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The King's Gold [Hardcover]

Arturo Perez-Reverte (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)


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Book Description

August 14, 2008
From acclaimed and bestselling author Arturo Pérez-Reverte comes the fourth adventure of Captain Alatriste, “the brooding, charismatic hero of his wildly successful Spanish swashbuckling novels” (The New York Times).

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.

The King’s Gold picks up in Seville, 1626. After serving with honor at the bloody siege of Breda, Captain Alatriste and his protégé, Inigo Balboa, have returned: battle-weary, short of cash, and with few prospects for honest work. But the Spanish empire is as dangerous as ever, and it’s not long before Alatriste receives an intriguing offer of short-term employment. He and Inigo must recruit a dozen swordsmen and mercenaries for a risky job involving a dazzling amount of contraband gold and a heavily guarded Spanish galleon returning from the West Indies. The offer comes from the king himself, for at stake is nothing less than the Spanish Crown, and its dominion over the wealth of the Americas.

The seedy taverns, the teeming prisons of Seville, the sand dunes of Guadalquivir find Alatriste, Inigo, and their motley band of cutthroats embarking on a new adventure, one that brings them surprising new alliances and perilous encounters with old enemies.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pérez-Reverte, a former war correspondent, continues his popular Captain Alatriste series with a fourth swashbuckling volume (following The Sun over Breda). Diego Alatriste, a wily veteran of many 17th-century military campaigns, and his sidekick, Inigo Balboa—who narrates—have returned to Seville after fighting in the siege of Breda. With funds short, Alatriste accepts a dangerous mission to intercept a load of smuggled gold and deposit it in the royal coffers. Trolling the criminal underworld of Seville, Alatriste recruits a band of ruffians, and disguised as pirates, they prepare to slip aboard the ship transporting the gold, surprise and subdue the crew and beach the vessel. What Alatriste doesn't expect to find on board is his old adversary Gualterio Malatesta and a large contingent of mercenaries. Fans of the series have come to expect historical authenticity, crisp prose, complex characters, exotic settings and plenty of sanguinary action. They won't be disappointed. (Aug.) ""
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved."

From Booklist

This Spanish author’s fourth installment in his internationally popular series of works featuring seventeenth-century Spanish swordsman-for-hire Captain Diego Alatriste now makes its American appearance, and it lives up to, or perhaps even exceeds, the intense reader enticement established by its predecessors. The Spain that is the setting is a country in decline; on paper, Spain remains the center of a vast world empire, but, in truth, it is the head of a decaying colonial system of graft and corruption. Captain Alatriste and his devoted companion, Inigo Balboa (who tells the story here and who features in a side story of young love), have just returned to Seville from fighting the Dutch and English in Flanders when the captain is approached with a new offer. A certain grandee of Spain is, so King Philip III fears, plotting against him, and a load of contraband gold from the New World will certainly aid the high-standing nobleman’s efforts against regal authority. The king wants Alatriste and any group of ruffians he can muster to snatch the shipment and hand it over to His Majesty. Off and running we are—adventures and swordplay abound. As always in the series, the author deftly mixes the traits of historical fiction with those of the spy thriller. --Brad Hooper

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition edition (August 14, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0399155104
  • ISBN-13: 978-0399155109
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #904,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

22 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:
 (12)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (22 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars In the Footsteps of Dumas, Henty and Sabatini, August 20, 2008
This review is from: The King's Gold (Hardcover)
The fourth volume in "The Adventures of Captain Alatriste" series is set in the port city of Sevilla. The annual treasure fleet is about to arrive and a powerful clique in the King's inner circle is planning to siphon off Royal Treasure for their own nefarious purposes. Another powerful group of noblemen want to stop them. This being Spain in its decadent Gold Age, hired blades will be needed. Who better to recruit and lead a party of mercenary swordsmen recruited from Sevilla's criminal underclass than the redoubtable Captain Alatriste and his loyal companion, Inigo Balboa?

For those of us who love the scwashbucklying genre of literature, we are fortunate that Arturo Perez Reverte is producing what will be the nine volume "Adventures of Captain Alatriste" series. Perez Reverte is a fine novelists who writes serious international best sellers. In between the more serious novels, he finds the time to publish further Alatriste adventures. Each volume is well written and filled with wonderful historical details from Spain's Golden Age.

I love the series and hope to one day read all nine volumes. However, the problem with the series is that each novel is essentially eposodic in nature. There is a lack of an over-arching story in each novel. One will have to read all nine novels to learn how the story turns out. I wish that Perez Reverte had sat down like Alexandre Dumas and wrote one really long novel. Perez Reverte will do in nine novels what Dumas did in one novel. I guess this is the difference between the great novels of the Nineteenth Century and the works that are produced today for our shorter attention spans.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars This Book is "Gold", June 11, 2009
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This review is from: The King's Gold (Hardcover)
Yet another link the Captain Alatriste chain. It's another wicked, mysterious, thriller of a book with beautiful cities of Old and New Spain, dazzling beauties, gold glinting, swords ringing out, and shots blasting.

Another interesting twist in the Story of Inigo Balboa and Captain Alatriste, "The King's Gold" will lead Alatriste and Inigo to the money they need, but places they don't want to be. As they both delve deeper into the trap that is the nobility they form a world around them that is wholly their own, but they are beginning to have less and less control.

A definite must read for all Reverte fans and if you haven't read the Alatriste series go back to the first one, "Captain Alatriste", read up and be prepared to be sucked into a world unlike any other you have ever read about.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it, October 13, 2010
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This review is from: The King's Gold (Hardcover)
I made the mistake of purchasing and reading this installment of the Captain Alatriste series first. I, of course, had a somewhat difficult time picking up the characters and story line through the first couple of chapters. And then when I quickly burned through the rest of the book, I promptly made my way to the local book store to purchase more of the series! The characters are incredibly alluring and I have fallen in love with both the Captain and his buddy Inigo. Love it!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
Angélica de Alquézar, canvas breeches, buff coat, treasure fleet
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Captain Alatriste, Francisco de Quevedo, Sebastián Copons, Diego Alatriste, Medina Sidonia, Gualterio Malatesta, Bartolo Cagafuego, Nicasio Ganzúa, Virgen de Regla, Pencho Bullas, King Philip, Barra de Sanlúcar, Conde de Guadalmedina, Conde-Duque de Olivares, Lope Balboa, Juan Jaqueta, Luis de Alquézar, Royal Treasury, Lope de Vega, Corral del Negro, Curro Garrote, Patio de los Naranjos, Plaza de San Francisco, Miguel de Cervantes
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