Review--The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1)

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The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1)The Thousand Names by Django Wexler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked it, especially the aspect of strong female characters and the alternative history feel of it, very much a setting familiar to fans of Sharpe's Rifles and other novels of the Napoleonic Wars. There's a definite nod to Napoleon's tactics and the use of the French square formation for infantry.

As far as the chicks-in-breeches female characters go, there were a few scenes that passed the Bechdel Test, and that's always a plus.

Clearly, this novel is the start of a series, and I'll know more after I read the second book. What bothered me the most about this one was that the alternative-history feel of it included light skinned "Europeans" vs. darker skinned, desert dwelling "Natives". It made a certain amount of sense if one's writing an alternative history, but it's difficult in the 21st c. to read a novel set in a faux-Egypt/Libya and not feel the weight of colonial history pressing down on you.  


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