The fourth installment in Arturo Perez-Reverte's Captain Alatriste series is The King's Gold, in which our intrepid narrator and his erstwhile master are assigned the grim task of preserving an illicit shipment of gold from the Indies for the king, lest it fall into the hands of his enemies.

This series gets better with each book, I think. I enjoyed the third more than the second, and this one more than its predecessor (there's a new one out already, which I'm sure I'll read sooner or later). As Perez-Reverte's narrator matures, the books gain depth, and this one kept me intrigued from start to finish (even though the general outcome was never in any doubt).

Aside from Inigo and Diego Alatriste, however, I have to say that the characters in these books remain somewhat sketchily drawn; I don't feel like I know much about them. Even Alatriste's alter ego, the nefarious Italian Gualterio Malatesta, isn't described in any great detail (again, perhaps this is simply a product of having the narrator be the young sidekick).

Overall, another satisfactory effort from Perez-Reverte.

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King’s Gold by Arturo Perez-Reverte

The fourth book in the Captain Alatriste series finds the Captain and a rapidly maturing Inigo back from the war in Flanders. Their swords are soon called into action to defend a shipment of the Spanish Empire’s lifeblood – gold arrived from the Americas.

The brief book features, yes, swashbuckling action, a group of nasty characters recruited for the purpose by Alatriste, and Inigo’s continuing love obsession with Angelica Alquezar, a young lady in the Queen’s court, and well above the boy’s pay grade. Gualterio Malatesta reprises his role as their arch nemesis. The well-known poet Francisco de Quevedo plays another prominent role.

Perez-Reverte delivers the trademark historical authenticity and a decent tale of intrigue and clashing steel. The hidalgos’ obsession with finely-honed sense of honor makes any unguarded word or deed a potential matter of life and death.

Two more books in the series have already been published and another three are planned. Whether the story can carry 5 more books is an open question. Fans of Alatriste will enjoy The King’s Gold, but anyone unfamiliar with the story so far will probably be lost. Newcomers should start with the first book, Captain Alatriste. ( )

EL CAPITAN ALATRISTE

Back at TIFF ‘06 one of the Gala events was the screening of AlatrIste with Viggo Mortensen in attendance. So it’s a bit of a coincidence that I’ve just finished reading Arturo Perez-Reverte’s latest, The King’s Gold. I’m headed off to Toronto on Friday for this years edition of the Toronto International Film Festival and there’s a scene in The King’s Gold that’s right out of the film. Now, the movie was based on an earlier Perez-Reverte novel which I have not read, 1996’s El capitán Alatriste.

In the movie, there is a scene in which Alatriste’s young ‘ward’, Íñigo Balboa, is lured into a trap set by his would be sweetheart, the treacherous Angélica de Alquézar. Surely over-matched by the villainous Gualterio Malatesta and facing certain death, he is rescued by Perez-Reverte’s Three musketeers: Alatriste, Sebastián Copons, and Francisco de Quevedo. Now this same scene possibly was in the earlier novel. I don’t know. Or, it could have been a sketch worked into the movie, later to appear in this new novel.

The King’s Gold is genre fiction that adheres to many of the conventions. The masterful and somewhat mysterious hero is paired with a young acolyte. There is of course the long time and serious nemesis that eludes sure death (to reappear in later ‘episodes’). Here, Perez-Reverte also makes use of a stand-by favorite plotdevice of thrillers of every stripe: Our hero must put together a team of outcasts and misfits for a dangerous and perhaps terminal mission. Here, tasked with foiling a plot that siphons money from the King’s coffers that flow from the New World, Alatriste needs to recruit a small contingent for his mission. He finds himself in Seville for that purpose. The setting allows Perez-Reverte to sum up his rather pessimistic view of mankind:

And Seville was the ideal place to provide the kind of men we required. If you bear in mind that man’s first father was a thief, his first mother a liar, and their first son a murderer - for there’s nothing new under the sun - this was all confirmed in that rich and turbulent city where the Ten Commandments weren’t so much broken as hacked to pieces with a knife. (pg 133]

Perez-Reverte’s prose style is perfectly in tune with his fast-paced, speeding bullet of a story. Sometimes he obviously dips into cliche, as In describing the Patio de los Naranjos, which he describes as “a place where fugitives from justice and the whole criminal world were as thick as thieves and as snug as bugs in a rug.” Cliches such as these might be considered sloppy translation, but they do seem to fit in with Perez-Reverte’s easy flowing swashbuckling style. They hardy raise an eyebrow.

Perez-Reverte continues his relentless assault on Spanish history and the black spot he finds in the soul of man. Yet, he never fails to entertain and provide a truly diverting story. Great fun. ( )

The fourth Captain Alatriste novel. Which means we have some swashbuckling, some nefarious plotting, some swordplay--it's all in a day's work for Alatriste and Inigo. After those nasty fights in Breda, both seem happy to be back in Spain (though happy is not exactly a word one would use to describe Alatriste--perhaps at peace would be better). But as usual, money is scarce. It's hard being a hired sword, especially when the crown is hurting for money. It doesn't help that the English pirates keep intercepting the Spanish treasure ships heading back from the New World. (And damn me, but it's hard for me to switch sides and be pro-Spain, no matter how wonderful these books are. I can just manage to do it, but it's hard. And that should say something about how much I like these books.) But Alatriste has a hard-earned rep, and soon a job offer falls his way--one that involves ships, gold, and, of course, intrigue. ( )