Flashman: scoundrel or sociopath?
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Although this is the seventh instalment of Flashman's adventures, chronologically it immediately follows the third novel, the excellent "Flash for Freedom". It is probably worth reading the two in sequence as some of the characters reappear as our anti-hero, fleeing from various slavers, makes his way as a `forty-niner' on a wagon train west with an old flame. It definitely starts off well in usual page-turning style, but seems to lose its way about halfway through the first part. Maybe GMF gets fed-up with the story as he dumps the supporting cast and heads off in another direction. In doing so the difficulties of writing an anti-heroic main character are highlighted. There is a fine line between being a scoundrel and having an antisocial personality disorder. Flash for Freedom (about the slave trade) dealt with this (a)moral ambiguity deftly, but in one rather distasteful episode the term sociopath definitely sprang to mind. Although there are some good scenes afterwards, the first part doesn't really recover any narrative drive. The second part of Redskins is a novella, dealing with Flashman's return to the US twenty-five years later, meeting George Custer and, as a bizarre consequence of the nasty episode referred to earlier, having a bit-part at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The battle scene is very well written indeed, but I got the impression that by the end the author was beginning to dislike his creation, and other fans have suggested that Redskins is the last really good novel in the series. Incidentally, if you like this try Thomas (or Todd) Berger's "Little Big Man", an outstanding fictional reconstruction of the same period and indeed the same battle, similar in many ways to Redskins, but better in my view.
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The best of the best
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The Flashman series is simply outstanding. They are massively entertaining and amongst the best thrillers, historical novels and humourous works.
This is IMO the best of what is a fantastic series of books. Bear in mind that even the worst Flashman is 10x better than your average novel.
Don't bother if you are politically correct.
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Flashman and the American West
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A great delight of the Flashman series is to watch George MacDonald Fraser place Harry Flashman, his ubiquitous anti-hero, in great historical events and then to see this loathsome yet endearing character emerge as a hero. In FLASHMAN AND THE REDSKINS, Fraser achieves this daunting feat twice, once in each novella that makes up this fine book.
In the first novella, "The Forty-Niner", Fraser shows Flashman escaping from New Orleans, where there is a warrant for his arrest (See, FLASH FOR FREEDOM!) and traveling on the Santa Fe Trail during the 1849 gold rush. Then, in "The Seventy-Sixer", Fraser shows Flashman's adventure in the Dacotah Territory and his amazing escape from the Battle--a skirmish, really, the soldier Flash repeatedly says--of the Little Bighorn.
Flashman fans who look to these novels for striking descriptions of events as they might have occurred will not be disappointed in this book. In "The Forty-Niner", Fraser captures the danger and innocence of wagon train travel, as well as the brutal fringes of early western American life, where massacre was a risk faced by all. And in "The Seventy-Sixer," Fraser paints a plausible (and historically accurate) picture of Custer, while showing the aggressive blunders that led to the destruction of his Seventh Cavalry. (How many of you know that Custer was actually attacking a small city of Sioux?)
In my opinion, Fraser also does a great job with his Indians in both novellas, communicating lots of information about the Indian way of life, especially among the Apache and Sioux. Here, thanks for these eye-opening portrayals goes to the disillusioned Flashman, who sees Fraser's Indian characters and tribes without sentimentality or hatred. There's good and bad (as well as a drive to survive) in us all, Flashman might say.
I must declare, however, that the connection between these novellas--a dastardly act by Flashy in "The Forty-Niners" that produces its equivalent reciprocating act in "The Seventy-Sixers"--was a wee bit farfetched. But, who cares? The novellas in FLASHMAN AND THE REDSKINS were a delight throughout. Highly recommended!
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How the West was really won
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This is yet another triumph in the Flashman-series. When I was halfway through I became ill but even with a splitting headache I found myself reading until well into the night and laughing out loud in bed (to my wife's amazement).
If you're keen on historical novels and like a good laugh, there's nothing that comes even remotely close!
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One of Flash's Best
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Flashman is always a delight and this seventh edition is no exception. The novel is split in two firstly keeping up immediately from Flash For Freedom and this part is rollicking rollcoaster of a journey with two of the series most entertaining character in John Charity Springs and Suzie (the whore master with a heart of gold) returning. In this first part Flash journeys up the Santa Fe trail with a wagon full of lovely ladies. As one expects from our hero he rogers a plenty with flamboyant style leaving them in the dirt on his way out of another fine hell hole. Sections of the writing are example of Fraser at his finest particularly juxtaposing the narrative with Flashy's inner thought. Furthermore, it has one of the best joke Indian names in the history of narrative fiction as well as some thorough research on the Indian question which plagued America then (and still today). THe second half of book has a different tone and pace because it deals with Custer and Little big horn. This obviously slows the plot down because the Fraser has to set the scene painting in the light and shadow of this extraordinary historical figure. But it does have some of the best moments in the book especially Flashy running for cover during battle in his best fancy dress since Flashman at the Charge. Overall, thoroughly enteraining and more crucially enlighting on several controversial points in history
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