A Rare Occurence: I Buy Books

Back in the Olden Days, I averaged buying about seven books a week. But these days, most of my reading comes from the county library (as ebooks, audiobooks and real books), from review copies, and out of my storage units. My buying average has fallen to about seven books a year. 

But . . . my wife and I did a little road-tripping this week, and all these books were calling my name. You'll hear more about some of them here as the clock ticks on.

Forgotten Books: REBEL by Bernard Cornwell (1993)

No, this one (unfortunately) is not about Johnny Yuma, and is not to be confused with the even more unsatisfying book of almost the same name by Johnny Yuma's creator, Andrew Fenady.

Having recently finished Cornwell's amazing Richard Sharpe series, and having read most of his other books (and enjoyed the hell out of all of them), it seemed like a good time to dig into this four-book series starring Nathaniel Starbuck in the American Civil War. Actually, the timing was terrible.

We were getting ready to leave for our week in NYC, and I needed books on my iPad to help me survive the flights. Knowing that ebook versions of most of Cornwell's novels were available through our local libraries, I checked out and downloaded this one and Copperhead (the second in the series), and figured I was set. What I hadn't reckoned on was the American Airlines flight from Hell (Portland to Dallas) and flight from Hell and back (Dallas to New York). The seats were designed for midgets, the air circulation bad and the engine noise loud (no surprises there), but we were seated next to a side passage where rude flight attendants stood yakking incessantly (and at great volume to be heard above the engine noise) about their adventures in home remodeling. They used the same space to refill their metal push carts with pop cans, which they also did with great gusto. Leg 2 of the trip involved less yakking but far more banging.

I've suffered such misery before, of course, and that was the very reason I needed good books to keep me sane. And that's where Rebel enters our story. My first unpleasant surprise was that it was all depressingly familiar. I soon realized I had attempted to read this book before, and eventually gave it up in disgust. The problem is that the hero, Nate Starbuck is (or at least was) a world-class wienie.

Most Cornwell heroes are flawed in some manner, and most live a fish-out-of-water existence, but Starbuck is simply insufferable. The son of a famous firebreathing Northern preacher, Nate is a divinity student lured South and abandoned by an evil woman. Once there, he's too embarrassed to return home, so he decides to stick around and become a rebel. While doing so he mopes about, wallowing in guilt for committing various minor sins of thought or deed.

I might have borne that if there had been other admirable characters, but everyone else in the large cast was almost equally dislikeable. There's a rich guy funding a private Legion for his own glory, his spineless and venal brother-in-law, a son so distressed by the break-up of the Union that he can't bear to fight, a prospective son-in-law who despises his prospective bride and is only in it for the money, a Southerner turned Northern spy who is only in it for the money, and a beautiful but whorish girl who leads men around by their ding-dongs.

Needless to say, these fictional creeps aggravated rather than alleviated the yakking and banging of the real life creeps, and I quit the book halfway through. Normally when that happens I slam the book shut and chuck it against a wall, but as this on my iPad I was deprived even that small pleasure.

Time out. We were so busy in New York that there was no time to read, and by the time we started home I was able to check out the Kindle version of Silent Night, a Spenser novel completed by Parker's agent Helen Brann. It was a great read, and restored my faith in fiction.

Home again, I gave Rebel another chance, and after another chapter or two lamenting Starbuck's sins, Cornwell finally got down to business. The story had been leading up the battle of First Bull Run/Manassas, and once there the author couldn't help but shine. Eventually, Starbuck and two of the other wienies found their backbones, and one of the moneysuckers suffered a satisfying death. I have since peeked ahead at the first couple of chapters of Copperhead, and the improvements appear to be permanent. I'm hoping there will be no relapses.

Forgotten Books: SHARPE'S WATERLOO by Bernard Cornwell (1990)

It's been a long, bloody, and bloody marvelous journey following Richard Sharpe from Sharpe's Tiger in 1799 India to this butt-kicking battle sixteen years later at Waterloo, and I enjoyed every second of it. (I'm now reading Sharpe's Devil, sort of a postscript to the series, which takes place five years after Waterloo, and when that's finished I'll probably read all 21 books--and three short stories--over again.)

Having heard the name Waterloo just about forever, I was amazed to discover just how little I really knew. I had no idea, for instance, that it was a tiny unknown village in the Netherlands--an area that would eventually become Belgium.

Like all of Cornwell's novels, this one lays out the battle so well I felt like I was right there, fighting alongside Sharpe and his longtime sidekick Patrick Harper. Cornwell himself described the book as having almost no plot, because all he had to do was tell the story of the battle, dropping Sharpe into the mix for flavor. It's true that Sharpe has less to do here than usual, and he is at the mercy of events rather than vice versa, but Cornwell's storytelling is so good, and the battle so fascinating that it doesn't matter.

I see that Cornwell has a new book out, titled simply Waterloo, presenting his own nonfiction study of the battle. I'm looking forward to that. It'll be interesting to see how it compliments and differs from this novel, written 25 years ago.

More Forgotten Books at pattinase (I think).

Rebel: A rare misfire from Bernard Cornwell

For the past several years, Bernard Cornwell has been my second favorite author. Of the 50-odd books he’s written, I’ve read at least half, and thoroughly enjoyed them all . . . until I got to Rebel.

This isn’t really a bad book. Parts of it, particularly the 1st Mannassas/Bull Run battle scenes toward the end, are excellent. But I’ve been spoiled. Everything else I’ve read from Cornwell is so fine that this was a disappointment.

One problem in the protagonist. On Cornwell’s website, he says he stopped writing this Nathaniel Starbuck series after three books because it was too similar to his famous Sharpe series. So I expected Starbuck to be an American version of Sharpe. Far from it.

Sharpe is a hardbitten professional soldier who has risen through the ranks due to guts, determination and fighting knowhow. He knows how to handle men - and women. Nate Starbuck, on the other hand, is just a kid. He’s the son of a famous abolitionist preacher from Boston, a divinity student who has just begun to stray and feels endlessly guilty about it. His stupidity regarding women knows no bounds. Starbuck does some growing in this book, so he may be a better character in the next two. Or not. I'm in no hurry to find out.

This book’s other shortcoming is the shifting point of view. Most of Cornwell’s other books feature a single POV character in either first or third person. This one flits all over the place, sometimes in close third person, sometimes distant third, sometimes slipping into omniscient. Some of the POV characters are insignificant or uninteresting, while others, like Starbuck, are often annoying. I found myself fighting (and sometimes even succumbing to) the urge to skim.

Cornwell has hopes to someday continue Starbuck's adventures. I hope he doesn’t. He has too many great series going to waste time on a mediocre one.

Bottom Line: For great Civil War drama, Read James Reasoner’s Manassas instead.