This was my 53rd book finished in 2023.

I've been very interested in early European-Australian history ever since I visited in 2019. I never would have thought Napoleonic France and colonial Australia were linked, but upon reading it seems Port Jackson was hotly talked about by other European powers.

The book starts by covering French revolutionary history, which I didn't know much about. It also spent some time on the early relationship between Napoleon and Josephine. I wasn't so interested in this, but it was important for the story told, I suppose. The chapters were short, which I like in a book, and it didn't hang too long on one topic, therefore covering a lot.

As is the case with history books, there's a lot of background information and building up to the actual event. Unfortunately, the subject matter advertised in the book title was short. I thought it was leading to a big conclusion, but the most interesting events came and went without me realising that was it. That's not to say I didn't find all of it very interesting, but the material just wasn't as prominent as advertised on the front cover and in the blurb.

A large portion of the book was devoted to a biography on Napoleon, or at least some parts of his life. It skips large portions of his life, with little to no explanation of what happened in between. Maybe it expects you to have read a biography on Napoleon beforehand, otherwise it's leaving out vast swathes of important information. Having never read one myself, it leaves me wondering why the author wouldn't just give the full picture - even very briefly, eg: one moment Napoleon was exiled on Elba, the next he was leading an army at Waterloo. How did this happen? What have I missed?

The narrative hopped around a lot, at least in the first part of the book. There was a surprising lack of dates on a number of stories / paragraphs / chapters. It's hard to follow the chronology when this important info is left out. It also needed more geographical descriptions. I wasn't always sure where the story was taking place, as it jumps about a lot. I'm also not completely familiar with Australian geography, or where various colonies were. It would be helpful if the author made reference to what these places are known as now, and where they are.

The book has a very modern feel to it, and doesn't excuse history for being history - the author actively talks about slavery, its effects on empires of the time, and calls people out on lauding it. Even big name British "heroes" supported slavery and were racist in their views, and they are named and shamed in the book.

So although I have a few negative notes, I enjoyed learning about many new things. The book covers a lot, and it's very easy to understand in the way it's written. I also really appreciated the author adding brief descriptions to the various naval terminologies etc.