Bonaparte's Sons

Alain Lausard Adventures #1

by Richard Howard

Book by Howard, Richard

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical

288 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1997

Reviews

[Max Mackay · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy read about the Napoleonic Wars, specifically the Italian Campaign, written through the eyes of a cavalry unit.

Not especially challenging with few surprises, but the battles are excellently written. It really does well to create the atmosphere of chaos mixed with periods of inaction of the periods battlefields. It is also clearly well researched.

However I found the characters one dimensional, with very clear “good guys” and “bad guys” identifiable almost immediately as we meet them in the novel, with little or no development throughout the story. This is especially true of the main character, Alain Lausard who I found incredibly unlikeable. Apart from standard but frustrating “super soldier” abilities that I can live with, there seems to strange decisions from the author. He is the son of wealthy aristocrats killed in the revolution, and the tone of the book is very anti-revolution that seem to (not very subtlety) have a dig at modern socialism. Maybe I am bias but I found this made me struggle to sympathise with him. His motives are also a bit confused elsewhere, for example he seems war weary and cynical about duty, but in the next section he is oddly supportive of the act of massacring a defenceless town as a necessity of war?

However despite this, the ending is interesting and creative, and who am I kidding - I’m probably going to read the next one in the series!

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something of a cross between Sharpe and The Dirty Dozen, all from a French perspective. Not the most challenging read and some of the characters are a bit two-dimensional, but a decent read that gains an extra star for the battle scenes against the Austrians in Italy. Whilst not the same level as Sharpe I'll read the rest of the series for some Napoleonic escapism...

[Mark Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book plenty of excitement and treachery. Good start to a series

[Steven Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have to say enjoyed it a great deal sort of a French version of sharp LOL on to the next one :-)

[nicola · Rating 3 out of 5]

First novel

Ok read, some good charts which I look forward to seeing fleshed out in further books. However, story a little fanciful but this didn't make it less enjoyable..

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

France trembles on the edge of an abyss. Her society has been thrown into complete disarray by the mass violence of the revolution; a new cabal of rulers has merely replaced the Bourbons, both in power and in the contempt the public holds for them; and her armies are ever-smaller, penniless, and starving. Even the dregs of the prisons are being scraped up and put into service for the defense of the nation. But from Corsica comes a shot in the arm – a man who knows how to lead, and better still – how to win. With Bonaparte at the helm, and rapists and thieves in the ranks, the French army sets out to deliver a blow against the Hapsburgs in Italy. One man in Napoleon’s army, Alain Lausard, has lost everything to the ‘republic’ — and yet still he fights, and will make his mark.

Having greedily devoured so many tales of Horatio Hornblower and Richard Sharpe, I was excited to learn of another series of Napoleonic fiction. This one has the added interest of telling the stories of the French cavalry, and author Richard Howard sweetens the pot by making his main characters a controversial bunch. They’re all prisoners; Lausard is merely a political captive, the last survivor of an aristocratic family butchered by the revolution – but among his new brothers in arms he can count criminals of far worse repute, and their infighting is constant. Howard takes us through their training before skirmishes with the Austrians erupt, and from there we hear rumors of a gold-laden baggage train that will keep Lausard and his men on the run even after they rout the Austrian army. It wasn’t until the ending, however – where one despicable act of treachery is gloriously turned against its Judas – that I really warmed to Lausard, whose personality is overwhelmed by his need to hide his aristocratic past from the rest of his troop. Lausard especially shines when his commanding officer is injured after one skirmish and replaced by a man so odious his name might as well be Frag-Me-Now. Rather than risk a court-martial by directly opposing him, Lausaurd broadcasts his contempt with veiled put-downs. Imagine an officer worse than Sir Henry Simmerson from the Sharpe movies.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice escapist read, written I suppose as an alternate to the Sharpe series of novels, but the characters seem to be very English Frenchman. Interesting to read about the early campaign of Napoleon. I will read other books in the series...

[Seba Prieto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hace bastante tiempo que deseaba leer una novela histórica, y afortunadamente me llega de regalo este libro.
Bueno para mí es una novela bastante interesante a la cual le tomas enseguida el hilo. El personaje principal Alain Lausard con su personalidad reservada e introvertida de a poco te va cautivando para convertirse en el gran líder del escuadrón al que pertenece, dicho sea de paso el grupo que conforma es bien peculiar con ladrones, cuatreros, violadores, etc. Ya que han sido reclutados por el ejército francés como último recurso para tratar de enfrentar los grandes desafíos que imponía el Directorio de Francia y Bonaparte en ese tiempo.
Un detalle que me gusto mucho es la unión en la historia que realiza el autor al ir contando por un lado las aventuras por las cuales pasa Lausard en el campo de batalla y por otro lado se muestra al gran estratega militar Napoleón Bonaparte dirigiendo las distintas campañas (entre estas la de Lausard) que hacia el final de la crónica llegan a cruzarse.
En fin, una novela que me gusto mucho ya que la historia de la revolución francesa me encanta y creo que me comprare los siguientes tomos ya que este es el primer volúmen de una serie que sacó el autor.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

a very good read if your interested in French history and don't know were to start with Bonaparte.

[K M Egan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it

Great story of war and the French revolution, some graphic scenes of war and violence, which added to the realism