This book was recommended to me by a friend with excellent taste, so I started reading it the moment I could. I think giving a detailed summary of the book is really unneccesary, since several others have already done that and I'm not Wikipedia in any case, so I'll just give the things I liked and disliked about it (and isn't that what reviews are for anyways?).

I was a little baffled by the beginning of the book, which had a generic play-by-play style, but quickly moved into a broader, more general tale of events. It flip-flops back and forth for a while, eventually settling into a fairly basic description of Adam's travels, occasionally mentioning an event in detail. This style, while fairly typical of war stories, can be confusing for those who aren't used it.

The plot, as well, can get tedious at times, with most of the action consisting of walking without adequate clothing or food. Interestingly, no actual combat is described, with Adam's scant time on the battle scenes primarily spent scavanging trousers from unlucky soldiers. That, as well as some other parts coming together to form the heavy anti-war message, can get a little 'anvilicious'. Fortunately, the book had a saving grace: the 'friendship' between Adam and his lieutenant, nobleman Konrad Klara. (I say 'friendship' because I'm pretty convinced they had gone quite a bit further than being friends.) Watching their suprisingly sweet relationship develop was definitely the most enjoyable part of this book for me.

In the end, An Innocent Soldier is a very good book, but rather than reading for the almost overdone message of pacifism, one would be better served in reading, as I did, for the excellent semi-romantic friendship of Adam and Konrad Klara.