I discovered that you can browse the collection of books at the Gutenberg Project by categories. I started with adventure, and downloaded four books out of the first 300 I came across. There were a fair number of books in those 300 that I had either read or had come across before. I chose new ones that looked promising. So how did that promise play out in the first two books I tried?My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.
Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.
The Car of Destiny by C N Williamson & A M Williamson DNF 6%
I know that I had read a book by this husband and wife writing team years ago. They wrote mystery and adventure stories usually centered around cars, which was C N's specialty. A M wrote many other novels on her own as well.
A poor-ish, i.e. wealthy, but not wealthy enough, soldier of fortune who is the son of a Spanish noble who fought on the wrong side in some sort of Spanish dispute, and thus is a person non-grata in Spain, instantly falls in love with a companion of an English princess who is marrying a Spanish prince... or something like that. And she instantly falls in love with him as well. But how can their love flourish when he dares not reveal his true identity? Plus, he's so "poor" as well? I'll never know, as the story seemed so improbable and so melodramatic that I simply couldn't take it at all seriously. I moved on.
One of the Six Hundred by James Grant C+
Wouldn't you just know, this book starts out with the same premise of the last one, save that our hero, the narrator has met the girl of his dream, Lady Louisa Luftus, a number of times before he meets her again at he Uncle's estate in Scotland. There, on a month's leave from his Lancer Regiment, he and his rival, a fellow officer and a rich cad, vie for the love of the daughter of an earl whose wife aims to marry her daughter off to an old rich man.
This story is set just prior to the Crimean War, i.e. 1853. The first third of this book concerns itself with our hero's courting of the beautiful Lady Louisa Luftus, who is one of a large party staying at his Uncle's house. Our hero is blind to the love of his sweet cousin Cora. It seems to have been a popular trope, and for all I know, still is.
If the first third is about our hero's romance, the second third recounts his experiences after leaving England, his regiment having been sent east to fight the Russians in the Crimean War. Over the summer months they camp in Bulgaria, ill supplied, ill housed, ill and inflectionally led, doing nothing but dying of cholera and dysentery. During this time he makes some friends, sees a bit of the generally squalid sights, and almost dies of cholera himself.
In the final third of the book, they are landed on the Crimean Peninsula, and begin to fight the Russians. I read the corresponding pages of this operation in George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman at the Charge, so that I would have somewhat cynical, but historically accurate picture of the events of this campaign to compare Grant's account to. In general, Grant did not glorify the battle; he faithfully describes all the carnage and horror of the battle and the aftermath; the wounded and dying left without waxing about the glory of the English victories. But besides criticizing the red tape that kept the army ill supplied, he does not comment directly on how poorly the champaign was run from on high, save to say that there was a lot of discontent within the ranks over spending those useless months dying of cholera. Anyways, in this section our hero is captured by the Russians, escapes, only be able to ride in the famous/infamous Charge of the Light Brigade; the six hundred, of the title, who rode down the valley of death in a charge that was misdirected to the wrong gun emplacements, a charge that resulted in over 50% casualties. He makes no mention of the unclear orders and mistakes that led to this foolhardy adventure. Wounded, he is returned home weak but whole to slowly recover, unlike many of his comrades.
Over long, and long winded, with the romance too melodramatic for my taste, but still, I have to give him credit; he does take the reader to many colorful and/or squalid places with his story, to a place that 170 some years later, they're still fighting over.
James Grant was a prolific author of both historical tales of famous Scottish historical figures and more popular novels such as this one. This one was written in 1875, and is a rather curious book. It is written in first person, but has sections that are set in a different locale and those parts are in third person. In addition there are at least three short stories - several chapters worth - which are unrelated to the main story included as well. These stories are told by characters in the story from their past experiences, or just stories they have heard. And brother, does he like to describe just about everything. There are pages worth of descriptions of everything from thoughts to people, to the landscape, not to mention the horrors of war. He spends many pages doing just that.
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