Genre: Fiction—Adventure
Completed: 30 June 2012
Summary & Review:
Written as a military memoir from a grandfather to his grandson, this novel traces the combat adventures of Royal Marine Commando, Dick Coward. Thrust into the action during D-Day 1944, Coward faces bombs, galloping horses, seductive spies, and German capture in this World War II adventure. While the details of Coward’s role are fictional, the author steeps the novel in accurate military and historical details to provide a rich background for Coward’s daring and often comical escapades.
While not ever having read them to confirm or deny this, many reviewers and critics likened this series to the Flashman novels. Regardless of the accuracy of that comparison, this was a very entertaining book. Coward was a very appealing character, someone with equal measures of confidence and humility who experienced great successes and terrible mishaps, both largely of his own making. Delingpole used brisk prose and a fluid style to convey a lighthearted sense of adventure while simultaneously providing the reader with an accurate historical atmosphere. My only complaint was that at times the story jumped around a little bit too much for my liking. This caused certain parts of the story line to be jumped over and some of these plot elements were ones I was interested to read about how they were resolved. Oh well. All in all, that did not detract from the overall fun and adventure of the novel.
Rating: 8.0
P.S. Happy Independence Day! "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
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