Friday, May 17, 2013

Book Review: CAPTAIN ALATRISTE by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Published: 2005 by Plume
Format: Paperback, translated by Margaret Sayers Peden
Genre: Adventure

Diego Alatriste comes home wounded from the Thirty Years War and now spends most of his time avoiding his debtors and drinking in a tavern with an eccentric group of poets, aristocrats, and his page, the young Inigo Balboa.  The story, as told through Inigo’s eyes, is a non-linear account of Alatriste’s commission as a sword-for-hire to take out a pair of Englishmen as they travel through Spain.  Alatriste’s true character comes through when he spares the Englishmen and ends up embroiling himself in a conspiracy involving politics, religion, and the Spanish Inquisition.  While Perez-Reverte’s scene-setting and character back-story makes the pacing slower than most adventure tales, Captain Alatriste is a humorous, swashbuckling tale for readers looking for a story with political intrigue, history, sword-play, and old-fashioned heroics.  

-Amy

0 comments:

Post a Comment