Review by Booklist Review
In the sequel to Rebel: The Starbuck Chronicles, Volume 1 (HarperCollins, 1993), Cornwell seeks to create a new hero as popular as his Richard Sharpe (from the author's Napoleonic series). Nathaniel Starbuck is a Northerner, the son of a Boston minister who becomes caught up in the South at the start of the Civil War and joins the Rebel cause, captivated more by the challenge and peril of war than the righteousness of either side. New-forged loyalties entice him to stay with the rebels even after his life and his family ties are put at risk when he must act as a spy to save his best friend from charges of espionage. Nate is a beguiling hero and Cornwell's balance of battle, romance, and historic scenes are neatly paced in this novel set against the 1862 battle for Richmond. (Reviewed Jan. 1, 1994)0060177667Denise Perry Donavin
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In the second volume of the Starbuck Chronicles, Cornwell surpasses his wonderful series featuring a war-crazed 19th-century British officer ( Sharpe's Devil , etc.) and even mainstream thrillers like Crackdown . Many believable, three-dimensional characters, including such historical figures as Jefferson Davis and George McClellan, walk, run, gallop and sometimes stumble through the Union's 1862 campaign to capture Richmond. Captain Nate Starbuck, who escaped from a fire-and-brimstone Boston preacher of a father to fight for the Confederacy in Rebel (which will be simultaneously released in paperback), here finds himself mistakenly jailed as a Yankee spy. Freed and sent across the lines as a double agent, he eventually returns to an uncertain future with the Confederates. Although it features more non-battle machinations--mostly tangled family relationships--than the Sharpe series, this novel also captures the ``sheer joy'' of war: Starbuck is ``a soldier born to the dark trade.'' Cornwell masterfully depicts battle scenes and the dithering torpor of McClellan's campaign, but he also vividly portrays America's 19th-century religious fervor and Jefferson Davis's inaugural. Richard Sharpe's middle-aged son appears, as does a splendid villain aptly named de'Ath. This is a rollicking treat for Cornwell's many fans. $75,000 ad/promo. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Cornwell's fine Civil War Starbuck Chronicles (Rebel 1993, etc.) continues into 1862--as General McClellan ineffectively engineers the prototype of Desert Storm around Williamsburg, Virginia, and young Nate gets a girl. Why is it that it takes an Englishman to write the most entertaining American military historical novels? Who knows. But it's hard to imagine a more intriguing protagonist than Nate Starbuck, Cornwell's Boston divinity student turned Confederate officer who discovered how much he liked soldiering and how good he was at it in Rebel. He's still with Faulconer's legion, still marching alongside crusty Sergeant Truslow, still visiting Truslow's delectable daughter Sally at her Richmond bordello, and still reporting to clever schoolmaster-turned-colonel ``Pecker'' Bird. But Nate's simple soldiering has been made much more dangerous by the capture of his Yankee brother James and the related subversion of his friend and fellow rebel officer Adam Faulconer. Adam, whose rich father loathes and distrusts Nate, has been thinking too much about the Union viewpoint and it's turned his loyalties upside down. He's begun a campaign of espionage that will, if it succeeds, hand Union General George McClellan the key to the capture of Richmond. McClellan has amassed the mightiest American army ever seen to march up the lightly defended peninsula from Yorktown to the Confederate capital. Fortunately for the rebels, the general is the epitome of caution. Unfortunately for Nate, Adam's useless treachery is blamed on him and he's imprisoned by his own side. His release comes only after weeks of torture, but it's softened by the attentions of Adam's interesting fiancée, Miss Julia Gordon. Always based on fact, always interesting, often exciting, always entertaining.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
