Book Review: Redcoat

Redcoat - Bernard Cornwell

I just finished this book today at lunch. I very much enjoyed it. It was something a bit different from Cornwell, in that this isn't a story about the lone badass officer, who rose up from the ranks to take on the whole of the French army. I love the Sharpe/Grail Quest books but they are very formulaic, which Cornwell himself has admitted. What makes those books great is not the unique plot but rather the attention to detail, the great sense of adventure, and the feeling you get that you right there staring down the rifle sights with Sharpe.
Redcoat on the other hand has less adventure and more character to it. Sam is a great character, tough yet not a superhuman, intelligent yet not a genius, loyal, loving and a overall good guy. Captain Vane is a great grey character, misguided yet believable. There is a pure evil type, but it works as a good counter point to the grey characters as someone to cheer against.
The plot moves well and has some unexpected turns that I enjoyed. The history is pretty much right on. I only say pretty much as he does change some of the events of the revolution around in order to fit the story but the characters/events very much match the descriptions that I have read. He details the changes made at the end of the book in his historical notes page.
If the time period and lessening of adventure don't brother the reader then I feel that this is a good read. World changing? Of course not. Entertaining? I sure was.

A qoute I like from the time period:
I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.
--George Washington