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Title: The King's Gold
ISBN: 0399155104
Author:
Arturo Perez-Reverte
Publicate Date: 2008-08-14
Publish: 2008-08-14
List Price: $24.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $6.97
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $8.75
Amazon Merchant Price: $15.72
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1: Back to a Real Adventure
I am a big fan of Mr. Perez-Reverte's novels but I have to admit, I have been less and less impressed with each of the "Captain Alatriste" novels as they've come out--this being the fourth novel in the series. Fortunately, he has bucked the trend with this one, The King's Gold. If it doesn't hold for me the pleasures of his novels outside of this series, it certainly has regained the excitement and energy that seemed to be draining away in Breda.
In this story, Alatriste and Inigo (our narrator) are back in Seville after the siege of Breda. At the instigation of some old friends, the Captain is convinced to recruit some rogues to capture a ship full of the king's gold. This being Spain during a time of corruption and intrigue, he is capturing the ship for the king.
Back to a straightforward adventure more like the first novel in the series, Perez-Reverte's strengths are able to show through in The King's Gold. Some of the "regulars"--don Francisco, Quevedo, Malatesta, Alatriste himself--are key to this story and become interesting again. They help us hold firm against the lists of rogues that populate this novel and can become lost in the crowd. I am also fond of his technique of using Inigo's foreshadowing far future events (particularly concerning his great love, Angelica de Alquezar) and his knowledge of these to help explain events he did not understand while experiencing them.
In the end, this book doesn't live up to some of his other, cleverer novels. (I am also a bit miffed that the dust jacket art doesn't match the first three novels in the series. It ruins the aesthetics on the bookshelf.) Still, it is a brief, rip-roaring adventure, filled with the flavor of seventeenth century Spain. It's not a bad way to spend a few hours.
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2: All Good!
Quite an accomplishment. Reverte's follow-up to the saga of Altriste continues into the backdrop of 16th and 17th century Spain. Historically accurate and a splendidly good read.
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3: Captain Alatriste returns
Captain Diego Alatriste and his Boswell, Inigo Balboa, return with another rousing adventure in 17th century Spain, this to protect the arrival of a treasure ship from the New World for the king. This fourth installment in the series also brings back some of the memorable secondary characters, among them the Italian assassin, Malatresta, and Inigo's heart's desire, Angelica de Alquezar. The author again exhibits his grasp of 17th century Spanish history and a feel for place as well. His writing and the translation are brisk and engaging. **** (of 4)
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4: Inigo Balboa Comes of Age
Inigo, now a well-developed adult-like 16, gets kissed, gets himself stabbed, and stands up to the Captain more than once. He also begins to see Alatriste for the man he really is - a sword-for-hire assassin. "The Boy," as most call him, the orphan son of Alatriste's dead companion Lope Balboa who Alatriste has been entrusted to raise, continues narrating this next episode, the fourth, of his and Diego Alatriste's adventures. We've been with them about 4 years now. "The Sun Over Breda" remains - far and away - the best of the series, though "King's Gold" comes in a strong second. There's actually some swash-buckling in this one - and no war, merely hired swords in an action-adventure tale.
The setting remains in the 1620's during Spain's rapid decline as a world plunderer and power. Arturo Perez-Reverte - through Inigo's mature, astute, articulate voice - also continues his rampages against and disparagement of everything Spanish (except the Army, swordsmanship and poetry). He condemns, repeatedly (and predictably now), the church, greed, Spanish contempt for human life, its obsession with gold and silver, its failed hegemony, its very strange customs, and its fundamental inhumanity. This anti-church, anti-Spain theme pervades every one of Perez-Reverte's novels (I've read them all). One would think that Perez-Reverte despises Spain. Not so, of course, but he -- as a novelist-historian -- shows a vast and boundless contempt for Spain's awful modern (1500-1800) history and its then-odd culture/ethos. I admire him for his unrelenting attacks on evil, the church and Spain's despicable moments in history.
Captain Alatriste, as it turns out, symbolizes everything that is wrong with Spain - even his defiant self-defense against all odds, his killer instincts, and his submission to outmoded customs. He certainly is not a likeable "hero!"
The relationship between Inigo and Diego remains obscure, intimate, loving and quite dark. Their mutual adoration defies description or rationality, and Inigo painstakingly chronicles the nearly inscrutable Captain in such absolute detail as to raise the reader's eyebrows from time to time. (Page 223) "I woke with Captain Alatriste's hand on my shoulder. `It's time,' he whispered, almost brushing my ear with his moustache." (Page 230) "Then I felt his hand squeeze my shoulder, firmly, briefly. I looked up and swallowed hard. The deck was some five or six cubits above our heads." (Page 254) Here the Captain has a quasi-psychotic episode apparently, and Inigo says, "... for an instant I was afraid he might kill me also."
All-in-all, the story is pretty good, with occasional hard-to-believe coincidental events, but it is slow-moving about half the time. The swordsmanship episodes are excellent, as well as the prison scene. There is a good build-up of tension and excitement in the final 80 pages, and the story ends without a big let-down, as is so often the case in recent Perez-Reverte novels.
The translation is good but suffers from an inclusion of too many very modern slangy Americanisms. I always increase my vocabulary, however, when reading Perez-Reverte. I could do without the poetry.
The narrator's voice continues to suffer dramatically from a fundamental flaw. Too often, Inigo, the narrator, does not, could not have and did not witness the events, people and activities which he describes in first person, as if he were or had been there. Perez-Reverte really needs to solve this problem - which exists in all the Alatriste tales. The narration problem detracts from an otherwise decent plot.
Except for Inigo's mostly fantasy "relationship" with the evil teen-age beauty Angelica de Alquezar, there is no woman in this story. Given Perez-Reverte's unique and brilliant ability to create strong female fictional characters, their absence here is astonishing and sad. Including a good and powerful woman in the Alatriste stories would be a godsend.
Finally, I grow tired of reading about the repeated appearances of the "series bad guy," Gualterio Malatesta, who, it seems, even sword-perfect Alatriste cannot finally dispatch once and for all. Malatesta is a gimmicky literary trick, a thorny reappearing character inserted into all the stories to keep some consistent danger to Alatriste and the boy. The other repeating characters create no problem. I do have the feeling that we will follow Inigo throughout his life in this fair-to-middling series. 10 more in the pipeline?
Perez-Reverte's early novels remain his best, but he retains his favorite-author status with me.
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5: His Best To Date
Perez-Reverte has struck gold with his latest in the Captain Alatriste saga, "The King's Gold." Full of swordfights, double-dealing, suspense, the honor of rogues, and subtle hints of the future twists in to be completed books, this new novel is clearly the best so far - just barely edging out the first of the Captain Alatriste books.
This book continues Perez-Reverte's promise of an excellent story, for here the captain must recruit fellow swordmasters, duellists and ex-soldiers for a night's dirty work. We also see the continued development of the relationship of his page, Inigo, and his dangerous infatuation with Angelica.
Perez-Reverte paints a picture of Spain lost in the gaze of itself in the mirror while corruption, greed and fanaticsm slowly bring about its downfall.
All in all, an extremely worthy addition to the Captain Alatriste story and a wonderful novel. I wish I could read it again with the same sense of unfolding discovery as the adventure plays out....
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