by Aturo Perez-Reverte
ages: adultish
First sentence: “He was not the most honest of pious of men, but he was courageous.”

Call this one the Spanish The Three Musketeers. It’s 1623, Madrid, Spain. Alatriste is a former soldier, who has taken to dueling for hire to keep money in his pockets. He is hired one night by some unknown men, high-born from what Alatriste can tell, to take out two Englishmen. Alatriste doesn’t — mostly because one begs for mercy for the other man — and as a result saves the life of the Prince of Wales. This is not a good thing for Alatriste — for the people who wanted the Prince dead are now after Alatriste’s life. Our narrator through this journey is Inigo Balboa, son of a former soldier and collegue of Alatriste and who has become a protege of sorts to the good Captain.

I liked this book, mostly because it felt like (and made references to) The Three Musketeers. Same time, same feel, similar characters (the Duke of Buckingham, who plays a role in Dumas’ work, makes an appearance, and Richelieu is talked about) — from the noble, yet misguided soldier, to the young impetuous lad (though not as impetuous as d’Artangnan), to the corrupt Church official… it’s all there. I liked the narrator, too. He was circular in his telling (I never could figure out who he was telling the story to; he would call them”Your Mercies”), jumping forward and backward in time, and talking so much about the history of Spain that I felt like Madrid and its people were almost another character. But when the action got going — as it occasionally did — it really got going. (Which, in many ways, is also like The Three Musketeers.)

I knew it was the first in a series when I started it, though I thought it would stand on its own more. It doesn’t end in a cliff hanger, but so many storylines and threads are started in this book, and never resolved, that it’s almost imperative that one read the next book. If only to find out why Inigo keeps calling Angelica a “Devil” because she never really did anything…

I’m just not sure how much I care. I may find myself a couple months down the line thinking about it and wondering what the next step in the story is, though. It’s definately one to mull over. Either that, or I’ll just watch the movie, which I didn’t even know existed. Anyone know anything about it??