I've read all the Flashman books

I was unable to find the picture of John Brown, Joe and Flashy.

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.

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.

Might I suggest, as a sideways sort of slide, Rumpole of the Bailey?

It’s “Fraser,” not “Frazier.” Let’s have a little respect here.

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.

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.

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.

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).

The first one is kinda essential, just to set everything up. After that the novels themselves jump around all over the place, chronologically speaking.

Thanks. I’ll stick with it awhile longer because of this.