Monday, July 07, 2008

Book Review: "The Sun Over Breda"

The third in Arturo Perez-Reverte's Captain Alatriste series, The Sun Over Breda picks up where Purity of Blood leaves off. We find our trusty narrator (Inigo Balboa) and Captain Alatriste in the trenches of Holland, fighting for Spain against the independence-seeking Dutch and their English allies. Perez-Reverte's incomparably lyrical prose is on full display here as always, but like the other books in this series, this one underwhelms.

There is more action in this one than the first two, including some detailed battle scenes, but there is also more than enough slow, almost ponderous exposition on camp life and culture, reminiscences of adventures past (I don't recommend dipping into this series in the middle) and clues foreshadowing things to come.

As I said about the last book, I'll keep reading these, but I'll keep hoping they progress into something more than the first three books have offered.