Fast-paced swashbuckling adventures in the vein of The Three Musketeers, only with dragons. I should have loved this, and in some level I did, but it did so little in terms of character that, beyond superficial traits, I never got to really know what makes these people tick and cheer for them. It's a pity, that. Think of this as a Hollywood blockbuster, with a decent plot and lots of action, but easy to forget when it's over.

The beginning was kind of slow, jumping from character to character rapidly without us knowing who these people are. Later it gets better once we start getting a better feel of what the story is about. There are a lot of fights and action scenes, but also a lot of investigating and intrigues.

This is the first part of a trilogy, but it stands well on its own. The story told here is complete, but there is a couple of reveals at the end that set the hook for the following installments. ( )

Que deux étoiles parce que l'auteur nous inflige des exposés sur le Paris de 1633 qui seraient plus intéressants dans un livre d'histoire que dans un roman dont ils cassent le rythme. De plus il dit trop et ne montre pas assez à mon goût. Par exemple, l'auteur nous dit que untel éprouve telle émotion à la vue d'un ami retrouvé au lieu de nous montrer l'émotion dans le personnage à travers ses réactions ou ses gestes.
Ceci dit l'intrigue est bien pensée et un petit rebondissement à la fin de ce 1er tome, qui se suffit à lui-même néanmoins, m'a incitée à continuer ma lecture. ( )

I ventured into this series after reading Pevel's fabulous 'The Knight - A tale from the High Kingdom'.

This is the first in an unrelated series, which makes a lot of sense, given that this one is essentially an introduction to Pevel’s world. That isn’t to say that the plot is left to one side, but the novel takes a lot of care to introduce us to the cast of characters, and it can all be a little overwhelming at times. There’s a lot to take in, and part of me hopes that future books take a little more time to focus on individuals, rather than get lost in a morass of conspiracies, back-stabbings and politics. It isn’t entirely fair to suggest that nothing else happens in this book – the political side of things mostly chunters away in the background, and will obviously build to a head in future volumes – but there is the occasional danger of the author becoming so wrapped up in his creation that the reader gets lost.

Having said that, as long as one is prepared to let the book carry you along, there’s an awful lot to enjoy here. Our eponymous heroes are a fun lot, old soldiers bought back together under mysterious circumstances and surrounded by enemies, both open and hidden. If there’s an element of cliché – grizzled teacher, arrogant drunk, feisty woman – it’s generally forgivable, mostly because of the obvious fun Pevel is having. Richelieu is scheming, the European powers are squabbling amongst themselves, an important visitor to Paris has gone missing, and, of course, there are dragons…

To be fair, the dragon thing is hardly the focus of the book, and I worry that people may be put off just by their presence. Pevel has thought things through, and the descendants of dragons are living amongst us, which makes the whole scheming/hiding thing much easier. There is a lot of fun to be had in guessing who is secretly scaly, and there’s one reveal right at the end which promises future trouble for the Blade’s, and made me impatient to read on (I’ll have to wait though…). I’ve always enjoyed Dumas’ books, and the brief cameo from Athos here was a nice touch. There’s a feel of the pulpiness of the Musketeer books, and although the prose isn’t on that level, it works perfectly well – a good writer, and a good translator, which is a good combination.
I've got the whole series - so I'm now onto book 2. ( )

In spite of the presence of dragons and such, this book is really an homage to Alexandre Dumas and his musketeers. The plot is full of intrigue and swashbuckling, with the dragon-types serving as off-the-screen villains. Substitute an evil secret society for the dragons and there you have a novel Dumas might have written.

Which is not necessarily a bad thing, mind you. ( )

Basically, this is The Three Muskeeters with dragons. The plot is done very well, the author has read his Dumas closely. There is political intrigue, as Richelieu tries to thwart a plot against France, swordfights, treason, courage, heroism, and everything else you need for a rousing swashbuckler. The writing style is less than perfect, with a curiously limited vocabulary for clothes and other physical things and a number of stock phrases (when people turn around, they always “tournent sur les talons”, no variations offered). There are disappointingly few dragons around, though.
Pevel started his career writing for role-playing games, and I think it shows in the way he assembles and describes his large cast of characters without letting you know how they relate to each other. He also needs a lot of time setting up the scene and putting events in motion. But things get gripping enough to continue with the next book. Oh, and there’s a surprise guest appearance from a “real” musketeer! ( )