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Title: The Winter Soldiers: Sergeant 'Fancy Jack' Crossman and the Attack on Kertch Harbour by Gary Douglas Kilworth, Garry Douglas Kilworth ISBN: 0-7867-1111-6 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: 23 December, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Read on and do not forget the fifth one wich ends the series
Comment: I do not like to reveal the plot on my reviews as others do, but keep in mind this series are the better novelization of the Crimean Campaign around.
In the USA "Attack on the Redan" fifth and last of the Crimean War volumes will be released on October (and no I am not the author neither the editor...). The end of the last one is a little syruped or coated in sugar (at least the ending chapters)and you get the impression a book started by Andy McNab is finished by Barbara Cartland (OK this is an exageration but to a point there is some truth in it...).
If you have read the series you would have noticed Crossman peloton is something like the Roots of the SAS aproach to warfare... so the comparaison with Andy McNab novels was compulsory.
I loved the series as a fan of the Crimean War and the XIXth century, but also for the rich "secondaries" on the novels wich reminded me a lot of John Ford's film characters.
RECOMMENDED.
Rating: 5
Summary: Entertaining fictional account of the Crimean War
Comment: I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, set during the Crimean War (1854-1855), which focuses upon Sgt. "Fancy Jack" Crossman and his ragtag peloton (platoon) of (misfit) soldiers. Fancy Jack is actually the illegitimate son of a lord who opts for anonimity in the ranks as opposed to being an officer. He is in charge of a peloton of possibly the most unlikely band of soldiers, including a Turk, a Canadian (or American), and a sharpshooter who is actually a woman. They are the prototype of today's special forces, acting as saboteurs behind enemy lines, destroying a Russian crane, as well as performing the less savory tasks of hunting down a band of renegade British army deserters and gathering evidence of a British general's corruption and incompetence. Towards the end of the novel they participate in the attack on Kertch Harbor, but this is the only "traditional" battle that they see.
The author does an excellent job conveying the hopelessness and the futily of the Crimean War--the squalor, the mud, the entrenched lines which cannot be broken, the incompetence of the generals and the waste of lives, as well as descriptions of those Britons who went to Crimea as sightseers, along with servants, picnic baskets, wine, wives and mistresses, to witness the battles. I also like that Kilworth spends time describing the British class system and how it permeated the army (the younger sons of the aristocracy often went into the army as officers; their rank was purchased rather than awarded according to merit), thus keeping the officers forever separated from the men in the ranks and causing a great deal of anomisity on both sides.
I also like that the author has taken the time to develop his characters thoroughly. Readers have a good sense of exactly who Fancy Jack is, his strengths and weaknesses both as a soldier and as a human being, his strained relationship with his father, his love and admiration for his half-brother, his complicated relationship with Lavinia Durham (told with plenty of humor), an old flame now married to an officer, his uncertain feelings about his cousin (he comes across as a bit of a nerd), his good relationships with his superior officers (except Pirce-Smith) and with his peloton. The other characters are also fully developed, from the insecure whiner Wynter to the boastful (been everywhere, seen everything, done everything) Gwilliams to Peterson, the woman sharpshooter. They rag on eachother, pick on eachother, squabble just like siblings, yet when they have to operate as a unit, they do so. This unusual blend of war and personal relationships makes this an interesting change from the usual war novels, which tend to focus much more upon the fighting than the soldiers. I shall look for the earlier novels, and look forward to the further adventures of Fancy Jack and his peloton. Highly recommended.
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Title: Attack on the Redan: Sergeant Jack Crossman and the Battle for Sebastopol by Garry Douglas Kilworth ISBN: 0786712600 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Soldiers in the Mist by Garry Douglas Kilworth ISBN: 1841195464 Publisher: Constable Robinson Pub. Date: 30 January, 2003 |
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Title: The Valley of Death by Garry Douglas Kilworth ISBN: 1841195251 Publisher: Constable Robinson Pub. Date: 14 November, 2002 |
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Title: Sharpe's Christmas by Bernard Cornwell ISBN: 0972222014 Publisher: Sharpe Appreciation Society Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $8.00 |
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Title: The Devil's Own (Sergeant 'Fancy Jack' Crossman Series) by Garry Douglas Kilworth ISBN: 1841195243 Publisher: Constable Robinson Pub. Date: 25 July, 2002 |
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