away to much of the plot, but it is worth reading. The second story involves a almost unknown in this country Victorian scandal, and you find that Flashman's wife, the beautiful Elspeth playing a central role. This is defintely enjoyable to Flashman regulars since Elspeth's usual roles are cameo's at best, but the scandal has little interst to Americans.
I defintely recommend any of the Flashman books, but you haven't read Flashman yet, I wouldn't suggest you start with this one...(perhaps "Flashman and the Great Game" or "Flashman and the Dragon" would be the best starting point, but I think you miss a lot of the flavor if you don't read them all in order...)But do yourself a favor and check out Flashman...you won't be disappointed...
Rating:
Summary: The return of Britain's greatest poltroon
Review: It's been a while between tots of brandy, but the most recent Flashman novel will prove to be no disappointment to fans of the arch-cad. Fraser has opted for brevity this time around, and delivered three short stories that range across years and locales, and share with us the exploits of an older, wiser, even more cynical and yet no less cavalier Harry Flashman. The first and longest story concerns our hero's being flung unwittingly (as always) into a covert scheme to foil the assassination of the Emperor of Austria and thus avert the start of World War I (or at least postpone it for 30 years). It's a brief yarn, but we're spared none of Flashy's trademark feigned bravado, uncontrollable lust and infuriating propensity to land himself belly-up in the direst of 19th-century predicaments. Fraser's attention to historical detail while adding his own humorous twist to particular events is, as always, flawless. The second story concerns a scandal erupting in the Prince of Wales' court over a game of baccarat, in which Flashman plays a cunning hand, and his wife Elspeth an even more cunning one, revealing a sly aspect to her character neither the reader nor Flashman himself could ever have suspected. The final story is the shortest, and details Harry's campaign to redeem the honour of his niece, while bumping into a handful of notable Victorian figures en route. This last episode also alludes to a larger adventure - Flashman's contribution to the Zulu Wars - which I only hope hits the shelves sooner rather than later!
A rollicking trio of yarns, and yet another worthy addition to the hoary old bugger's memoirs.
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