The Soldier's Gene cleverly fills a gap between factual history books and the general historical novel. Tracing the passage of genes for nearly 850 years through the descendants of one man, is an interesting departure from the norm and adds an intriguing slant to what remains a novel. The mixture of facts of the various battles fought by the British Army during those years, and the fictional descriptions of the experiences of the soldiers, in battle and otherwise, has been skilfully written and little imagination is needed to make the reader feel as if they are there with the soldiers. The characters experience the vagaries of war on a very personal level and recount their different tales at first hand although not all are willing soldiers. They fight for different reasons and differing causes both in their homelands and foreign fields. They are not always on the winning side and some don't come through unscathed. Some don't come through at all.