Sometimes there's no other word for it but "rollicking". These historical adventure novels are highly readable. I'd call them amusing pieces of fluff, but I think there's probably far more thought gone into the historical settings and politics than I recognise. This seems less satirical than the last, in which Fraser absolutely skewers the British colonisation of India, but then I'm even less familiar with 19th century German politics than I am with India so I get the feeling I'm probably missing a great deal of the references here.

Flashman is as cowardly and duplicitous as ever, but he wasn't as actively evil, really, as he was in the last book so it's easier to like him better for it. Well, maybe not like. He's still a terrible person, which is why his catalogue of disasters is always so entertaining (he's one of those characters who really deserves every bad thing that happens to him) but what saves him, what makes him really interesting to read about, if not admirable, is his awareness of his own character. He's not under any delusions about what he is, and neither is the author, which is so refreshing to read. Often you come across characters who are terrible people and their authors don't seem to recognise the fact, or they fall over themselves to make excuses for it, but Fraser and Flashman are brutally shameless about what he is, and that makes him much easier to stomach. The whole thing is so cuttingly ridiculous, so full of snark and farce, that it's just so easy to keep reading...