Harry Flashman se encuentra nuevamente en el sitio menos deseado, en el momento menos oportuno, pero nuevamente logra salir vivo, razonablemente bien parado y un un buen par de polvos por el camino. El mayor truhán del Imperio Británico hace de las suyas en Estados Unidos en los años anteriores a la Guerra Civil, y ayuda a que se prenda la mecha...

Standard Flashman fare, perhaps getting a bit tired. sentimental portrait of Brown, but we only meet him til well past half the book. Welcome return of Spring - now located in South Africa- and a very rich landowner. He (Spring) uses his agreeable daughter to lure Flashy in and crush him in retaliation for the New Orleans adventure. Some nice rolls in the hay, but at this point, there isn't much novelty left. ( )

By the time of this, the tenth Flashman book, I'd have thought there'd be nothing further that this series could do to surprise me. And, in a way, I'd have been right: Flashman and the Angel of the Lord is a classic Flashman adventure. However, I still experienced surprise; not at the book, but at the apparent general consensus among reviewers on this and other websites that Angel of the Lord was a poor addition to the series.

I was a bit wary about this one, given all the naysaying about it, but it was bloody fantastic as usual. What do people want? Rip-roaring adventure? (Antebellum USA: check.) Fantastically-drawn characters? (Joe, Annette, the welcome return of John Charity Spring: check.) Well-realised real historical figures? (John Brown, Allan Pinkerton, even Abe Lincoln: check.) Luscious ladies and all sorts of bedroom-based depravities? (Miranda, Annette, Hannah: check.) Shameless poltroonery from our beloved Flashy? (On page 328, he reminds us he has no more of the milk of human kindness than you'd put in a cup of tea." So check.) Well-researched historical fiction (erm, antebellum USA again, and one of the most legendary raids in history: Harper's Ferry. That's a check.) A deliriously funny romp? (is there anything more humorous than Flashman indignantly squirming under the yoke of not one, not two, but three different factions?) You get the picture. It's not the best of the Flashman series, but then again, that is a very high bar. Damn your eyes, if you don't enjoy this then just what have you been doing for the last nine books?

(And I can't get the song 'Glory, Glory, Hallelujah' out of my head. It took me a moment to recall the tune from the basis of the lyrics given to us by Flashman (and his adorable great-grandchildren), and then all but smacked myself for not recognising it sooner. Not only did it later morph into 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic', but a rousing adaptation of it was given by the paratroopers in the best TV mini-series of all time, Band of Brothers ("Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die/And he ain't gonna jump no more!"), and it is a well-known chant of my hometown football club, where it is known as 'Glory, Glory, Man United'.)

"What the deuce was I, Harry Flashman, V.C., and soon to be knighted by Her Majesty, en route from India to England, doing toting a tittering whore down a reeking lane in America's capital city? Well, the wind bloweth where it listeth, you see, and if it carries you up several flights of back stairs, along corridors where the air has been replaced by cigar smoke and the carpet fairly squelches with tobacco juice, and at last into a dimly lit salon whose ornate gilt-and-plush décor would do credit to a Damascus brothel, why, you must make the best of it and get her stripped and on the bed before your luck changes." (pp109-10)" ( )

If you have been keeping track, the Flashman papers are now in the years 1858 to 1859. Flashman is thirty six years old and back in America where old enemies remember him and new enemies are out to blackmail him. He's not back by choice, though. Someone from his past had an old score to settle. So here's Harry, knee deep in the conflicts of slavery...again. This time he's working with "the angel of the Lord," John Brown of Harper's Ferry fame. Yes, THAT John Brown.
Interestingly enough, Fraser decided to scale back the sex scenes for this particular installment. In addition to not having many opportunities to shag the lady next door, Flashman appears to be growing up some. To some he doesn't appear to be as cowardly or as shallow...He still tries to get out of getting out of the October 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry but as usual, is unsuccessful. ( )

I've never brought this up before, but do you realize there's a similarity between Fraser's Flashman, and Terry Pratchett's Rincewind the Wizzard?
Well, maybe you have to be there, and maybe I've got to stop reviewing these two authors one after the other? Flashman comes face to face with the famous American Abolitionist, John Brown. I was surprised to discover that Brown was in reality a very conscious martyr for the Cause! Ah, the media were a poison even in the run-up to the Civil War. It's a good Flashman story. ( )