The Reavers
by George MacDonald Fraser
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
lists with this book
Where's the love? Add this book to your favorite list.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 18)
bookshelves:
action-adventure
Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
no one
Huge disappointment. Bought this book because I love GMF's Flashman books and thought that this one would have the same humour and adventure. I was wrong.
GMF freely admits that this book "is nonsense" and is meant to be a rebuke "to a generation who has forgotten about fun". And his idea of fun, apparently, is to fill the book with anachronisms.
Anachronistic references are fine (Shakespeare did it and look where it got him) but when every other sentence has a ...more
GMF freely admits that this book "is nonsense" and is meant to be a rebuke "to a generation who has forgotten about fun". And his idea of fun, apparently, is to fill the book with anachronisms.
Anachronistic references are fine (Shakespeare did it and look where it got him) but when every other sentence has a ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
bookshelves:
currently-reading
Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
eh, no one
Maybe the Flashman books are better, but the Reaver I had to abandon as unreadable. I felt like I was reading the comics page with a large loud person reading over my shoulder, laughing at high volume and thumping my back-- with four arms. Really, if it's funny, i'll laugh on my own, thank you.
I was harshly disappointed because McDonald's chosen weapons of accidental anachronism and incorrect contemporary speech and dialect are the hidden gems of historical romances and are splittingly fun...more
I was harshly disappointed because McDonald's chosen weapons of accidental anachronism and incorrect contemporary speech and dialect are the hidden gems of historical romances and are splittingly fun...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2008
George Macdonald Fraser is one of those unbelievably prolific authors who make it look easy (and make me tired). I've treasured his Flashman books -- all 12 of them. If you want a painless way to bone up on your Victorian era history, Flashman is the funniest take on the Victorian period you'll ever find -- and all the history is punctiliously accurate.
Fraser just passed away, leaving The Reavers for his devoted fans as a gift from beyond.
Unfortunately, it's appalling. It's one of those...more
Fraser just passed away, leaving The Reavers for his devoted fans as a gift from beyond.
Unfortunately, it's appalling. It's one of those...more
Like this review?
yes
1 comments
Read in May, 2008
First---what a beautiful cover by John Hendrix. It drew me in despite sound warnings from a couple of friends.
Now, moving on from judging a book by its cover---
I seem to be in a spurt of reading books that don't know when to stop. This is another in that line; a novel that would have been excellent at 150 pages, or well done at 175 pages. Unfortunately, it's more than 250 pages, and the humor (and it IS humorous) gets recycled and stretched far past the breaking point.
If Fraser had...more
Now, moving on from judging a book by its cover---
I seem to be in a spurt of reading books that don't know when to stop. This is another in that line; a novel that would have been excellent at 150 pages, or well done at 175 pages. Unfortunately, it's more than 250 pages, and the humor (and it IS humorous) gets recycled and stretched far past the breaking point.
If Fraser had...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
bookshelves:
adult,
historicalfiction
Setting: the border between Scotland and England in the 16th century. Tone: complete silliness. It's like reading Monty Python, where the plot is merely a prop for more bizarre fun.
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in August, 2008
It actually gets 3.5 stars. I read this later in the evening after finishing "Hard Man" and found it quirky, funny, with an intelligence that only dead possess. I enjoyed it for those and for the abstractedness in which it was written. a smart man that Fraser he is.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
bookshelves:
lost-interest
I just have to read a book where the author starts of with "It's a dark and stormy night."
Or maybe not. Didn't even make through the first ten pages.
Or maybe not. Didn't even make through the first ten pages.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
bookshelves:
failures
Much as I loved the late lamented GMF, when I realized this was a reworking of Candlemass Road, I punted.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment



















