George Alfred Henty isn't someone I would've come across on my own. I actually saw someone mention this book on YouTube when I was watching a Sabaton video. I've been trying to expand my history a bit, and since I don't normally gravitate to nonfiction, this seemed like a happy medium. A fictional adaptation based on historical events? I'll give it a shot. I downloaded a copy of this book from Gutenberg.org.
Malcolm is a Scottish soldier who is fighting on the side of the Swedes in the Thirty Years' War. He goes through an awful lot in the book, and it's quite the adventure. While I'm certain Henty intended for the book to be read by young men (he starts his preface 'my dear lads'), I enjoyed it as a female.
This may have been originally published in 1886, but it was easier to read than I expected. My criticism is the changes in view. Imagine you're taking a pair of binoculars and focusing in on one person, then you zoom out so far they disappear. That happened many times in this book, and I wasn't fond of that. I also didn't follow a lot of that since I'm unfamiliar with German towns. The focus of the book would go from Malcolm to the overall battles and troop movements, and that's where I'd get lost.
I did thoroughly enjoy the parts of the book that dealt with Malcolm and his journey. Henty wrote 122 books and covered a variety of times. I may come back and read more of him in the future. If you need to learn more about this particular period of time, this isn't a bad place to start. Good Book!
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