![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Emperor's Review
Apr. 25th, 2011 12:51 pmHey,
Played a few WWI games down at the local gamestore and the whiff of mustard gas made me nostalgic for some of my favorite fiction from the era. So I picked up a copy of The Emperor's Coloured Coat: In Which Otto Prohaska, Hero of the Habsburg Empire, Has an Interesting Time While Not Quite Managing to Avert the First World War by John Biggins. This is the second in a four-volume series that recounts the adventures of Otto Prohaska, naval officer in the Austro-Hungarian Emprire. The first volume, A Sailor of Austria, described his adventures as a submarine commander. This one is something of a prequel and describes his adventures prior to and during the opening days of WWI.
Like a lot of historical fiction, our hero sort of bumbles his way into encounters with the major players of the times. So Otto crashes a plane into Archduke Ferdinand's picnic and becomes a member of his staff. Later on, he's mistaken for a Serbian spy and is inducted into the Black Hand and meets with his Archduke's future assassins. Escaping from them, he's sent to the Far East and with the opening of the war, he slowly makes his way back across to his home.
I wish there'd been a bit more meat to this book, but the writing is certainly breezy and easy to read. Otto is mostly a victim of bad luck and not a hapless buffoon. He always tries to do his duty for his country even as he realizes what a dysfunctional country it is. Indeed, one of the best parts of this book is the way that it illuminates the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the various nation-states of the Balkans. It's a part of Europe that just doesn't get the attention it deserves and I feel like Biggins does a good job of capturing the time and place.
I think I preferred the first volume, but this book was a fun read.
later
Tom
Played a few WWI games down at the local gamestore and the whiff of mustard gas made me nostalgic for some of my favorite fiction from the era. So I picked up a copy of The Emperor's Coloured Coat: In Which Otto Prohaska, Hero of the Habsburg Empire, Has an Interesting Time While Not Quite Managing to Avert the First World War by John Biggins. This is the second in a four-volume series that recounts the adventures of Otto Prohaska, naval officer in the Austro-Hungarian Emprire. The first volume, A Sailor of Austria, described his adventures as a submarine commander. This one is something of a prequel and describes his adventures prior to and during the opening days of WWI.
Like a lot of historical fiction, our hero sort of bumbles his way into encounters with the major players of the times. So Otto crashes a plane into Archduke Ferdinand's picnic and becomes a member of his staff. Later on, he's mistaken for a Serbian spy and is inducted into the Black Hand and meets with his Archduke's future assassins. Escaping from them, he's sent to the Far East and with the opening of the war, he slowly makes his way back across to his home.
I wish there'd been a bit more meat to this book, but the writing is certainly breezy and easy to read. Otto is mostly a victim of bad luck and not a hapless buffoon. He always tries to do his duty for his country even as he realizes what a dysfunctional country it is. Indeed, one of the best parts of this book is the way that it illuminates the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the various nation-states of the Balkans. It's a part of Europe that just doesn't get the attention it deserves and I feel like Biggins does a good job of capturing the time and place.
I think I preferred the first volume, but this book was a fun read.
later
Tom
