Setting: Burma
Time Period: 1849

You’ve heard about books that have a “rags to riches” theme, right? Well, this book had a “riches to rags” story line. With the death of Jack’s  father, his mother decides it’s time to reveal that he was actually an illegitimately born son and send him off to the lowest regiment in the Royal Army there was. There, he’s sent to Burma, where he’s determined to make a name for himself…or change the name of the 113th.

I was intrigued by this book because of its setting and once I got into it, the character’s really grew on me and the story was very interesting. There was a lot of bad language in the novel and that didn’t thrill me, but if you could get past that it was a decent story. A lot of the reviews I read before getting this book mentioned that the story was disrespectful towards the Burmese people by calling them heathens and other degrading names. Though I don’t typically read and approve of books like that, after reading the novel myself, I did not take it to mean that the author was a racist, but just trying to portray the thought patterns and prejudices of the British towards other nationalities in that time period.

Conclusion: For a “war” novel, the story line kept my attention and had a good plot. I did not like the foul language and for that reason, won’t continue to read the series, but, if the language wasn’t an issue, I would read on. The author had a great style and could make you feel like you were right there in the middle of Southeast Asia.