A very long and detailed description of the battle of Walerloo with a focus on several primary characters.

I rarely read fictionalized historical accounts, but a friend suggested it and I was not disappointed. The descriptions provided of this vicious and brutally wasteful type of warfare is enough to make anyone wonder how men could not only survive such horror, but partake freely, to the limits of endurance and beyond. I experienced combat as a door gunner on a Marine helicopter where tremendous effort was expended to quickly rescue the wounded, but in this tale of misery tens of thousands of men and horses were left to die in the mud, trampled by those still alive, others left at the side of the road with no pain killers, no clean water and very little, if any, care. Amputations were performed without anesthetic.

I'm sure James did his homework as the details are exacting and the conversations and thoughts of the characters revealing. For the type of novel this is, I felt James did an excellent job. ( )