I thought the opening 100 pages or so of this were very slow and I came close to giving it up. I'd heard that Cornwell had a lot of battle scenes and action in his books but that first 100 pages had one very very short battle and very little action. I also didn't start out liking the character of Sharpe very much, and I hated the dialogue that Cornwell put in the mouth of the villainous seargent Hakeswill. I think that irritated me more than anything else.

However, past 130 pages or so, Sharpe got away from Hakeswill and we begin to get more exotic information about India. The action ratcheted up and by the end I was glad I'd kept going. I was extremely disappointed to find that Hakeswill survived and is apparently in the next two books in the Sharpe in India series. I'm going to try something else by Cornwell before I venture into any more of the India books.

Overall, I'm glad I kept with it.