Customer Reviews

FLASHMAN AND THE MOUNTAIN OF LIGHT.

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Reading this series in chronological order has been tricky, thanks to Fraser's skipping about history. Still, having already read "Flashman", "Royal Flash", and "Flashman's Lady", I saw a change in the "Mountain of Light": Flashy gets a little backbone.

The book itself focuses on a largely forgotten episode in British India, between the Afghan withdrawal in 1842 and the Great Mutiny in the 1850s. This time, Flashman is called into service just as the 80,000-strong Sikh army, the Khalsa, appears ready to sweep down on the English and drive them out once and for all. Flashman is drawn into behind-the-scenes subterfuge that take him from the Sikh royal court to the middle of bloody battlefields. To say much more would spoil the living history that Fraser's created.

However, I find it interesting to note a change in Flashman's character. The first novel, "Flashman", remains my favorite because the young character flees from every battle, and it is only through luck and chicanery that he rises to his fame. Never fear; Flashman still lies to save his hide and jumps on every woman he can get, but I finished "The Mountain of Light" feeling that Flashy had done a pretty good service--which he will tell you in the book. Maybe this is due to Fraser. While the book is the 4th chronologically, it's Fraser's 10th book about his alter ego. Having known the character for so long, maybe Flashman's done a little growing up.

In George MacDonald Fraser's 'Flashman and the Mountain of Light', our man Flashy sees Queen Vicky holding the Koh-I-Noor diamond and flashes back to India - more precisely, the Punjab where he arrives just in time for the first Anglo Sikh War (1845-46), not to suggest that Flashman had a hand in the war or anything.

The reader meets some of the most colorful figures ever to occupy the historical stage - as Flashman says "there were some damned odd fellows about in the earlies" - many of whom have just about slipped into the obscuring mists of time before Frasser rescued them. There's the White Mughal Alexander Haughton Campbell Gardner, the Queen Mother Maharani Jeendan (ohh, what a mother!), British 'agent' George Broadfoot and more. Flashman even meets up with a couple of fellows who are bigger cowards than he - Lal Singh and Tej Singh.

Fraser also takes the reader through the war in some detail, especially the battles at Ferozeshah and Sobraon. If anything the battle scenes last too long, but that will be a matter of taste for the individual reader.

Along the way, Harry engages in some rather disturbing behavior, which other reviewers have suggested indicate a degree of bravery heretofore undetected. Bosh! While Flashy isn't always the quivering mass of jelly we have come to expect, any actions suggestive of courage are simply acts of self-preservation. And anyway, Flashy gets his just reward for such behavior in the end.

Highest Flashman recommendation.

The Flashman series, for those not familiar with it, features a thoroughly despicable, cowardly, womanizing rogue who blunders through history, managing to be present at most of the significant events of the Nineteenth Century. Fraser's historical research is detailed and complete and he manages to teach history in a very entertaining manner. "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down." The research that goes into these books is formidable. Flashman manages to participate in the Charge of the Light Brigade, the Sikh Uprising, England's invasion of Afghanistan, John Brown's taking of Harpers Ferry, Custer's Last Stand, etc. While I have not read all of the books in the series, my conclusion, to date, is that Fraser is much better at presenting British History than he is at presenting American History. Perhaps it is my being less familiar with British History, as an American, although I was an History major in college and did study Indian History. The characters seem more colorful, the plots more complicated, the intrigues more convoluted. My intent is to read the rest of the Flashman series by reading the non-American books first.

After reading Royal Flash and Flashman's Lady, I was beginning to think that I as over Flashy, as those books didnt move me in quite the same way the Flashman Papers and the Dragon did.

However, this tale of debauchery and adventure redeemed good ole Flashy in my eyes. Actually, I have been beginning to suspect that Flashy isnt as big a coward as he plays himself to be. His aim appears steady and his sword arm sure when ever he is in a pinch.

The only draw back is that if you are not careful to remember the meanings of all the native lingo, you'll bound to get lost.

Neither has historical fiction. Harry Flashman is both. By now you are probably joining me in wishing Harry Flashman was here today. I'd vote for him to President.

MacDonald Fraser excels at evolking the atmosphere of India at the time of the Raj. 'Flashman and the Mountain of Light' is Flashy at his best (or worst!) and the goings-on in the court of Lahore have to be read to be believed.
More mature writing and the setting of the North-West Frontier make this even better than 'Flashman' and 'Flashman in the Great Game'.
For the literati this book's theme is the corrupting influence of power and the difference between heros and villains. For the rest of us, Flashy gives us a good laugh.

Sadly, I don't know that much about the British Empire's interests in India, so the characters that paraded through this book I don't know anything about. But having read this, my introduction to the Flasman Papers, I'm sure as hell going to find out all I can about that period in colonial history. I devour history novels with as much voraciousness as Flasman devours female conquests and I'll certainly be reading the other installments in thsi magnificent series.

one of the many wonderful things about the Flashman series is the voice of the aged flashman looking back on the (mis)deeds of the young flashman. The aged Flashman shows up rather too much in the more recent books, but in this one, he is in fine form. The opening chapter of this book is a treasure, and made me go dig out my photos from my visit to London to see if I had seen the mountain of light when I glanced rather boredly at the crown jewels years ago. Suddenly the history of all that looted treasure in those stuffy british museums was alive! Worth reading for this chapter alone, but without it, still a treasure.

In the fourth installment of the Flashman papers, our intrepid hero is in India, helping the Empire expand into the Punjab. And yes, there are instances where Flashman does seem to demonstrate a little spine - but perhaps this is more a result of his working along side equally manipulative and underhanded schemers that Flash looks downright heroic in comparison.

As Flashman fans would expect, the history behind the story is meticulously documented. The tale is set a few years before the crown assumes control of the sub-continent from the East India Company, as India makes is greatest (but ultimately failed) attempt to drive the English out of the region by force. The history alone makes a fascinating read. With the addition of Harry Flashman's escapades to "liven up" the byzantine plotting of real -life theives, turncoats, cowards and liars you have the best Flashman book to date.

In this latest instalment of the saga, Flashman finds himself mixed up much more closely than he would like in the First Sikh War of 1845. Duck and dive though he will, his unconscious instinct for being in the wrong place at the wrong time never deserts him, and he gets into any number of scrapes, twice escaping from the Sikh's capital at Lahore, once breaking back in under disguise, and having to show his face at two of the bloodiest battles the British ever fought in India.

There is a great deal of action of all kinds going on, and a fair amount of machination is required to get Flashman, funking and whining as usual, at the centre of each scene, whether military or romantic. With his usual mix of bluster, robust charm, luck and deviousness, he obtains his usual dollop of credit from the adventure, plus a flesh wound to impress doubters. Not quite at the top of his form in this frenetic pot-boiler, Flashman still guarantees a thoroughly good read from both the historical and the entertainment perspectives.