Thursday, May 29, 2014

The Young Lions by Tony Maxwell

Product DetailsI was given a free copy of this book for an honest review. The Young Lions is a well researched book about the Boer War. Robert is a young Canadian who ends up in Africa to pursue diamond mining and other opportunities. He ends up  fighting for the Boers among whom he's made his home against the English.
There were many interesting descriptions of the country and cities as well as the battles that took place in the war. It seemed very realistic to me and I enjoyed the story and the characters met along the way including a young Winston Churchill.
I rated it three stars is for two reasons: the endless descriptions of guns and ammunition. This is a long book and at least one-third of it had to do with armaments. A little bit adds to the historical flavor of the era, but this excess seemed a bit Freudian, especially when I get to my other reason. It is not realistic that about every 10-15 pages Robert has a sexual encounter with women who fall madly in love with him. This starts with his aunt (with the consent of her husband) through pretty much any other woman he meets. I applaud Louisa who never succumbs although she wanted to. It was as if the author felt that he needed these gratuitous sex scenes to hold the readers interest. He was capable of doing that with just his writing so these were just unnecessary interruptions to the flow.
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