Pleasant enough swashbuckler tale. Perez-Reverte creates a great character in Captain Alatriste, the poor but proud former soldier who now earns a living as a sword for hire in Spain's 17th century Golden Age. Alatriste is truly the incarnation of Golden Age Spain's virtues and flaws.

Reverte writes about his swashbuckling hero with conviction and genuine affection for the genre. However, he pulls no punches when it comes to emphasizing the corruption and decadence of 17th century Spain. The narration has a bittersweet tone, because of that.

The author does a good job in recreating the time period, and showing how literature and poetry paid a big part in the ethos of the time. This is the century of the great Lope de Vega, called "The Phoenix of Wits", and countless other great playwrights, poets and artists. One of them, Francisco de Quevedo, a historical figure who is by his own right one of the greats of classic Spanish literature, plays a big part in the story, as Alatriste's friend. Reverte freely intersperses lines of poems, which I appreciated as helping to create the book's atmosphere. I read this in Spanish, and it no doubt loses something in translation, at least when it comes to poems.

The book is short and very fast to read, but it has a big problem that keeps it from realizing its potential. The story is told in first person by Iñigo Balboa, then a 13-year-old boy who is under Captain Alatriste's protection after the death of his father, an old friend of Alatriste's in his soldiering days. Iñigo tells the story many years later, as an old man, and the author uses this artifice to digress and educate the reader about the decadent glory of Golden Age Spain. This is not badly done, but it is done so often that it becomes repetitive and the plot becomes secondary. The novel would have benefited from taking away many of these digressions and adding more story, because the plot is quite interesting but also flimsy. It could almost have been done in a short story, if one takes away the narrator's ramblings.

I would give it 3.5 stars. Since goodreads does not allow that, I will be generous and round it up to 4, since this was really a pleasant read. If only it had had a stern editor who would have forced the author to concentrate on the story he is telling and only educate the reader when necessary... ( )

El capitán Alatriste
Arturo Pérez-Reverte
Carlota Pérez-Reverte
Publicado: 1996 | 157 páginas
Novela Aventuras Histórico
Serie: Las aventuras del capitán Alatriste #1

«No era el hombre más honesto ni el más piadoso, pero era un hombre valiente…» Con estas palabras empieza El capitán Alatriste, la historia de un soldado veterano de los tercios de Fland es que malvive como espadachín a sueldo en el Madrid del siglo XVII. Sus aventuras peligrosas y apasionantes nos sumergen sin aliento en las intrigas de la Corte de una España corrupta y en decadencia, las emboscadas en callejones oscuros entre el brillo de dos aceros, las tabernas donde Francisco de Quevedo compone sonetos entre pendencias y botellas de vino, o los corrales de comedias donde las representaciones de Lope de Vega terminan a cuchilladas. Todo ello de la mano de personajes entrañables o fascinantes: el joven Íñigo Balboa, el implacable inquisidor fray Emilio Bocanegra, el peligroso asesino Gualterio Malatesta, o el diabólico secretario del rey, Luis de Alquézar. Acción, historia y aventura se dan cita como un torbellino en estas páginas inolvidables.

Pretty good historical-adventure story set in Spain in the early 1600s about an ex-soldier swordsman-for-hire. Well-written but not as exciting as I expected. ( )

Not bad, but not that great. I'm not too tempted to read the sequels that are scheduled to come out, one per year, starting next month. [2014: I did go on to read and enjoy all the sequels.] To me, there was POV confusion, as the narrator was a young boy, a friend of the protagonist, but certain things were revealed that only an omniscient narrator would know. When and where there was action in the book, it was interesting, but there were many times when there was a lack action. I also didn't feel that the insertion of poetry into the narrative served any useful purpose. I would not call this "magnificent", as the jacket blurb does. ( )

Diego Alatriste is a swordsman in dangerous and corrupt 17th century Spain where his services are requested to settle debts or restore a family's reputation.