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Sharpe’s Command

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Sharpe’s Command

By: Bernard Cornwell
Narrated by: Rupert Farley
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About this listen

SHARPE IS BACK.

The brand new novel from Bernard Cornwell in the global bestselling Sharpe series.

If any man can do the impossible it's Richard Sharpe . . .

And the impossible is exactly what the formidable Major Sharpe is asked to do when he's dispatched on an undercover mission behind enemy lines, deep in the Spanish countryside.

For a remote village is about to become the centre of a battle for the future of Europe. Sitting high above the Almaraz bridge, it is the last link between two French armies, one in the north and one in the south; if they meet, the British are doomed.

Only Sharpe's small group of men – with their cunning and courage to rely on – stand in their way. But they're rapidly outnumbered, enemies are hiding in plain sight, and time is running out . . .

SHARPE’S COMMAND is the brand new novel in the bestselling historical series that has sold over 20 million copies worldwide.

©2024 Bernard Cornwell (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Action & Adventure Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction War & Military

Critic Reviews

"Sharpe and his creator are national treasures." (Sunday Telegraph)

"Like Game of Thrones, but real." (Observer)
All stars
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Bernard Cornwell does it again. Outstanding read. Another outstanding adventure for Sharpe and his Rifles. I’ve been looking forward to this book for quite a long time. It’s nice to get into Sharpe’s Command.

Adventure All the Way

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Good to have Sharpe back, but isn't the best book in the series... Something about the story seemed a tiny bit stale.

A little stale

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Really disappointing compared to what came before it. The first review of this book asked “Did Cornwell really write this?” and I found myself asking the same thing over and over. Implausible plot, characters out of character, lacked tension and was hard to finish. Still, I love Sharpe.

Hard to get through

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Did Cornwell really write this? Are you sure it wasn't the work experience kid? Some of the dialogue between Sharpe and Teresa is incredibly bad.

This book, due to Sharpe's early (and unheralded) promotion to Major, destroys the pre-existing series timeline.

Disappointing how an author would do this to his own series.

oh well - we will always have Eagle.

Far from the best

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Was thoroughly looking forward to this new story but felt let down from the beginning. I am only a few chapters in but already want it to end. Firstly it doesn’t fit into the timeline. Sharpe’s Enemy, which is set after this book, tells the story of him receiving his Majority, but in this book he’s already a Major? I thought maybe this book was then meant to be after Enemy but it can’t be as his wife is still alive. Why ruin the timeline with something so simple? Second the story feels lazy and disconnected with the rest of the Sharpe universe. The characters just don’t feel the same as in other stories. The writing lacks the dynamics of other books. This is such a strange offering from Cornwell whose writing is normally brilliant and very considerate of where it fits in a timeline of books. Cannot recommend and would almost go as far to suggest that fans of Cornwell and Sharpe treat this book as outside of the Sharpe universe so it doesn’t ruin their experience with other books.

A great narrator doesn’t make up for a lacking story

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I am a massive Sharpe series fan. Got into it through the 1990s TV show when I was about 15, then I read Sharpe’s Waterloo first which at the time was the last in the book series. I then read them randomly so never got the timeline. Now I’m listening to them all in order from Sharpe’s Tiger to Sharpe’s Devil, so imagine the disappointment when I come to the first book in the series that doesn’t honour the timeline. Next, the characters are “out of character” and the narrative seems repetitive and disjointed. I got to chapter 2 and gave up and moved on to Sharpe’s company, IMO the true Book 14, so fully back in the Sharpe universe and loving every minute, as usual

I think even the narrator Rupert Farley knew something was up because nothing seems quite right with this one, even the narration.

Bernard, I’m a massive fan of your work like I said, and in the unlikely event you read this, please make sure the very last one in the series, due out on October 2025, is written by you in the classic style! FYI I am checking Sharpe’s Command back in on Audible. In fairness just to buy another one of the classic series so no skin off the author’s nose I guess

I might circle back once I complete the series if desperate for a “Sharpe fix”

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