pgforrest

I came across Colonel Blood in a fictional context some years ago when I read George MacDonald Fraser's somewhat politically incorrect “The Pyrates”, which I loved.

So I was delighted to come across this book by Angus Donald which gave a slightly more serious account of the colonel's exploits. This was a great book, and I loved the steps that the author took to make the hero “special”.

I felt the tone - which was relatively light-hearted - was at times at odds with the topic at hand (murder, torture, etc), and I felt that the plot was let down towards the end by one or two far-fetched elements. Still, I'd be happy to buy a sequel, when it emerges.

I liked it in most respects, but this book - and the remainder in the series - suffers from an annoying proclivity of continuity errors. The names of countries change from one book to the next, as do the names of some of the monsters, towns / fortresses, and the gender of some of the minor characters (a baby girl is born, but in the next book, it turns out that it was a boy).

I'm also pretty convinced that the author struggles at times with the difference between East and West, making it impossible to visualise the journeys of some of the characters and some of the battles. He does seem reasonably solid on North vs South, though.

A deserved 4 stars. Without all the errors, I'd haver given it 5.