Robbie Macregor is a Franco Scot forced to join the French army to avoid the guillotine. The fast moving and action packed book follows his progress in the Chasseurs from the capture of the Dutch Fleet on the Texel to the conquest of Malta. He meets Napoleon Bonaparte and serves with him in Italy. A story of the early days of the French Revolution.
I was born in 1950 in Lancashire and attended a boy’s grammar school. After qualifying as an English and Drama teacher in 1972, I worked in the North East of England for the next 35 years. During that time I did write, mainly plays, pantos and musicals for the students at the three schools in which I worked.
When I stopped teaching I set up my own consultancy firm and worked as an adviser in schools and colleges in the North East of England. The new Conservative Government ended that avenue of work and in 2010 I found that I had time on my hands; having started work at the age of 15 I found the lack of work not to my liking and used the time to research the Roman invasion of Britain and begin to create a novel. The result was The Sword of Cartimandua.
My decision to begin writing was one of the best I have ever taken.
This review is from: Chasseur à Cheval (Napoleonic Horseman Book 1) (Kindle Edition)
This book is a simple, quick read mainly concerning two French cavalrymen who end up in Napoleon's army in Italy. The two main characters, Robbie and Jean are well developed as is Napoleon. The others not so much. Descriptions of combat and the historical battles do not have the detail and color provided by such authors as Bernard Cornwell. Despite being wanted by the French Revolutionary government for a probable appointment with Mme. Guillotine and the dangers of combat, there is no real sense of danger to Robbie and Jean. They confront battle and enemies. They win. All of that aside, Mr. Hosker seems to have potential. The historical research appears a little shaky. Things such as seeming to imply that the Barbary pirates were black.
This story was a different approach for me, taking place during the late 18th century with napoleon's light calvary fighting in Italy and Austria. Great characters and good start in this series. Want to thank Mr Hosker for the free audio book.
This series will be right along the lines of Richard Howards "Alain Lausard" series. Well done, I was very pleased and have already purchased the second book. If you like the characters, Richard Sharpe, Alain Lausard, or Jack Absolute, you will enjoy this series. Griff Hosker has a good series started, I can only hope he continues it.
Pretty mindless action/adventure historical fiction with a Gary Stu protagonist. Characterization is pretty thin but there is always something happening which helps. Hosker is not a fantastic writer (for example, he way overuses some variation of "his face disappeared" when someone gets shot in the face-which happens a lot) and his dialog can feel clunky, but he gets the job done.