Great fun ( )

First of all, if you've never heard of the Flashman Papers please investigate. This is my second favorite series of books to read while lazing in the sun (the first is Patrick O'Brian's). What I love about these books in general, and Royal Flash in particular is Fraser's stunning ability to push his disreputable hero forward with plot that feels like the best of any tent-pole movie franchise. Sword fights, torture, mistaken identity (here, ol' Flashy reboots Anthony Hope's Prisoner of Zenda), fist fights, historical figures (Otto Von Bismark and Lola Montez in this one), a castle siege during a coup d'etat... BOOZE, SEX, VIOLENCE YOU GET IT ALL.

I'm bewildered Hollywood hasn't snatched this series up already especially considering Hollywood is exactly where I discovered these novels. True story, I used to work at a high end cafe in Santa Monica where I was friendly with Graham McTavish (big guy in every action film you've ever seen, look him up. He's great!). Well one day he came in holding a dogeared copy of Flashman that looked like it had been read many times over and in fact it had. He introduced me to the Flashman papers and told me it was a series he read through frequently from beginning to end. Well I tried the first and came away a little put off by all the good natured rape but as soon as I figured out Harry Flashman is a character I do not have to like in order to enjoy I unlocked a series of novels that has given me so much pleasure because not only are they truly fantastic adventure stories but the writing is deceptively good. Fraser manages to erase himself almost entirely in plots so well constructed they allow you to root against the hero, laughing at his failures while thrilling in his successes (however accidental) as you barrel down a narrative slope through to a satisfying finish.

These are so fun and Royal Flash is among the best of them. ( )

First of all, if you've never heard of the Flashman Papers please investigate. This is my second favorite series of books to read while lazing in the sun (the first is Patrick O'Brian's). What I love about these books in general, and Royal Flash in particular is Fraser's stunning ability to push his disreputable hero forward with plot that feels like the best of any tent-pole movie franchise. Sword fights, torture, mistaken identity (here, ol' Flashy reboots Anthony Hope's Prisoner of Zenda), fist fights, historical figures (Otto Von Bismark and Lola Montez in this one), a castle siege during a coup d'etat... BOOZE, SEX, VIOLENCE YOU GET IT ALL.

I'm bewildered Hollywood hasn't snatched this series up already especially considering Hollywood is exactly where I discovered these novels. True story, I used to work at a high end cafe in Santa Monica where I was friendly with Graham McTavish (big guy in every action film you've ever seen, look him up. He's great!). Well one day he came in holding a dogeared copy of Flashman that looked like it had been read many times over and in fact it had. He introduced me to the Flashman papers and told me it was a series he read through frequently from beginning to end. Well I tried the first and came away a little put off by all the good natured rape but as soon as I figured out Harry Flashman is a character I do not have to like in order to enjoy I unlocked a series of novels that has given me so much pleasure because not only are they truly fantastic adventure stories but the writing is deceptively good. Fraser manages to erase himself almost entirely in plots so well constructed they allow you to root against the hero, laughing at his failures while thrilling in his successes (however accidental) as you barrel down a narrative slope through to a satisfying finish.

These are so fun and Royal Flash is among the best of them. ( )

We had moved here and this proved topical. It was a humid summer and the house was gradually coming together. I'd come home from work and then attend to some task, usually making quite the mess. I lack facility in such matters. I read a number of story collections that summer, I also read a Flashman. The novel's layered plot I found engaging, though not the execution thereof. Who can complain about a protagonist whose favorite verb is roger? Sure, the politics are incredibly reactionary and the pacing akin to genre norms. That said, I did buy a couple more more future diversion. ( )

A cracking good follow-up to the first Flashman, Royal Flash follows the magnificent bastard Harry Flashman in Germany. The plot is an homage to the classic adventure story The Prisoner of Zenda, but it isn't necessary to have read this before enjoying Flash - I hadn't. Flashman is impersonating a Danish prince whom apparently he is the spitting image of (as like as two tits", as Flash puts it on pg. 135). If you can get past this rather unlikely coincidence, you're in for a treat as George MacDonald Fraser serves up a book bursting with adventure and laughs in equal measure. Naturally, Flash uses his new regal position to bed every comely chambermaid within grabbing distance, as well as a rather tasty duchess, and make a play at nabbing the crown jewels (not a euphemism). He's also just as cowardly as before, and a damn liar: yet again, readers will gawp at his shamelessness. It is bloody fantastic. Everything that was great about the first Flashman also holds true here, even if Flash himself isn't as able to cut loose as freely as he was in his romps through wild Afghanistan. Rest assured, he's still provided with plenty of opportunities to prove to Germany that he's the jammiest, most cowardly thieving scoundrel who ever lived." ( )