Band Of Brothers

So I have finally had a chance to read Band Of Brothers. I have to say that it confused me in it's style. Did anyone else feel like the book did not read in the same way as the other two Midshipman novels. I know it has been a long time between the writing of the first two and this one but it should have been a more coherrent feel. If you revisit a previously existing environment and character they should mesh. It's just a feeling and I wish I could be more specific. Did anyone else get the same vibe?

Yes I did. One of these days I'll get round to reading all the midshipman sequence together. I got the feeling the uneasiness was to do with the death of his best friend and fellow midshipman in the earlier book which was a strong point in it but had disappeared by BOB. I needed to check the names but I suspected he had been resurrected but it's so many years since I read the original ones I'm probably wrong.

Yeah, it's a short series of stories. Martyn Dancer was resurrected and indeed this 'third' midshipman book addressed his death. Disappointing in the limited detail given and time alotted for reflection. Just a washy story that really came across as more of a magazine short story. Read it again and am more upset by the quality than I was before. Shame.

Hi,

I haven't read Band of Brothers yet, but am a bit confused when you say Martyn Dancer was resurrected? He is still alive at the end of Midshipman Bolitho and the Avenger so I take it that he meets his end in Band of Brothers?
Other characters that I would have liked not to have been killed are Cheney and Capt. Farquhar of the Spartan and Osiris in later books. And of course Richard! Oh .. and Kate..methinks she went downhill after Richard's death. And probably Zenoria! The list grows...

JT

It was many years since I had read 'Avenger' when I wrote the above and I later checked the reference. There was a sequence where Dancer went missing but later returned. It was that I was incorrectly recalling. As you say Dancer was alive at the end of the Book. I can't recall his fate in B O B.

Martyn Dancer didn't make it out of Band of Brothers alive.

Spoiler:

Martyn Dancer had "been there" in the early novels, but then just disappeared from the storyline with no explanation. The pre-release publicity for Band of Brothers was "What ever happended to Martyn Dancer?" I too was surprise when this book arrived that it was little more than a short story. It's in my library (but doesn't take up much space).