I'm a big fan of CS Forester's Horatio Hornblower books about a British naval officer during and after the Napoleonic wars, and this has been praised as the Army equivalent.
Richard Sharpe is a very different character, and I don't know if I'll become as attached to him as Hornblower, but after this novel I'm looking forward to the other novels detailing Sharpe's exploits and rise through the ranks. While certainly no gentleman, Sharpe does have a core of what one officer calls "kindness" and while not educated, he's clever and courageous. When we first meet him here, he's an illiterate private, a former thief, dreaming of desertion, and his insane and cruel sergeant is scheming to trap Sharpe into a flogging offense.
The novel is strong in conveying what it's like serving in the British Army in 1799 India, all the little details from how they kept their hair to how they loaded their muskets. Besides the fictional characters it features real historical figures such as Arthur Wellesley, the future Lord Wellington.
The novel is often suspenseful, particularly towards the close and delivers on nail-biting, heart-racing action adventure.
