Customer Reviews

The Sun Over Breda

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood
Disguise fair nature with hard favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect,

Henry V, Act III, Scene 1

When I picked up Arturo Perez-Reverte's "The Sun Over Breda" I was expecting something of a swashbuckler. By the time I'd finished the book I'd realized that I'd read something else entirely. Despite the fact that "The Sun Over Breda" was not the book I thought it would be, I'm happy to have read it.

"The Sun Over Breda" is the third in Perez-Reverte's series of adventures featuring Captain Diego Alatriste. The first two Alatriste novels ("Captain Alatriste" and "Purity of Blood") were exciting fast-paced yarns set in early 17th-century Spain (mostly Madrid). The books are narrated in the form of historical memoirs penned by Inigo Balboa (a young man entrusted to Alatriste's care) in a fashion similar to the memoirs penned by Dr. Watson looking back at Sherlock Holmes' old cases. The narrative structure works remarkably well (for me) for two reasons. First, I prefer stories written in the third-person. Second, as a series of historical novels Perez-Reverte presents Spain at a time when it was the world's great superpower. The Spanish empire was one in which the sun never set. But it was at this time that the Empire had begun to rot from within. In the first two stories Perez-Reverte does an excellent job using Balboa's reflections as a way of highlighting corruption and venality in the offices of Church (the Inquisition), the Palace and an ossified top-heavy social structure. In the first two Alatriste novels Spain's rotting social/political structure played a noticeable but still secondary role to the adventures of Captain Alatriste. "The Sun Over Breda", however, finds the action playing a secondary role to Balboa's wistful reflections. The change is a bit jolting, but rewarding.

"The Sun Over Breda" is set in the Netherlands in 1624-1625. The provinces of the Netherlands had been engaged in a decades-long war with the Spanish Empire seeking independence from Spanish rule since 1568. As the story opens, Alatriste and Balboa are in the Netherlands ready to fight for Spain. The story takes us through a number of battles, small and large. This was a day when hand-to-hand combat was the rule, not the exception and there is no shortage of brutality and the good fairer natures of Alatriste and Balboa are well-disguised by hard-favoured rage. Perez-Reverte paints a picture of war as war, not as some comic book vision of war.

There is also boredom, hunger, and deprivation. Scenes of Spanish soldiers plundering for food are interspersed with scenes of mutinies as Spanish soldiers demand months of back pay before marching into battle. The Spanish soldiers including Alatriste are shown as nothing more than fodder for preening officers who even set up a private battle between 5 hand-picked soldiers from each side to satisfy some sense of honor. The story culminates in a months-long siege, and ultimate surrender of the Netherlands-held city of Breda. "The Sun Over Breda" ends with a curiously interesting discussion about the great painter Diego Velasquez's paining "The Surrender of Breda". There is a fascinating (if fictional) discussion as to why and how Captain Alatriste was excised from this work of art.

Fans of the character of Captain Alatriste should know in advance that he doesn't really play what I would call a critical role in "The Sun Over Breda". He is certainly the subject of Balboa's `memoirs' but, on reflection, I think the story really tells us more about Balboa and his maturation (he is 14-years old at the time of the Siege of Breda) under the crucible of war than about Alatriste. Alatriste is almost, but not quite, a secondary character. Perez-Reverte shows us a Spain at the height of its military might while also investing a great deal of time (and fine writing) showing us the imperial rot from within that would soon topple an empire. It is also quite clear that despite all the pledges of honor and reputation made by those who sit far from battle it is the common foot soldier for whom honor and integrity have some real meaning. It is a fascinating piece of reading, even if it does not qualify for `swashbuckler' status.

I've found that rating this book is a difficult task. If you are interested primarily in another Alatriste page-turner I'd give "The Sun Over Breda" three-stars and suggest waiting for the paperback edition (or a trip to the library). If you are interested in a well-written story that examines the lives of men in combat and the societal forces that conspire to take dire, dangerous circumstances and make them worse, I'd give it four-stars and a hearty recommendation. L. Fleisig

I've not read any other books in this series developed by author Arturo Perez-Reverte. The theme of his previous two books has been Captain Diego Alatriste, a real soldier of 17th century Spain. In The Sun Over Breda, the story is told from the perspective of a 14 year old "page," or soldier's assistant.

This is a book that focuses on detail... the garments worn, the weapons used, the curses uttered, the food eaten, and the people involved. It reminds me of the Master and Commander series of books by Patrick O'Brian, rich in detail and salt spray. However, it drifts from that work because, frankly, the story is not engaging. Battle, win, battle, win, siege, hold, duel, win, et cetera. The detail IS the strength of this book. It just misses the grab-your-attention threshold for an engaging yarn.

As far as the detail, the slashes, cuts, and jabs, as well as the injuries, are vividly described:

"I was showered with a spray of pikeman's blood as he fell atop me, invoking the Madre de Deus in Portuguese. I slipped from beneath him, freed myself from his lance, which was caught between my legs, only to find myself jostled in the ebb and flow of the battle, immersed in smells of rough, grimy clothing, sweat, powder, and blood" (p. 141).

This novel should be attractive to the reader who requires historical accuracy and is interested in pre-modern European warfare.

I was rather disappointed with this one, having read the first two of the series and being a fan of Perez-Reverte for his brilliant The Fencing Master which I rate one of my all time favorites.

