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The latest reviews for Captain Alatriste
--KIRKUS REVIEWS [April 1, 2005]
The first of a projected five historicals from Perez-Reverte [Queen of the South 2004, etc] about the dashing fighter and gallant Alatriste. When he's 13, in 1620 or so, Inigo Balboa goes to live for good with Captain Alatriste, Inigo's own father being dead [he'd been a comrade in arms with Alatriste] and it being Alatriste's honor to care for the boy. Having achieved high fame as a soldier, Alatriste now earns his living as a hired killer in the dangerous streets and Byzantine politics of imperial Madrid.
A pleasure of swash, buckle and atmosphere, along with tidy infomercials on topics such as the poetry, theatre and the traditions of the day. (Film rights to director Agustin Diaz Yanes and Estudios Piccaso/Origen Producciones Cinematograficos S.A, with Viggo Mortensen starring in the Spanish-language film)
LIBRARY JOURNAL [April 1, 2005] Starred Review
This is as gripping as any swashbuckler, with Spain's Golden Age tellingly resurrected, but it is a much more sobering tale of honor, responsibility, and political machination. Captain Alatriste's powerful personality fairly radiates from the page. Highly recommended.
-Barbara Hoffert
"Courtly panache and contagious enthusiasm ... Equipped with a
quick-witted, charismatic hero and much to provoke and goad him,
Mr. Pérez-Reverte has the makings of a flamboyantly entertaining
series."
-Janet Maslin, The New York Times
"Pérez-Reverte has streamlined his prose to rapier point and strikes
home with a dark and moving work. This is as gripping as any
swashbuckler, with Spain's Golden Age tellingly resurrected, but it is
a much more sobering tale of honor, responsibility, and political machination."
-Library Journal (starred review)
"Pérez-Reverte's moody, wounded semi-hero-part cantankerous
mercenary, part man of honor in a roiling society of pomp, pistols,
and provocation-is a whole-cloth invention out of 17th-century Madrid
that has led to a 21st-century literary phenomenon. . .
The clash and dash are thrilling; the swordplay is a bonus"
-Entertainment Weekly
"Splendidly paced with a breathtaking but not overwhelming sense of
the history of the age, this is popular entertainment at its best."
-Publishers Weekly
CAPTAIN ALATRISTE is the first in a magnificent series of historical
novels by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. The second, PURITY OF BLOOD, will be
published by G. P. Putnam's Sons in January 2006.
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