The Emperor’s Colored Coat is the second in the series (although the events described occur earlier than those of A Sailor of Austria). I should warn everybody that I’m getting these for free from an old friend at McBooks Press, on the condition that I write reviews. Since I’d sell my sister to slavers for free books (well, maybe not, but I probably would review the offers) my judgement might be a little suspect.


That being noted, I’m finding these enjoyable. Otto Prohaska, desperate to get off monotonous peacetime service as a junior officer on a AustroHungarian battleship, volunteers for aviation duty and finds himself literally crashing a party hosted by Archduke Ferdinand in honor of Kaiser Wilhelm. He manages to parlay this into a staff job and earns the friendship of the archduchess, which stands him in good stead when an airplane crash almost costs him his leg. An assignment on a Danube river monitor with the worst captain in the entire KUK navy nearly gets him killed by a jealous husband; running from that he finds mistaken identity has landed him in a conspiracy to assassinate the Archduke. He escapes the Serbian plotters only to find himself literally on a slow boat to China and is unable to convince the authorities of the plot before - well, you know what happens. Besieged in Tsingtao, he volunteers for an African Queen style attempt to sink a British battlecruiser with a junk crewed by dubious Chinese semipirates, gets caught in a typhoon, and ends up in Indonesia where his cobbled-together junk/torpedo boat actually succeeds in sinking a Russian merchant cruiser. He meets the only two Czech-speaking headhunters in Borneo, crosses the Indian Ocean one a ship commanded by a Dutch captain who thinks the world is flat, and ends up trekking through Arabia in an exploit reminiscent of the survivors of the German commerce raiding cruiser SMS Emden after it was sunk by HMAS Sydney.


A good chunk of this is derivative from other novels, films and actual events with the names changed. Nevertheless, it’s an entertaining read. I particularly like it that the author doesn’t patronize the reader; when Prohaska scavenges some torpedo drop cradles to arm his junk, there’s no sidebar dissertation on just what drop cradles are - it’s assumed you either know already or are willing to look it up. The book’s tone is generally light - I laughed out loud when German architecture of the period was described as “indigestion made visible”. Nevertheless, there’s a war one; characters die, sometimes unpleasantly, and there are dark hints of worse to come. Well worth it, especially if you’re into naval or general military history. Now I have to read some more about WWI in the Far East. ( )

All John Biggins that I have read have been well-written and entertaining. I have read comments comparing Otto Prohaska to Harry Flashman, but I think this is false. Flashman was a rogue while Prohaska is a brave officer of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Prohaska's adventures are filled with amazing coincidences and amazing escapes but after all it is entertainment and not history. It is exciting and suspenseful and like real adventure in that they are full of misery, danger, dirt and death.

John Biggins continues the adventures of Otto Prohaska, first introduced as a captain of an Austro-Hungarian submarine during the Great War in 'Sailor of Austria'. This tale is also told from Prohaska's perspective as a 100-year old resident of a nursing home in rural Wales. Biggins' style, while reminiscent of George MacDonald Fraser in the 'Flashman' series, is darker, less flippant, more serious.

If you enjoyed 'Sailor of Austria' you will enjoy 'The Emperor's Coloured Coat'. The events in this second book actually preceed those in the Sailor of Austria as our man Otto finds himself tumbling across Central Europe and the follies of the soon-to-be-no-more Austro-Hungarian Empire. He finds himself in one troublesome spot after another - like being shot out of the air by a blast from the hunting rifle of the...well, read it and find out! Good news is usually a sign of bad news just ahead.

It's exciting to see the renewed interest in John Biggins' works, which were hardly big sellers when first published in 1991 but are now being brought back by McBooks Press. Discovering Biggins has been one of those great unexpected experiences that come along only rare even to devoted readers.

The writing is really first-rate and so is the story. Highest recommendation. ( )