Customer Reviews

Warrior (Matthew Hervey 10)

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If you enjoy the Aubrey/Maturin books of Patrick O'Brian, you will love these land-locked books by Allan Mallinson. Mallinson does for the British cavalry what O'Brian did for the navy. He makes you care about the characters so much that you'll have tears in your eyes when they hurt or fail. And along with way he teaches you about tactics, discipline, horses, and geography -- in such a way as you enjoy the learning. What sets the Hervey series out from the crowd is that his FIRST book (A Close Run Thing) contains the battle of Waterloo. From there the subsequent novels take you through what have been called "Queen Victoria's Little Wars" with engagements in Ireland, Canada, India, South Africa and more. This is a time of restricted opportunity in a reduced military, and trying to stay on active service, support a family, and find advancement by merit in a world where it is purchased provide for realistic characters and situations. Oh, and did I mention that the battle scenes are authentic and excitingly written? Read these books in order, though, because just like O'Brian, the books pick up literally where the last one left off.

I've read - in order - all of the previous installments in the Matthew Hervey series. This is a worthy addition in all respects. It's natural to view Hervey's inneptness with civilian life - much like Jack Aubrey's on land verses sea - as a continual source of frustration. For he does seem destined for compromise and disharmony in his second marriage.

For those unfamiliar with this historical British cavalry series (1815 - 1830), a more apt novel and writing comparison would be Patrick Obrian's Maturin-Aubrey series verses Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe. The characters, their pattern of dialogue, and Mallinson's writing style are more authentic to the historical time period. While I enjoyed the Sharpe series tremendously, my mild criticism in comparison of the two, is that Cornwell's are more 'americanized' or 'mainstream' in nature, verse a work of literature.

I won't spoil this installment review by revealing the storyline. But I will encourage past readers to persevere, and new readers to start from the beginnning with the first installment at Waterloo.

Looking forward to Mallinson's next installment in two years time.

This is the 10th book in a series. I have read all 10 in sequence. It is clear the author understands a great deal about cavalry having served as a cavalry officer in recent times. It has a definite "English" flavor, which is good...since it is about England's experiences post Waterloo around the globe. If you read all 10 books you will get a feel for the various political and military activities that England engaged in during this period besides getting an appreciation of the British military tradition and the characters that comprised it.

For those who still feel a loss over the end of Patrick O.Brien's Aubrey series, Alan Mallinson's chronicle of the life and adventures of Mathew Harvey of the Light Calvary is a gift. The series starts with Hervey's adventures in the pre-Warterloo Peninsula campaign and takes Harvey through Warterloo, Canada, India, back to the Peninsula and in the latest installments, the Zulu wars of the Cape Colony. Harvey himself is neither an Aubrey nor a Flashman. Rather Mallinson creates in Harvey a completely believable, complex and conflicted individual; a man with the highest qualities of empathy and heroism who can still manage to abandon his daughter to surrogate care for 7 years while he pursues military adventures in the interest of career advancement. Around Harvey are an equally compelling group of friends, lovers, rivals, fellow soldiers and horses. All of this is conveyed with an addictive mix of early 19th century military lore, equestrian arts and English history. I highly recommend this series. The latest installment, Warrior is one of the best.

There is a lot of proto-Jane Austen here: the first half of the book, more or less, is set in England with Hervey now (apparently unhappily) married and attending to various domestic matters. The problem is, that outside of being a Regimental officer, Hervey is not terribly likeable, and as it turns out, neither is his wife, his sister, and his former lover. Poor actually likeable Captain Peto is nowhere to be seen, and similarly likeable Fairbrother also has no time in the sun here in the English half of the book.

As usual, the story picks up once in South Africa, with a few cameos from Sir Harry Smith and his wife (who gave her name to the SA town "Ladysmith"), and Shaka. For all he is set up the focus of conflict, his role is merely a brief wordless appearance before being murdered, with Zulu rebels then becoming Hervey's antogonists, in a battle that is reasonably well done. There is also a fairly pointless digression into the point of view of Johnson, Hervey's long-serving batman, which is written in dialect and serves for no purpose other than to diminish possible suspense, and could have been briefly told in later conversation in a fraction of the time. I guess Mallinson is exploring non-conventional writing techniques and a dislike of being bound by strict chronology, but - I think - does not quite have the ability to pull it off.

Still, the book is easy to read and an informative look at the past: if its not as much fun to learn history as Flashman was, well that's a high bar to pass in any event. The book does end unexpectedly - there are a few twists you don't see coming: or rather, what you thought was about to happen does not - and book 11 should be Hervey's professional crowning glory, if the end of 10 is anything to go by.