The Sun Over Breda (Capitán Alatriste Series #3) by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Margaret Sayers Peden (Translator), Margaret Sayers Peden (Translator)

From the Publisher

Arturo Pérez-Reverte has enthralled readers and critics around the globe with his Captain Alatriste series. Having sold four and a half million copies to date in the Spanish-speaking world, the series has made Pérez-Reverte a literary superstar and his fictional seventeenth-century mercenary a national icon. And the appeal of Pérez-Reverte's adventurer and his exploits continues to grow, as evidenced by the extraordinary reception for the first two translated volumes in the series-Captain Alatriste and Purity of Blood.

And now, in The Sun over Breda, Pérez-Reverte continues his thrilling chronicle of the swordsman-for-hire, as Captain Alatriste takes up his blade and rejoins his elite Cartagena regiment as they take part in the battles and siege of Breda. Fifteen-year-old Íñigo Balboa enlists to serve as his master's aide, and narrates their further adventures of swordplay and skirmishes, of mutiny and wartime honor. And, back in Spain, Alatriste's nemesis Luis de Alquézar grows more powerful, as Íñigo's mysterious friend Angélica hints at some plans upon his return

Entertainment Weekly

Absolutely riveting from beginning to end.

New York Times

A flamboyantly entertaining series.

Washington Post Book World

A rousing escapade narrated by Alatriste's teenage page.

Publishers Weekly

A former war correspondent, Spanish novelist Pérez-Reverte continues his internationally acclaimed Captain Alatriste series with a third translated volume (following Purity of Blood), every bit as terse and engaging as previous books. Diego Alatriste, a 17th-century mercenary and wily veteran of campaigns from Italy to Flanders, is part of the army of Spanish King Philip IV—a defender of the Catholic faith—that's trying to suppress the Calvinist heretics of the Low Countries. Narrated is retrospect by Íñigo Balboa, who at the time of the action was Alatriste's 14-year-old page, this installment focuses on the Spaniards' siege of the fortified rebel city of Breda. As the stalemate drags on, the battle becomes less "a matter of military interest to Spain but, rather, one of reputation." Its power and influence in decline, Spain's lingering hopes to avoid another embarrassing setback in Flanders rest with stoic warriors like Alatriste. The action is fast, furious, and sanguinary, and Pérez-Reverte grimly recreates the universal madness and desperation of combat. He also captures the tedium and misery that is the common soldier's everyday fate and the zealotry with which Christians—Catholic and Protestant alike—once massacred each other. Factually sound and vividly imagined, this latest incarnation of Captain Alatriste will cheer old fans and win new ones. (Apr.)

Barbara Hoffert - Library Journal

After the dark and moody swordplay of Captain Alatristeand Purity of Blood, featuring impeccably ethical mercenary-hero Capt. Diego Alatriste, Pérez-Reverte marches us to Flanders for the Siege of Breda in 1624–25. The good captain has rejoined his regiment to help Spain take the city, and his faithful young retainer, Íñigo Balboa, again narrates events. Professional to a fault, the Spaniards conduct difficult and dangerous raids without complaint while staging an effective protest over lack of pay. The captain coolly dispatches a fellow soldier who has insulted him after threatening Íñigo and just as coolly refuses to be drawn into a sanctioned duel with soldiers on the opposing side. Unfortunately, Alatriste does get a bit lost in the panoramic action—a real pity, given his riveting presence. This is very much a blow-by-blow account of battle, with the one overarching point of contention being whether the captain appears in Velázquez's sprawling Surrender of Breda. Not all readers will find it as engaging as the first two books in the series, though it's intriguing to see this battle from the Spanish perspective, and Pérez-Reverte is faultless in his portrayal of war as hell. [See Prepub Alert, LJ9/1/06.]

Kirkus Reviews

The siege of the Dutch city of Breda in the late-16th century near the end of the Hundred Years' War is the subject of this third installment in Perez-Reverte's five-volume saga. As in its predecessors (Captain Alatriste, 2005, etc.), I-igo Balboa, teenaged servant and battlefield companion to the eponymous Captain, narrates a tale of violent action and courage under fire engaging enough to have flowed from the pen of another Dumas. At its outset, the adventurous pair have joined Spanish infantry troops fighting in Flanders to wrest possession of a thriving (and strategically located metropolis) from the "heretic" (i.e., Calvinist) Dutch and their allies, and bring it under the control of Spain's Catholic King Philip II. After a lively beginning, the narrative sputters, as the weight of its author's obviously considerable research permits I-igo to overindulge in expository detailing of military, political and religious particulars. Fortunately, his is an energetic intellect, and-like Thomas Berger's "Little Big Man" Jack Crabb-I-igo eavesdrops on great men's doings, and makes his own modest marks on history, first by helping future playwright Calder-n de la Barca rescue endangered books from a burning library, later by providing painter Diego Velazquez with information crucial to the creation of the latter's masterpiece The Surrender of Breda. The author neatly sidesteps redundancies implicit in successive descriptions of not dissimilar battles by focusing on such unconventional matters as burgeoning discontent (and near "mutiny") among exhausted and unpaid soldiers, a Dutch "challenge" which leads to an episode of "five against five" combat and, through I-igo's adoring yet sharp eyes, apowerful indirect characterization of his cynical, war-weary Captain ("sickened with pain and blood"). And there's some delightful metafictional misdirection in a pair of sly appendices. Don't miss the exciting conclusions.

Product Details

• ISBN: 0641905327
  
• ISBN-13: 9780641905322
• Format: Hardcover, 288pp
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
• Pub. Date: April 2007
• Edition Description: Bargain
• Series: Capitán Alatriste Series, #3