We import first-rate saltpetre from India and the French are forced to scrape it from the walls of cesspits, poor devils. I would have preferred if Sharpe had allowed her a greater role instead of going against her suggestions, all too often, and giving her short answers. Wading waist-deep in shit to scrape mineral deposits off the walls, Still, they are French, so they possibly don't notice. But the journey inevitably leads him towards a fateful showdown, as General Wellesley prepares to command his first field battle, a daring and desperate conflict that will leave a bloody mark on the pages of history itself and change Sharpe’s destiny forever.

There were no atmospheric descriptions of landscapes or backdrops or people, just very tell-tell-tell sequences and scenes. Like most of the books in the series, there is not a lot of character development, the author relies most on action to tell the story. He named his chief protagonist Richard Sharpe, a rifleman involved in most major battles of the Peninsular War. And we all knew he was a villain from the first page he's mentioned how that backstory was going to end.S. Forester, chronicling the adventures of fictional British naval officer Horatio Hornblower during the Napoleonic Wars, and was surprised to find there were no such novels following Lord Wellington's campaign on land.

After publishing eight books in his ongoing Sharpe series, Cornwell was approached by a production company interested in adapting them for television. It's one of the breezier Sharpe books at 300 pages, and I enjoyed the laser focus on a single clear mission with a fun fictional French-sympathizing Spanish villain getting in Sharpe's way as he's trying to fulfill his reconnoissance task ahead of the attack.Douglas Smith was born in New York City and attended the Rhode Island School of Design, earning his BFA in Illustration in 1974, having also studied sculpture, painting and printmaking. SHARPE’S COMMAND is the brand new novel in the bestselling historical series that has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. this is indicative of the entire novel- interactions and scenarios that are literally repeated multiple times, even among the action pieces, like Daniel Hagman asking if he can but a ball in someone's head.