Sharpe’s Command: The latest thrilling adventure from the best-selling master of historical fiction, the perfect gift for Christmas 2023
£10.50£20.90 (-50%)
*Special collector’s edition with foiled signature on the board, exclusive to the first print run*
SHARPE IS BACK.
The brand new novel from Bernard Cornwell in the global bestselling Sharpe series.
If any man can do the impossible it’s Richard Sharpe . . .
And the impossible is exactly what the formidable Major Sharpe is asked to do when he’s dispatched on an undercover mission behind enemy lines, deep in the Spanish countryside.
For a remote village is about to become the centre of a battle for the future of Europe. Sitting high above the Almaraz bridge, it is the last link between two French armies, one in the north and one in the south; if they meet, the British are doomed.
Only Sharpe’s small group of men – with their cunning and courage to rely on – stand in their way. But they’re rapidly outnumbered, enemies are hiding in plain sight, and time is running out . . .
SHARPE’S COMMAND is the brand new novel in the bestselling historical series that has sold over 20 million copies worldwide.
__________________________________________
READERS LOVE SHARPE’S COMMAND:
‘Bernard is a great storyteller and historian’ – reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘Once again this is a page turner. Loved it!’ – reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘What a fantastic book . . . another great adventure for Richard Sharpe’ – reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘Sharpe alongside Patrick, Teresa and Hogan up to their necks in French men and Spanish treachery’ – reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘Sharpe is back, bashing Napoleon’s lot in the mountains of Spain . . . classic Sharpe!’ – reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bernard Cornwell’s book ‘Uhtred’s Feast’ was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 22-05-2023.
Read more
Additional information
| Publisher | HarperCollins (10 Oct. 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 320 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0008496773 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0008496777 |
| Dimensions | 15.9 x 3.3 x 24 cm |
by Mick H
Enjoyed the book very much. Cornwell certainly does his research very intricately and weaves a fictional story into historical events.
by mike A.
I am very pleased that the author has decided to resurrect the Sharpe novels. One of my all time favourite book series (only second to James Bond) I love these books. Another great read.
by Nick Brett
May 1812 and the Peninsula War on the border between Portugal and Spain. A bridge at Almaraz is a key link between two French armies and destroying it will be a key factor to enable British success. Sharpe and his band of loyal and cunning riflemen are sent on reconnaissance but of course end up playing a key role in the conflict to come.
Odd this. The author surprisingly gets a bit wrong on his own Sharpe chronology, including his rank and various characters, how much this will irk you will depend on how immersed you are in the journey of Sharpe and his timelines.
But is it a short, fun and easy read. Not much character conflict and a very comfortable relationship between Sharpe and his men. No great bad guys or major twists but it is always nice to have more Sharpe, even if the author is slightly off his game with this one.
by Elena
As usual, great book! Good quality. Well written. No need more words. I always buying his books to my Son. A great gift and he is truly happy. Great writer.
by Ian Titler
Good story and well written, great start, then usual bunch of rogues sent on a reconnaissance mission, manage, with a Partisan Leader who is not what he says, to take on impossible odds.
Couple of glaring errors, Sharpe should not be a Major at the time, and a main character killed in the book where he was promoted Major is alive and well again. Still enjoyed the book, just spoilt a little by those errors.
by Tim the Grey
A nice gentle romp through history. If you’re not French. Cornwell has been the best at this stuff for half my life.
by Kyle Barron
It’s clear to me that either Cornwell or his publisher no longer really care about Sharpe, because neither appear to have a continuity checker.
Granted, this is the first Peninsular War adventure we’ve had since 2006, so mistakes on Cornwell’s part are bound to happen. This book was delayed a year due to Cornwell falling quite seriously unwell, and I wonder whether that might have played a part in some of the silly mistakes, but it’s simply unforgivable on Harper Collins’ part to not check for the most basic of errors here.
For one, Sharpe shouldn’t be a Major yet, but he is. That’s a huge one. He wouldn’t be made a Major for – I believe – at least another book or two.
Tom Garrard – a character that died in the previous book in the continuity – now finds himself no longer an officer, no longer in the same regiment, and somehow no longer with the same country’s army… and he’s alive, again, despite having died in the previous book! He’s also got a different spelling here, where he used to be “Garrard”, he’s now “Gerrard”, which initially led me to believe he was a different person, but no. If there’s a Tom Garrard and a Tom Gerrard who Sharpe’s known since he was a Private, then that’s a hell of a coincidence, and an odd choice on Cornwell’s part.
There are smaller things like Theresa not having a rifle and asking for one, yet she should have one by this point. Like Sharpe having had his rifle for longer than it had already been established he’d had it for, and so on.
But my biggest gripe is what I would deem the “Beanification” of Sharpe himself. Sharpe in the books is not, and has never been, Sean Bean. No matter how hard Cornwell might like to retcon things like his accent, Sharpe is established in the books as a tall, dark, wiry Londoner, not a thick-set, vertically-challenged Yorkshireman. But in this book, for example, we are introduced to a character called Lieutenant Love who is described as being, “at least a foot taller than Sharpe”. Now, Sharpe has always been described as 6ft tall. Are we to believe this Lieutenant Love is 7ft tall? No. It’s just that book-Sharpe is now Sean Bean, 5’8 or something. I don’t like this.
It goes further I think. This book at times feels like a novelisation of the TV adaptation and it leaves a lot to be desired. The TV show always liked to put emphasis on Sharpe and his riflemen, but in the books, they were always a backdrop to the greater South Essex regiment, and the machinations of Wellington’s army in Spain. The South Essex do not feature, and we just get Sharpe and 13 riflemen. A lot of the dialogue and overall story feels a lot like an episode of the TV show as a result. And I’m not really a fan of the show and always preferred the tone that the books carried.
I think it gets better by the end. The final storming of the fort shows again why Bernard Cornwell is unparalleled in his ability to write compelling and masterfully crafted action. It was nice to see Theresa again too – she even gets a cool fight at the end.
But overall, it feels a bit like a ‘nothing’ entry to the series. I don’t feel like the Sharpe mythos was enriched at all, and when you couple that with the egregious continuity errors, and needless and jarring retcons to established characters, I think this one will be left out of most peoples’ rereads.
by The Magician’s Apprentice
Set in a confined space with plenty of targets to attack. The only usual character missing was Wellington – but we get Daddy Hill. It was great to catch up with Sharpe’s wife Theresa for the first time in 30 years. I hope we get more from this period.
It was hard to read with out thinking of Sean Bean being the character. I can’t praise it higher than that.