Bonaparte's Conquerors [Hardcover]

This book was throughly enjoyable With Lausard and his dragoons fighting Royalist gurellias then part of Bonapartes coup then at th narrow Victory at Marengo over the Austrians.

The battle scenes are well described and Luassard is an interesting charachter. However there are a few things that bugged me about this book.

1)Karim this a sterotype in the extreme (Noble wise savage who fights for the French and the Author does not really need this charachter.

2)The dialouge is pretty poor with a lot the charachters seeming to say the same thing over and over again with a lot of self analisying. For instance Delpiree and Delcor growl at Laussard yet always back down you do just wish that they would hurry up and fight. 3)Laussard seems an extremly cappable soldier yet he is still only a sergant In Napoleon's army's it was quite common for common soldiers to rise from the ranks why is he still a sergant. Also if his faimily was murdered by the Revoultionarys would he not be fighting against them than for them.

4)All the French charachters seem to be invincible that the Author is indanger of losing any tension over there fates he should kill some off.

Otherwise this is an extremly well plotted well described story and am looking foward to more of the French version of Sharpe

The 3rd in the Alain Lausard books finds Bonaparte rising to First Consul and - naturally - Lausard in the thick of it.

Good ol' musket and sword stuff, with enough shooting, maiming and death by cannonball to please even the bloodiest of readers.

That said it's a bit lightweight to be honest. Don't get me wrong, I like this series. Indeed it makes a change from it's British equivalent in Sharpe. The uniforms and tactics are faithfully represented here (unlike the Sharpe books, sorry BC) especially the plethora of Austrian costumery (noting the Hungarian element) and the action moves swiftly along, as always, interspersing scenes between Bonaparte and Lausard.

Lausard's friends and fellow troopers are lightly drawn, and their dialogue starting to get predictable. However, these men are not the brightest soldiers in the world, drawn as they were from the sweeping of the prisons, and I guess you wouldn't expect much more than this.

Remarkably all of Lausard's companions seem to survive the rigours of the second Italian campaign, as they did in Egypt. Perhaps Mr
Howard will thin the ranks as we go through the next in the series. The continuing presence of a goodly number of fellow troopers is beginning to bring on an air of invulnerability. Maybe Mr Howard will kill them all off like Mr Cornwell did in Sharpe's Waterloo.

This would work as a standalone novel, with quite a lot of references to Lausard's past (which is getting a little tiresome) to explain the background, but it really is best to start from the first novel. Therein may lie my biggest disappointment with this book.

You see I started by reading the omnibus edition of the first two novels. Yes, two in one. And thoroughly enjoyed it. I read this book in a couple of days flat and was looking for more. It's very short and as the book neared it's climax (Marengo) I though the author is leaving it all a bit late. Such is the nature of serial book I suppose, but if the next ones are going to be as short as this, then it might be an idea to pair them in omnibus form.

I will hunt down the next one in the series (and no doubt, the one after that) and watch with interest to see if Lausard manges to beat Richard Sharpe into appearing in every major engagement in the Napoleonic Wars !

A book, then, not too taxing, yet containing enough action and historical accuracy to satisfy. Not as sweeping in ambition as Simon Scarrow's outstanding Napoleonic saga or even as involved as Cornwell's Sharpe novels but certainly not as boring as the Hervey books, but nonetheless a good read on a hot sunny Sunday afternoon.

This is the third in Howards Lausard series and is certainly better than the last two. This centres on Napoleons coup and rise as leader of France and then on to his narrow victory at Marengo.

The action scenes are well told but it has to be said that and the story is quite good but it has to be said that

1) The supposed main villian of this novel is pretty weak and is not given enough time or space to get ethier a good feeling or respect so that he does not give an impression.

2)As in all the other novels Lausard and his college Delpire stare and growl at each other then back down.Indeed they do this so much you just wish they would get on and fight.

3)Also Lausard and his company despite several times being surrounded by enemies nearly all the time all seem to survive with barely a scratch. In war this would just not happen he should maybe kill one or two charachters off to add tension in the Novel otherwise his is indanger of losing his reader's suspense and rsiks traveling down the road to predictability.

Apart from all this is a well told novel and if not as good as Cornwell or O'brien yet Howard is getting there.