Flashman

It's tough to review this one because it wasn't quite what I expected. I definitely thought that the character Flashman would be more charming, witty, and hilarious than he turned out to be. Instead he turned out to be a (self-admitted) scoundrel and coward, a hypocrite, and an altogether mean and unlikeable scumbag. So that knocked the book down a few stars for me, even though I recognize the parody the author is going for.

The plot and historical fiction aspects brought a few stars back. While the first half focuses a tad heavily on military strategy, the rest focuses on stories of the British First Afghan War that I had never heard before. It's absolutely fascinating, and Fraser does a good job writing adventure. He clearly has learned a thing or two from his predecessors in the genre.

So in the end I landed somewhere in the middle between offended and invested, wondering if I should read the next one or not. We'll see.