Harry Mills

Brin is one of the best.

Revisado: 04-25-21

Many seem to think Brin wastes time in the 3rd installment re-hashing old stuff. But one of the things that's jarring about Brin's Uplift trilogy, at first, is all the unrelated story lines and how he jumps from one to the other to the other. Some might never take to it. Many find it very engaging, and those are probably the ones who immerse themselves in the story lines, and don't want or need a re-statement.

But I read the first two books right about the time they came out, and never finished the series. I just remember I really LIKED the world-building and Brin's unique approach to inter-species societies. Probably it was Alvin who made me want to come back and finish it off on Audible.

Anyway, my point is that, coming back to it about 20 years later, the 'redundant' back-story was helpful in reminding me of what happened in the previous 2 books. I had totally forgotten about the derelict fleet they used to help the Streaker escape, even though it was a pretty big plot element.

As well as readers such as myself, who were some distance removed in time, there are probably readers who appreciate some of the redundancy, to help them keep all the different story lines straight. I remember when I first started on the first book, it was kind of hard to keep everything straight.

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A sentimental favorite from childhood/adolescence.

Revisado: 12-03-20

Many elements of "Tactics of Mistake" which was my first time seeing this general plot and main character. It was a lot more profound when I was less educated in science and math. Listening to "Dorsai!" many years later, some of his technical stuff is just gobbledygook. I think I prefer "Tactics of Mistake" to this one. But I'm going to try to go thru the whole series, to see where Dickson took it. He wrote some pretty tight shorts and novellas in the Dorsai universe.

I think my first exposure to this universe were shorts/novellas in Dad's Analogs, back in the '70s.

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This is good stuff.

Revisado: 04-11-20

I don't think any reader is perfect. But having a story read to you by someone is pretty perfect. Literally bed-time reading, one of the most self-indulgent activities in which anyone might engage. And I agree with other reviewers that this is just the thing for car trips.

This was one of the more impactful/memorable books, because of the sword, who bought it and worked on it. As always, there are going to be improbabilities, the first being that a natural athlete, like Sharpe, would be such a poor horseman. It's a nice quirk for a character. Nice description of how cavalry can have a real "field day," when there are cascading blunders by infantry. And once one square breaks, for whatever reason, the likelihood that others will also break goes up, dramatically. But Sharpe's participation in the action seemed a bit of a stretch.

But the bad guy MUST be vanquished! Unless his name is "Hakeswill," who is the Rokoff to Sharpe's Tarzan. Ducos is Sharpe's next Hakeswill. These stories are very formulaic, very classic, very pulp, but by a scholarly writer, who does his due diligence, with an apology at the end for any liberties he took with the history, to make a better story.

Very interesting point in history, where a toxic, early form of republicanism, in Napoleonic France, foreshadowed Total War in the next century, with enormous armies of commoners armed with firearms and artillery CRUSHED opponents with sheer numbers and ruthless employment of firearm technology, and a "live-off-the-land" philosophy of war-fighting on foreign soil. Echoes of the Nazis in Eastern Europe, with much the same effect, in his inability to hold easily-taken Spain.

One day, there will be a movie/video series based on these stories, and it won't be the low-budget joke they made with Sean Bean. No shade on Bean, because his performances were fine. They just didn't have the money for more than a couple dozen extras. But cast it like it's described. A 6-footer paired with a 6-4-NFL-D-TACKLE-sized giant sidekick, surrounded by a bunch of mostly 5-and-a-half-footers.

I need to find where in the books they describe Harper's high-pitched voice. That's how the readers always play him, and I somehow imagine more of a Victor Mclaughlin (Giant Irishman who played the sergeant in John Wayne Westerns and in The Quiet Man, with the classic fistfight against The Duke. Must be something I missed in the first book that had Harper in it. I've been binge-listening, and can't remember if they met in India or right after. LOL!

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Some liberties taken for good story-telling.

Revisado: 04-04-20

And the man's scholar enough to take pride in pointing out the liberties taken. Some of the best action and battle writing scenes, as GRR Martin points out, but the fight with the giant Portuguese criminal, the rights and lefts may've been confused in the telling.

One can only wonder why Napoleon didn't employ rifles. And why he never learned that you eventually run out of other people's stuff to take. Too bad. There WAS good reason to be against religion in those days, after centuries of power-mad priesthoods meddling in the affairs of everyone.

Religion. Can't live with it. Can't live without it.

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General Series Review.

Revisado: 03-05-20

High-grade pulp. The standard hero stuff from a scholar of the history in which he sets his stories. And I don't know if Cornwell, himself, served on the lines, but the reader/listener feels like he's part of it.

I got started reading for adventure, laid up due to a condition as a boy. I ran out of unabridged Tarzan in 3rd grade. Nowadays, they won't let kids read the unabridged because it's considered racist! No. Just have an adult who says "That's how people saw the world back then. The past has much wisdom and much foolishness, and we must know it all to understand OUR world, and to know when people are being foolish. Now go away, so I can get back to "Sharpe's Gold" ya little bastard. (Kid laughs, gives me the finger, because his chores are done and we're on good terms.)

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