A terse, tense, straightforward account of the Battle of Waterloo (15-18 June, 1815), told from the perspective of five men, including Napoleon himself.

Iain Gale is to be commended - even without the sketches of battle plans at the start of each 'day', his approach is clear and personal, drawing the reader into individual and opposing corners of the battlefield. The defence of Hougoumont by McDonnell, who was named 'the bravest man in the British army' by Wellington; De Lancey assisting the Iron Duke himself; Napoleon and Marshal Ney matching the cunning and strategy of the Allied Army; and Ziethen of the Prussian army, who makes the right decision in the nick of time. Their respective chapters jostle for attention throughout, but together form a detailed history of a vicious and gory battle. And the sheer scale of the numbers involved - 50, 000 soldiers dead and wounded - is vividly described and almost inhumanly shocking. Men and horses are blown up, decapitated and disembowelled by cannonballs, run through, dismembered and maimed by bayonets and swords, and the lucky ones are shot dead. Gale pulls no punches with the violent truth of this historical battle.

The only quirk of this tale is the occasionally staccato pace of the writing, which is effective in places, and can sound like the clipped voice of a soldier - 'Biddle smiled. Barked the order, emphasizing and pronouning the last syllable. 'Bayonets' - but reads like an aversion to commas ('And then. Unthinkable. She pulled up.') After a while, the pace of the action carries the rhythm along, but the effect is jarring at first.

Although I am far from an expert on Waterloo, and Gale acknowledges that this is a novel and not a textbook, the characters are real and the victory of the Allied Army remains a brave and iconic event in history. Thrilling. ( )

I loved this. It is a novel, but written from the perspective from key figures in the battle of Waterloo. Essentially it describes the flow of the battle from these officers eyes and from that point of view it was a real education. The one dissapointment I suppose was that it only showed the battle from the view of officers - it would have been nice to have had the viewpoint of a footsoldier. ( )