# I've read all the Flashman books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 19, 2009, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-read-all-the-flashman-books/486503 "2009-02-19T03:12:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-read-all-the-flashman-books/486503/21 "2009-02-20T13:47:01Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Now that we have the Internet, I was unable to find the picture of John Brown, Joe and Flashy. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-read-all-the-flashman-books/486503/22 "2009-02-20T14:58:05Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Whatever shall I do? George McDonald Frazier is dead, there will be no more! So true. Greatest history books ever. I’ve read every one and reread most of them two or three times. The footnotes turn great stories into truly great historical character studies. Three hoorahs for Frazier. He will be missed. I also recommend Fenwick Travers (by Raymond Saunders). There IS only one Flashy but Fenny is a fine version. He manages to make the turn of the century American adventures accessible. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-read-all-the-flashman-books/486503/23 "2009-02-20T15:00:09Z")
I read a lot of historical fiction, and I must say that Flashman makes me look up the real history even more studiously than usual. (“That can’t really be what happened!”) If you don’t mind some fantasy mixed with your historical fiction, Naomi Novik’s \*Temeraire \*series is surprisingly good. It’s Hornblower with dragons. There’s no magic really, just some improbably large and useful dragons worked into the historical fabric. The author is a fan of Austen and O’Brian, and the setting is quite well done. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-read-all-the-flashman-books/486503/24 "2009-02-20T15:01:19Z")
Might I suggest, as a sideways sort of slide, Rumpole of the Bailey? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-read-all-the-flashman-books/486503/25 "2009-02-20T15:02:28Z")
It’s “Fraser,” not “Frazier.” Let’s have a little respect here. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-read-all-the-flashman-books/486503/26 "2009-02-20T15:05:21Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > If you don’t mind some fantasy mixed with your historical fiction, Naomi Novik’s \*Temeraire \*series is surprisingly good. It’s Hornblower with dragons. There’s no magic really, just some improbably large and useful dragons worked into the historical fabric. The author is a fan of Austen and O’Brian, and the setting is quite well done. Meh. She writes like she DMs. Railroad city. I swear, get involved in one of her plots and _nothing_ you do will change the outcome. Her little ‘dragon commune’ is implausible, ahistorical, and contrary to military discipline. Does remind me of several free love and feminist movements of the 1880s, but this is a century earlier. Look up the dragon’s name, though. Fascinating historical story, that. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-read-all-the-flashman-books/486503/27 "2009-02-25T22:31:20Z")
I went and got a Flashman book at the library after seeing all the praise they’ve gotten here. I think it’s the first one (but maybe not?) - it starts out with him getting kicked out of school, then he goes to Scotland, then India, then Afghanistan. I’m about 100 pages in and I think I’m about ready to give up. It’s terribly boring. It shines in the remote places when something actually _happens_ (the duel, for instance), but mostly it’s trampling all over the rule of “show, don’t tell.” It’s page after page of a guy telling us “I went here, then we did that, then I raped a girl, then I got orders to do this, that general is an idiot, this colonel is nice to me but mean to everyone else, I’m good at learning languages, blah blah” ad nauseum. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-read-all-the-flashman-books/486503/28 "2009-02-25T22:35:07Z")
Wait for it. The siege of the fort near the end is a classic, and sets up the whole rest of the series. They get better. Try _Flashman and the Redskins_, for example. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-read-all-the-flashman-books/486503/29 "2009-02-25T23:20:19Z")
How necessary is it to read them in order? I had picked up several of them used a number of years back and never got to them, and they’re are currently in one of the boxes marked “unread books” from my last move. I made a point of reading the Hornblower novels in order (thanks to a friend who bought me the ones my local bookstore didn’t have for Christmas). ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-read-all-the-flashman-books/486503/30 "2009-02-25T23:55:46Z")
The first one is kinda essential, just to set everything up. After that the novels themselves jump around all over the place, chronologically speaking. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-read-all-the-flashman-books/486503/31 "2009-02-26T00:33:55Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Wait for it. They get better. Thanks. I’ll stick with it awhile longer because of this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-read-all-the-flashman-books/486503.md?page=1)