Customer Reviews: Read 87 more reviews...
 Excellent read June 28, 2008
Only recently discovered GMF. Flashman is a great read. Hard to put down. I look forward to reading more Flashman adventures.
Flashman, an honest coward May 27, 2008
This is a brilliant story about a rogue coward who becomes famous for his heroism because the people that witness him cheat, steal, rob, kill, and rape, end up dead. Then Flashman makes up any story that he likes. It was a struggle to like Flashman at first because he was the opposite of everything I had been taught as a man in regards to chivalry. However, after I got over my bias and looked at the character without judgment, the story became charming and unique. Flashman is a book that even literary highbrows need to read because it's a successful slap in the face to moralistic writing--yet still works! It's also devilishly funny.
 A "hero's" self deprecation always entertains April 20, 2008
Oh, so refreshing to immerse oneself, coming out of
our hard edged world of self-serving, hype-drenched
prose into a comfortable divan of well conceived candor.
Bring more, if you will.
Tom
The Adventure Begins... April 19, 2008
I have just finished reading this little gem for the second time and find myself eager to express my gratitude for an author whose skils both prodigious and wide ranging.
Fraser is a masterful storyteller. In the cynical and totally believable Harry Flashman, (soldiier, adventurer. mercenary and total bastard!) the author paints a convincing portrait of an age long dead - warts and all.
Great historical detail, (both in its depiction of events and the attitudes that fostered them), evocative prose and a varied cast of well drawn characters (none more so than the cad at the novel's heart); all these elements combine to create a wonderful entertainment.
Don't be put off by the occasional disapproving reader. Good historical writing involves so much more than reflecting our own comfortable certainties back at us, unconvincingly disguised in period dress. Flashy is in many ways a creature of his time - and times change, as do the beliefs that created them.
Place yourself in the hands of a natural storyteller. You'll enjoy the ride.
A never erring sense of survival at all costs April 8, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I was unaware of the Flashman series till it became a subject of conversation on the Amazon Discussion Board. So, wondering what I was missing, I purchased the first in the series and plunged in. What I discovered was Flashman, a man who chose the military as his profession but spent most of his time and effort avoiding service. Duty, honor, country... Flashman would have none of it. Flashman, gives us the cynic's view of war and glory, which is the highest cause one can have in war is to escape it alive at all costs and all who think otherwise are chumps. It takes some fortitude to deal with the incredible cowardice, arrogance, snobbery, racism and sexism that Flashman embodies, but the writing of Mr. Fraser makes following Flashman's exploits a guilty pleasure and often extremely funny. Reading Flashman is akin to watching a train wreck. At each stage you wonder how it will come out, you know it won't be good, but you can't turn away. The series is definitely not PC but redeems itself by holding up the foibles of Flashman to the ridicule they deserve.
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