So far, this is one of the good ones, much better than the book that came before it in this series, Les Blancs et les Bleus. I'm particularly interested in Napoleon, so that's an added incentive to stick with it.
*******
well, just finished it (finally) and really thought this book would never end. It's interesting but it's very repetitive; the heroes keep having the same battles and adventures over and over again. It feels like Dumas just loved this character so much (once he finally introduces him) that he just keeps on imagining one tale after another with St Hermine as the star.

St. Hermine doesn't even really appear until the middle of this (very long) book. He's sort of a cross between the Count of Monte Cristo and D'Artagnan but is absurdly perfect in every way that it makes you roll your eyes.

Napoleon is lively and interesting when he appears but mostly he disappears after the first few chapters. And Dumas spends a painful amount of pages giving boring details of minute battles during the Napoleonic wars. He does describe Trafalgar and makes it very human and interesting but he skips most of what Napoleon is up to and concentrates instead on detailing little skirmishes in the mountains between French soldiers and brigands from various countries.

So, if you really love Dumas, give it a try, there are parts of it that are very satisfying. But don't be surprised if, by the end, you can't wait for it to be over.