Captain Alatriste

By: Arturo Perez-Reverte, Margaret Sayers Peden - translator

Narrated by: Scott Brick, Margaret Sayers Peden

The novels of Arturo Pérez-Reverte have captivated readers around the world and earned him a reputation as “the master of the intellectual thriller.” (Chicago Tribune) His books have been published in fifty countries. Now, beginning with Captain Alatriste, comes Pérez-Reverte’s most stunning creation to date: a riveting series featuring the adventures of an iconic hero.

Captain Alatriste is the story of a fictional seventeenth-century Spanish soldier who lives as a swordsman-for-hire in Madrid. Needing gold to pay off his debts, Alatriste and another hired blade are paid to ambush two travelers, stage a robbery, and give the travelers a fright. “No blood,” they are told.

Then a mysterious stranger enters to clarify the job: he increases the pay, and tells Alatriste that, instead, he must murder the two travelers. When the attack unfolds, Alatriste realizes that these aren’t ordinary travelers, and what happens next is only the first in a riveting series of twists and turns, with implications that will reverberate throughout the courts of Europe.

©2005 Arturo Perez-Reverte; (P)2005 Penguin Audio and Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

Praise for Captain Alatriste

“Equipped with a quick-witted, charismatic hero and much to provoke and goad him, Mr. Pérez-Reverte has the makings of a flamboyantly entertaining series. Captain Alatriste ends with a wicked flourish, an evil laugh, and a strong likelihood that the best is yet to come.”—The New York Times

“Pérez-Reverte’s moody, wounded semi-hero—part cantankerous mercenary, part man of honor in a roiling society of pomp, pistols, and provocation—is a whole-cloth invention out ofa17th-century Madrid that has led to a 21st-century literary phenomenon....The clash and dash are thrilling; the swordplay is a bonus.”—Entertainment Weekly

“High-level intrigue and double-dealing in the tradition of Alexandre Dumas.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Though Pérez-Reverte fills the swashbuckling story with nonstop action, Captain Alatriste is also a contemplation of life and death, which adds depth to the good, unclean fun.”—The Miami Herald

“Pérez-Reverte’s pacing is swift and suspenseful, the narrative voice both crisply cinematic and true to the setting of seventeenth-century Spain...a feast of dark historical detail and believable danger.”—The Denver Post

Auturo Perez-Reverte is a great writer!

Great book. The reader used good tonality, making the story suspenseful. Perez-Reverte is one of the best writers........all of his books are amazing.

Good story...reader could be better.

The story is wonderful but I didn't care for the reader all that much. I prefer a narrator who makes the story flow a bit better.

Scott Brick does Perez-Reverte

Very well done. I'm studying Spanish and appreciated the way the narrator worked the Spanish names and phrases. The work is a classic in any event, and now I should read it in the original language.

I enjoyed it.

This is the first book in a series and I found it to be fun and enjoyable. I have read and listened to other books by this author and have both like some and disliked others.

I listened to this book and enjoyed it so much that I bought and read the other two books that have become available.

The Captain Alatriste novels are not in-depth books but adventures that are quick and fun and I can't wait for the next book.

A Fun Read.

I like to read a book that's fun, but I also like it to have literary merit. The combination is not so easy to find. Captain Alatriste is a romp set in 17th Century Spain, the height of Spain's golden age, that is a fun story to read, but is also satisfying from a literary perspective. It is very well researched, but is not what I would call an historical novel. Although mention is made of some well-know personages such as Velazquez and King Philip IV of Spain, they play only a peripheral role in the plot, the main participants of which are purely fictional, as is the story itself. The protagonist, Captain Alatriste, is a swordsman, a hired gun with principles of a sort, that is when he's not killing someone, who is interesting enough that I wanted him not only to survive (not a problem since without him the series ends), but also to resolve the tension between his ideals and chosen line of work. To me, one of the greatest virtues of the book is its sense of time and place; I felt part of the scene. Also, although this might not sound like an endorsement, I liked the fact that the book was only six hours long. It was beautifully read. Since this is the first book in the series, I eagerly look forward to reading the rest, which are already published. Until I do so, I'm going to read a little about Spanish history of the period, which I haven't approached since college. Finally, one suggestion: I found the long Spanish names difficult to assimilate (e.g., Alvaro Luis Gonzaga de la Marca y Alvarez de Sidonia), so I copied a list of characters from Wikipedia and kept it by my side while I listened to the audio.