Sharpe’s Escape - Bernard Cornwell (Audiobook)

Narrated by Patrick Tull

Listened to: October 2010 (at age 32)

First time read

What to Expect:

This is the tenth book (chronologically) in the Sharpe series of historical fiction revolving around events of the Napoleonic wars.  It was the 2^nd book written, and it’s worth starting either at Sharpe's Eagle (8^th), or at Sharpe’s Tiger (1^st). 

From the back cover:

It is 1810 and the French are making yet another attempt to invade Portugal.  Facing them is a wasted land, stripped of food by Wellington′s orders, and Captain Richard Sharpe.
But Sharpe is in trouble. His job as Captain of the Light Company is under threat and he has made a new enemy, a Portuguese criminal known as Ferragus. Sharpe, discarded by his regiment, wages a private war against Ferragus - a war fought through the burning, pillaged streets of Coimbra, Portugal′s ancient university city. Sharpe′s enemies are numerous but on his side he has Sergeant Patrick Harper, the Portuguese officer Jorge Vincent, and a prickly English governess whose first aim is to clean up Sharpe′s language.
Sharpe′s Escape begins on the great, gaunt ridge of Bussaco where a joint British and Portuguese army meets the overwhelming strength of Marshall Massena′s crack troops. It finishes at Torres Vedras, where the French hopes of occupying Portugal quickly die.

My Reactions (spoilers!):

Overall: 

I thought that this book was the weakest of the series to date.  It was ok, and a lot of the elements that make the Sharpe books enjoyable were there.  However, especially in the early part of the book, the plot seemed forced and the battle scenes grew repetitive.  I got tired of hearing about the “seventeen inches of steel” in the English bayonet.  I really got tired of the cutesy phrasing at the end of chapters.  Unfortunately, the back cover pretty much summarizes all that happened in the book, so there’s not much suspense. 

Rating: 3

Characterization:  

Ok.  Sharpe and Harper are as they’ve always been, strong characters that can carry a book, although Sharpe seemed to be stupider than he’d been in prior books.  The supporting cast seemed weaker this time, too.  Col. Lawford, in particular, seemed much less of a character that I’d expected, given the screen time that he’d had in previous books.

Premise: 

Weak.  Sharpe gets into a private feud with a Portuguese civilian traitor, falls behind the battle line, and has to get back to the army.

Setting: 

Fair.  As before, the setting just didn’t stand out that much.  It was fine.

Plot: 

Ok.  There was a girl, Sharpe got her, in addition to overcoming various obstacles to the self-defined mission.  A few battles.  Some brawling.  The plot wasn’t compelling, to me, and seemed forced in many places.  Back to status quo at the end of the book – no real development happens in this book.  The beginning dragged through a one-sided battle that had many more words devoted to it than it needed, and it got better toward the end of the book.

I guess my biggest frustration was that there didn’t seem to be any character development or overall plot advancement.  This may have something to do with the book being sandwiched between two books that had been written a long time ago, so nothing could really change, but that doesn’t help this particular book.

Narration: 

Fair.  The voicing was well done, but the sentences were emphasized oddly.  I noticed this particularly at the beginning of sentences, where it sounded like there was a comma added in after a proper noun.  To make up an example, “Sharpe, walked down the hallway” instead of “Sharpe walked down the hallway”.  In addition various adjectives were overly emphasized, to my mind. To make up another example, “Blood ran down the CURVED, blade” doesn’t need the adjective stressed.  Blood (a noun) is important, and so is blade (another noun).  Curved is just a bit of flavour, so it should be minimized.  It seems a small thing, but after however many hours of the same thing, small things begin to seem large.