Thomas F. (hardtack) - , reviewed on 10/10/2024 + 2701 more book reviews

While I've enjoyed Fraser's Flashman series, I'm starting to get tired of Flashman's sexual exploits. First of all, they are no longer interesting, and he has Flashman and his current female companion acting like rabbits, but without any meaning to the sexual act. But at least it is not overly pornographic. So I sometimes skip over those sections.

As readers of this series know, Fraser takes a great deal of literary license with history. If there is a down side to this novel, it is some of the things he says about Abraham Lincoln, who is my most esteemed personage in American history. However, at one point Fraser had Flashman stating he wishes Seward had been elected president, as that meant Lincoln would not have be murdered. That would have been wonderful, but it would also have meant the North might not have won the Civil War. If you read as much history as I do, you may have lost count of the respected historians who consider Lincoln as a major reason the North achieved victory.

What I found interesting were the three different conspiracies behind John Brown's attack on Harper's Ferry. Each had their own reasons for wanting or not wanting it to take place. And Flashman was supposedly working as an agent for all three conspiracies. Even Flashma, and not just me, had trouble figuring out what he was suppose to do.

I guess this is what keeps me reading the Flashman series, as Fraser knows a lot of about world history and delights in having fun with it.

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