Customer Reviews

El Sol de Breda (Aventuras del Capitan Alatriste) (Spanish Edition)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

El Sol de Breda es el tercer libro de la saga del Capitán Alatriste. Si no has leído los anteriores dos (Las Aventuras del Capitán Alatriste, y Limpieza de Sangre) entonces no leas éste...claro lo puedes leer pero te vas a perder una serie de detalles necesarios para entender a los personajes que ya son recurrentes en este seriado. Si eres atento a los pormenores podrás comenzar a sospechar cuál es La Venganza de Alquézar (uno de los libros que sigue en la serie, y aún no publicado)...si te gusta la lectura que mezcla con precisión matemática la historia con la aventura, entonces adéntrate en esta España de soldados obligados y monarcas decadentes, inquisidores y espadachines, damiselas y bibliotecas en llamas, nombres conocidos y hombres borrados de los libros. Extraordinario.

I'm very proud to let you know about this book, and what it meant to me. I have read the 2 previous Capitan Alatriste's issues (as well as Territorio Comanche and The Flanders Table from the same author), but I must say this one is the deffinite ice-breaker. The author makes you live as a soldier of the XVIIth century, with all its religious wars, starvation, poverty and murder, but also with the pride of fighting for honor, King and country. His use of long-ago forgotten Spanish language is superb. I rate it as a 5, because I enjoyed it so much and felt very identified with both the main characters. Read it !

El éxito de sus novelas sobre las aventuras del capitán Alatriste, cuya publicación comenzó en 1996, constituye un acontecimiento literario sin precedentes en España. El sol de Breda es el tercer volumen de la serie. Flandes, 1625. Alistado como mochilero del capitán Alatriste en los tercios viejos que asedian Breda, Íñigo Balboa es testigo excepcional de la rendición de la ciudad, cuyos pormenores narrará diez años más tarde para un cuadro famoso de su amigo Diego Velázquez.

El Capitán Alatriste abandona la villa y corte de Madrid para marchar hacía Flandes y sus sangrientas batallas. Hasta el momento muchos dicen que El Sol de Breda es el mejor de los tres libros que han sido editados yo creo que los tres son muy entretenidos. Dejando a un lado las intrigas de la corte, Don Diego Alatriste vive y hace vivir la crueldad e injusticia y realidad de la guerra en 1625. Haciendo gala de un rigor histórico, Reverte refleja un período de España del que se ha publicado muy poco y que para muchos es hoy en día desconocido. Otras obras recomendadas del mismo autor. El Husar y La sombra del Aguila ambas inspiradas en las guerras Napoleonicas.

I keep marvelling at Mr. Pérez-Reverte's enviable style and lexicon. Yet another gem of a novel with microscopically researched historical footnotes. However, it looks at times like Iñigo Balboa is kicking Diego Alatriste out of the limelight. This is the first of the books I have read on the series where the young squire is coming of age and eventually coming into stage. He is the narrator, but also the executor of pivotal scenes. Regardless of this meaningless observation, the book is fascinating - yet again. The afterword puzzled me for nights. The editor describes the history of Diego Velázquez's "Surrender of Breda", one of the greatest - if not the greatest - painting of the Baroque period. In it he points out that perennial idiosyncracy of the Sevilian master, namely, redoing his canvas with different scenes or even characters. Was the explanation about Velázquez's self-portrait, perched on the left side along the defeated Dutch army, truly accurate, i.e., was Alatriste originally portrayed in its place? Or is the afterword part of the novel's unconventional fictionalization?

In this third volume of the Alatriste series, Captain Alatriste and his young ward Inigo Balboa are back in the army. Alatriste has left Madrid and its intrigues behind, to resume his life as an old soldier in the battlefields of Flanders. A stupid, meaningless, soul-sapping war that was ultimately doomed to failure. A war for the Catholic faith against the heretics (i.e. protestants). A war for king and country--but why??

Author Perez-Reverte describes the life (and death) of these soldiers in gritty, horrifying, numbing detail. The tedium, the insects, the crawling through tunnels, the battles without quarter, the explosions of merciless savagery. The author packs his work with historical details about weapons and equipment and military tactics. The sense of realism is startling. And to make things even more fascinating, he ties his fictional characters in with real figures from Spanish history and culture, particulary the great painter Velasquez. Not only can you not put this book down, you begin to wonder if it's fiction or history.

I'm enjoying the series immensely and this one especially. The Spanish is not too difficult, although (as with the other volumes) he uses a number of archaic terms for weapons and articles of clothing. Never mind, you can feel the dampness and cold. You keep reading. I recommend this book very highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

I could not stop reading it. It transports you to the XVIII century, you can almost feel the fighting, the anguish, the sufferings, the adventures and the honor of being a Spanish Infantry soldier in the European battlefronts. It is the most crude, but also the one with a faster rythm and a more interesting story of the trilogy about Alatriste.

As always Perez-Reverte engages you with his own take of history as Spain struggles to retain control and possession of her empire, this time of Holland. His description of the way war was fought then, the uniforms or mixed bag of personal accoutremonts to deflect possible thrust of swords and javelins via coletos de bufalo, morriones, and celadas and the traditional valones of Spanish pirates are just examples of how well researched are his books.

My grandfather being an Andalucian brought with him familiar words to the Philippines, which my father peppered his speech with as we grew up and many of these words are scattered in this wonderful book. Por vida del Rey juro que el tercio de Cartagena eran hombres de pelo en pecho!

Este libro me ha resultado muy aburrido, porque el autor se pierde en divagaciones. Las descripciones son demasiado exactas, y casi siempre no vienen a cuento de la trama. Me hubiera gustado más que el autor se centrase en la aventura y en la acción, y evitado en lo posible enrollarse con detalles que hacen perder el encanto de loa novela. Quizá parezca raro, pero para mí el final(en el que Íñigo Balboa cuenta lo sucedido en Breda a Velázquez para que pinte el cuadro), es lo mejor del libro.

Personalmente, prefiero las dos primeras novelas de la saga del capitán Alatriste, y recomiendo, porsupuesto, al lector amante de la intriga, "La tabla de Flandes" y "EL Club Dumas."