Thursday, June 21

Book Review: Mercenary by David Gaughran

Author: David Gaughran
Title: Mercenary
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: ebook
Expected publication: June 4th 2014 
Where I Got It: My shelf (Amazon Freebie)



Lee Christmas gets drunk and falls asleep at the throttle of his locomotive, plowing straight into an oncoming train. Blacklisted from the railroad and his marriage in tatters, he flees New Orleans on a steamer bound for the tropics. 

In Honduras, he begins a quiet new life. But trouble has a way of finding Christmas. With unrest sweeping the countryside, he's kidnapped by bandits. Soon, he finds himself taking sides in an all-out civil war--as leader of the rebellion. 


To my surprise...this is based off a real story. Huh. Learn something new every day. 

But yes Lee is a piece of crap. I say this with what I know from the book. Maybe there is more to the real story? Maybe not? But I am going based on the book here. Lee messes up his career for being an idiot drunk. Ruins every single marriage he gets and he KNOWS why, but doesn't do anything to fix it. The only thing he is good at is killing and leading an army. Oh and he is good at drinking too. 

The story was interesting enough. However, it was hard to really like the story because of Lee. Yes, yes, I always say I like complex characters and I do like a good baddie and a story about an anti-hero. But oh my goodness how I hated Lee. A drunk idiot. You can't label him as an anti-hero and you can't say he is complex. He was a simpleton who has no one to blame but himself for his misery in life. STOP MARRYING PEOPLE AND STOP HAVING BABIES!!! Just be content with being a mercenary! That is all you are good at. Sighs. 

The writing was good and I wouldn't mind reading more by this author. I should do some research on this Lee fellow, but ugh. I have a feeling this story was pretty on point. We shall see though. 

In the end...the story was an interesting read, but it was hard to really like it because of the main character. He was an idiot. I wanted to kick him. I don't blame his wives for dumping his butt. I'll give this 2 stars. 








4 comments:

Blodeuedd said...

Omg what a freaking idiot! I do not like him

Melliane said...

well... mabe not

Anachronist said...

Poor Lee - just two stars. There are plenty of men like him...

Carole Rae said...

B, yess big idiot

Melliane, ;)

Ana, ugh isnt that the truth???