Product Description

The first in a stunning new historical adventure series, perfect for all fans of Sharpe. Upper Bavaria, 1704. The British army, triumphant, fresh from victory, stands proudly to attention, ready to fight for honour and glory. Their enemy is Louis XIV of France, a megalomaniac intent on possessing all Europe. Among this proud group of men stands Lieutenant Jack Steel, admired by his men, the finest infantry in Queen Anne's army. Much praised for his courage, his strength, and his loyalty, Steel has come to the attention of his Commander in Chief, the Duke of Marlborough. Tasked with rescuing a letter whose controversial contents could destroy Marlborough, Steel leads his men through the battle of Blenheim, risking death and destruction in the fight for another man's honour. And along the way he is constantly threatened from within by the mellifluous Major Jennings, intent on destroying Steel and all he stands for. The first in a stunning new series featuring Jack Steel, Man of Honour is historical adventure perfect for all fans of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15463 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
Praise for Four Days in June: 'A powerful novel of men at war. A triumph' Bernard Cornwell 'A debut novel to treasure!brilliantly evoking the horrors and excitements of war' Publishing News 'A treat for every history buff, and a vivid picture of men at war' Scotland on Sunday 'Thoroughly researched' Financial Times

About the Author
Iain Gale has always had a passion for military history. He is the Editor of the National Trust for Scotland magazine and Art critic for Scotland on Sunday. He lives outside Edinburgh with his wife and children.

Customer Reviews

A new series - how will it shape up?
The similarities with Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe novels are obvious. Lt Jack Steel is an officer in the British army, involved in a musket-era European campaign against the French. The book has set-piece battles, adventure, intrigue, and some suitably dislikebale villains to try to hold our hero back in his path to glory.

Admittedly it's set a century before Sharpe, the multi-national allied army is led by the Duke of Marlborough, and the French are ruled by King Louis XIV, but the feel is very similar. It should be exciting, In historical terms Marlborough rivals Sharpe's commander Wellington for the title of Britain's greatest-ever general, and his campaigns were every bit as remarkable. Sadly, the book doesn't quite live up to the promise. There is a rather leaden quality about it and for all the historical detail provided the time doesn't quite come alive.

It is the first of a series, and may develop well, in which case we will have in Steel a character worthy to rank with Sharpe in the reader's affections. But it has a way to go yet. I shall probably give it the chance and read another in the series before deciding. At the moment the jury is out...

Not a bad start...
All in all, this isn't a bad little story. I found the characters and the general feel of it quite enjoyable, the plot, perhaps needs some work. I was surprised to find though that quite a few little nagging mistakes crept into the story i.e. (but please do not yet these put you off)

In one point Steel's Grenadiers; during the loading process, somehow prime their pans, without first having bitten into their cartridges. At that time, priming flasks were no longer worn by British soldiers. So this would be quite impossible.

Jack Steel introduces himself as 'James' Steel at one point in the story -not as part of the plot, his name is simply miss spelt.

The British Land Pattern musket The 'Brown Bess' makes an appearance in the story. The story is set in 1704. The Brown Bess was not designed and issued until the 1720s.

And I think they put to much emphasis on the grenades. In reality, if the things were lucky enough not to blow the user's hand off and actually reach the enemy before blowing up, they may take a foot off, maybe. But in the story they are able to obliterate entire battalions.

But, all that said, it is a novel, fiction. So one has to allow certain small evils in the pursuit of excitement. Despite the few mistakes (and it was a few) I picked up, I did enjoy the book and actually found myself picking it up to read because I wanted to, and not simply to get my money's worth out of something I bought.

Again, all in all, for the first in a series it is not bad and I will be reading the next. I am as guilty as the next for this but, I feel that people will enjoy this book ( and others like it) more if they go into it with an open mind, instead of instantly comparing it to Sharpe.

An adequate start but don't get excited
Let's be honest, many of us buy such historical novels in the hope that we'll meet an equal to Cornwall. We won't and sadly Man of Honour is another attempt to launch a 'Sharpe' like character. I'll be honest, I love miliatry history, historical fiction et al but this was very wooden. The language and characterisation are two dimensional and all rather obvious, I sense the reserach was limited as there's no smell of powder, no immersion into life in the field or sense of period about the narrative. It's all abit obvious sadly - buy if you've run out of anything better.