The Fort (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

Another year has passed and another Cornwell novel has arrived. And this year we have a standalone novel which focuses on the `forgotten' Penobscot Expedition, one of the lesser well known conflicts of the American War of Independence.

In recent years, fans of Cornwell have increasingly clamoured for him to return to the highly praised Starbuck Chronicles or for a completion of the Alfred/Uhtred adventures. Cornwell has mastered the knack of beginning highly engrossing series and then leaving the reader dangling whilst he focuses on other works. This is infuriatingly maddening when I need my next fix in the series, but also a good way of increasing my anticipation for his newest novel! So, when Cornwell announced via his website that his next book would not be a continuation of one of his current series, I was a little worried as my mind was drawn back to `Azincourt' and the lukewarm reception it received.

Putting all my misguided apprehension aside, I have to say that I am an absolute Cornwell fan! I had to have the book on its publication date and I even took time off work this year to shut myself away from the real world whilst I devoured his latest novel. And after completing it, I have to say that it is brilliant, one of his best in years.

You can tell immediately, that `The Fort' is a novel that Cornwell has always wanted to write. Everything about the book screams that it is thoroughly and impeccably well researched, extremely well written and contains a new set of characters who are definitely not `carbon copies' of Sharpe/Uhtred set in different historic settings. The characters are well rounded and have personalities which are fully dimensional, particularly for some of the `rebels' in this book. These men lived and fought through a period of time in which they struggled with their national identity and allegiances. Were they British or American, Rebel or Loyalist? This battle to `re-identify' their nationality and political allegiance is beautifully and simplistically woven into the tale. You truly feel sorry for some of the American characters in this book who are caught up in a war which they had no desire to take part in.

The story principally concerns the Americans attempting to dislodge a British incursion at Majabigwaduce, Massachusetts (look out for how many variations the characters use for this unwieldy place name, very amusing!). Some authors (but mainly popular Hollywood films) when tackling the American War of Independence have been guilty of creating pompous, snobbish, effeminate, evil British officers and `against all the odds' heroic, impossible to kill American patriots. That is not the case with this book, Cornwell has created a balanced novel in which characters are good and evil on both sides, but most importantly, he never loses sight of the fact that all people involved during this war were simple, flawed human beings and not Hollywood movie stars. This leaves a book which is an absolute pleasure to read.

If you're a Cornwell fan, you'll not be disappointed with this book. This is an exceptional return to form with this remarkable novel.

I have just finished this book and after a few slow chapters at the start ( I think mostly because there are a lot of characters to introduce) I found this book fascinating and hard to put down. I read about the 1st 7 Sharpe novels in the 80s and have not read any Cornwell until Azincourt last year (pretty good I thought) and now The Fort which made a nice change. I think Sharpe has been done to death and it was interesting to read another horse and musket tail that was not about the Napoleonic Wars. Also the fact that the novel sticks more or less to the actual events is v interesting - I found out an awful lot about a small, almost forgotten battle that I dont remember reading about in any book I have read on The War Of Independence. The revelations about Revere are amazing and the American admiral comes out of it looking pretty sorry as well. On the other hand the US Marines seemed to be as tough then as now. Pleased to see in the reviews that at least one American who has read this is open minded. Americans should be able to take this read on the chin as they did win the war with a little help from their continental friends

A very entertaining read - maybe Cornwell should consider going the whole hog and dabbling in a little factual history writing.

As a fan, I have read all of Bernard Cornwell's books and for enjoyment this sits in the lower quartile. It gave me some historical insights in which the American War of Independence developed and I suppose it reasonably depicts the slow pace at which warfare was conducted in the Americas at the end of the 18th C, but in the process it was not a page turner!

Added to which, I read the Kindle version and was disappointed that this contained no maps by which I could reference the frequent descriptions of place and terrain. In fact, I had to go to the public library to examine and memorise as best I could the very helpful map in the printed version. Had the publisher bothered to include the map in the kindle version and had kindle itself the ability to zoom in on graphics (which it does not appear to do), I may not have struggled so much with this book. It may have caused me to rate this 3 stars, rather than two.