Captain Alatriste by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

He was not the most honest or pious of men, but he was courageous.

I first read Captain Alatriste by Arturo Pérez-Reverte twelve years ago, and it didn’t make much of an impact on me then. It was the third book in a row I had read by Pérez-Reverte, following The Club Dumas and The Fencing Master, and I think I was anxious to move on to something else and didn’t give it a fair chance. So I was very happy to receive a paperback copy for Christmas as part of LibraryThing’s SantaThing program.

Described as “The Spanish Musketeer,” Captain Alatriste sounds exactly like my kind of book:

The first action-packed historical adventure in the internationally acclaimed Captain Alatriste series, featuring a Spanish soldier who lives as a swordsman-for-hire in 17th century Madrid.

Needing gold to pay off his debts, Captain Alatriste and another hired blade are paid to ambush two travelers, stage a robbery, and give the travelers a fright. “No blood,” they are told.

Then a mysterious stranger enters to clarify the job: he increases the pay, and tells Alatriste that, instead, he must murder the two travelers. When the attack unfolds, Alatriste realizes that these aren’t ordinary travelers, and what happens next is only the first in a riveting series of twists and turns, with implications that will reverberate throughout the courts of Europe…

I did not remember anything about the characters or plot from the first time I read the book, so I came into the story fresh and excited for a swashbuckling adventure. And that it certainly was. I loved the historical setting, the descriptions of the sword fights, and the political intrigue. Narrated in first person by Captain Alatriste’s squire Íñigo Balboa y Aguirre, the story moves quickly from chapter to chapter.

Having recently finished Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas, it was hard to resist comparing the two. Both stories take place in roughly the same era and feature swordsmen involved in political intrigue. However, there is an elegance in Dumas that is lacking in Captain Alatriste, and Pérez-Reverte writes a darker story with characters who are not as sympathetic. Neither the captain nor his squire are as personable as D’Artagnan or any of his fellow musketeers. And the plot of Captain Alatriste is basically one of survival rather than any kind of active quest or mission.

The main problem for me besides its dark characters was that it seemed to be mostly concerned with setting up the rest of the series. There were a lot of digressions to explain Alatriste’s character, but the main plot of the novel was pretty sparse.

Still, the story was entertaining, and it had some great moments. I’m not sure I would actively seek out the sequel, Purity of Blood, but if I ever saw it for a good price at a used bookstore or on discount as a Kindle edition, then I would probably pick it up.

One final note: Pérez-Reverte’s books are always beautifully designed, and Captain Alatriste is no exception. From the cover to the typeset, the physical characteristics of the book add to the reader’s experience, and I’m glad I read this book in paperback rather than on my Kindle.

Captain Alatriste by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
New York, Plume, 1996
Printed length: 304 pages