Customer Reviews

Fields of Death (Revolution 4)

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

 

 

This is the final installment of Simon Scarrow's excellent series following the lives of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington. It covers Napoleon's campaigns from 1809 as he battles the Austrians and Wellington's advance into Spain until they finally meet at the climactic battle of Waterloo. Simon Scarrow"s interest in history was apparently sparked by, among others, the novels of Bernard Cornwell. I can think of no higher praise than to say that in this series he has successfully rivalled his mentor.

The characters are well fleshed out as is their interaction with the men of their armies. The battle scenes are written with an attention to detail which adds to the interest without causing the pace to lag.

The Napoleonic wars have been the subject of many books, but Scarrow still manages to add to our understanding of the later campaigns. I recommend this book to all with any interest in the period or those who simply enjoy a spanking good read.

Enjoy the read!

Known for Ancient Roman Fiction, this fourth volume completes Scarrow's incredibly comprehensive look at Napoleon and Wellington. The detail (fact AND fiction) is profound, the dialogue period specific and dynamic bringing forth wonderful portraits of both major characters. Four volumes, 2000 plus pages and not a wasteful page anywhere.

Over all these four volumes are outstanding historical reading, it took me about 6 weeks to work my way thru them, but I enjoyed them immensely. Perhaps the battle of Waterloo is not given enough space or credit. It was the finale for Napoleon's reign and the start of his road to final exile and the battle should have been more detailed. Otherwise its a very informative history lesson. My final impression of Bonaparte is that he, in some ways was a military genius, but he also trusted his intuition more than solid intelligence reports. The warfare of that era placed very little value on human life, marching them in tight formations to within 30 paces of the enemy, stand and fire and absorb the enemies fire. When informed that a battle cost him 10,000 men in one day, Napoleon just shrugs, utters "bon" and that's it. That what brought to mind Hitlers reaction to the disaster at Stalingrad when informed of the fate of the 6th army, he just replied "set up another army". When Napoleon was informed that there were only winter coats for 20,000 of his 90,000 men he replied:
" requisition some more, don't bother me with these details". The same attitude that Hitler displayed when informed his troops had only their summer uniforms.
I can highly recommend these four books.
Koelschwolf

This has plenty of battle action. The contrast between the military styles of Wellington and Napoleon is well developed. Wellington is close to his troops and understanding of their problems and what motivates them. Napoleon is intoxicated with his past glories and more removed from his soldiers. Waterloo shows the result. The book is a 5 star end to the series.

This is not the best book of the series. The series began with a good and neutral equilibrium and parallelism between Wellington and Napoleon. This final book is not equilibrated - there is a strong bias towards Wellington denoting, I think, the nationality of the author. Napoleon is considered, particularly in this book, a tyrant or an evil person that intends to oppress Europe. On the other hand, Wellington is depicted as a just general with no major defects.
Battle scenes are not well explored and are very superficial. But I liked to read the Peninsular war descriptions - best part of the book, in my opinion.
In conclusion, if you like this period, I still advise to buy this book it although there are much better ones on this subject.
.

What a great journey this series has been. I could not put down the final book (The Fields of Death - Revolution 4) and read it again immediately. Congratulations to Simon Scarrow and team for a wonderful series and for maintaining the standard and gripping pace through to the last page.

This is an okay book on an historical topic. Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. I have read others, that put more feeling into the subject. The book was not one of Scarrow's best. It was a bland book. The battle scenes were cut and dried, there was no "smell of powder" in the acts. Napoleon was a creature of paper not one of flesh and blood. I have read better.