The first two of the Alatriste series (of which this is the third) were periodically compelling and generally thoughtful tales combining the panache of swashbuckling derring-do with a world weary realism and the ethos of 17th century Spain on the cusp of collapse. You can feel the rot within working its way out.

This one, picking up in the midst of a Spanish campaign against the rebellious Dutch (a rebellion which ultimately took Holland out of the Spanish orbit and presaged the crumbling of Spain's imperial state) takes us out of the streets of Madrid and Toledo, the settings of the earlier books, and plops us down on the battlefield in the midst of war. The experiences of Captain Alatriste's young ward, Inigo Balboa, are faithfully recounted by that same young man in this adventure as they were in the first two. But here, Inigo barely give us a story at all.

The events are largely disjointed and plotless as Captain Alatriste (never really a "captain" except, perhaps, in spirit and capability!) participates as a simple soldier, led by his "betters," in a number of engagements. Balboa gets himself into a scrape and Alatriste gets him out. Alatriste gets offered an opportunity to undertake a duel for the honor of Spain and demurs, and the Spanish press their siege of Breda while despoiling the country as only an army can. Not much happens though we get to see a few battles up close from the point of view of young Inigo.

Truthfully, I had trouble finishing this one. The first two in the series have their share of narrative soft spots, of course, and I found Perez-Reverte's penchant for separating sentences in a conversation by lengthy digressions that sometimes go for pages (something he did to varying degrees in all three books) particularly annoying. Nor have I always been a fan of his inclusion of large amounts of poetry in the composition of these tales, though they are apparently there to add to the ambience and the sense that the book is being written by a seventeenth century man. And they do that well enough.

Still, the first two in the series, despite their dry spots worked. This one just didn't. I am not sure I'll read those that follow despite my enthusiasm for the author.

SWM
author of The King of Vinland's Saga

As previous reviewers have been warning, "The Sun Over Breda" is not exactly plot-driven or action-filled and therefore of less interest to some readers looking for swashbuckling stimulation. For me, it was closer to a meditation on war and all the terrible things that it can mean for the common soldier in the foxholes. Author Perez-Reverte makes a plausible case for the unchanging and ugly nature of conflict; the gritty ways wars are fought and the murky reasons for their beginnings and durations.

One reviewer argued that this book could be seen as a metaphor for the current quagmire in Iraq. True enough, but it may be more like a universal statement on the obscure and often indefensible rationales that rulers, religious leaders, tribal chieftains, modern politicians, etc. use to start wars and on the dire consequences that those conflicts have for simple soliders, not to mention civilians caught in the line of fire.

Also enjoyable in this book is Perez-Reverte's continuing examination of the downhill economic and political spiral that Spain found itself in the 16th Century.

"The Sun Over Breda" defies easy classification, but as a historical novel or commentary on war, it offers the reader many enjoyable insights, as do the two other books in the Captain Alatriste series

I am a great admirer of Pérez-Reverte's writing in general and the Captain Alatriste series in particular. That said, I must confess to feeling a mite concerned about a third of the way into The Sun Over Breda.

You see, not much was happening.

This is no criticism, but for all its manifold merits, this series is, at core, swashbuckling. So as our narrator, Íñigo Balboa, gives us page after page of exposition (however historically accurate and well wrought), you too may worry.

Never fear. Once Pérez-Reverte properly establishes that we're in Netherlands during the Thirty Years War as opposed to his customary Spain, he lets loose the hounds of war. One particularly chilling episode has to do with a subterranean battle between sappers taking place near a graveyard. (Keep in mind the soldiers are underground).

Yet despite its bloody present, The Sun Over Breda refers so much to what has gone before and what is yet to come, it does feel a bit like a placeholder. And although Captain Alatriste plays a surprisingly small role in the matter, a magnificent Iberian placeholder it is.

"The sun over Breda" is a well written book with a thoughtful plot and character development. I enjoy books by this author because they break away from the standard formula approach so often seen in popular fiction. The history is well researched and accurate. Arturo Perez-Reverte has a particular ability to bring the past alive. A very enjoyable addition to this series and the author's works. The translation from Spanish into English is, at times, cumbersome.

This book doesn't really have a plot. It's rather an account of what happened at the siege of the town of Breda in 1625, when the Spanish army and its allies surrounded the Dutch and their allies. Our normal protagonist Captain Alatriste is featured, but the main line is really about his young helper Inigo. We are treated (?) to the foot soldier's view of war, which is not glorious for them, while the aristocracy prances and preens in their finery. Even so, we see that these upper class men knew how to fight, and even die, for their king. There's really nothing heroic in this book, which I see as a type of transition from the first two books in this series to the last two books, which will be published later. This is like an "All Quiet on the Western Front" for the early 17th century. The author tells a horrific strory, and tells it well.

I loved the first installment of this series: a Dumas-like swashbuckler that felt both wonderfully old-fashioned and subtly modern. It was also suspenseful, as was the second book, which was not as thrilling as the first and often bogged down with excessively long descriptive passages. Still, I was looking forward to "The Sun Over Breda.'' Alas, a disappointment. No character development to speak of, and not much plot either. Just a detailed description of a military operation: trench warfare of long ago, a seige, a battle. Interesting if you're a military history buff, I suppose, but not much of a story (and since the reader knows from the get-go that Alatriste and Inigo will survive, not much doubt about the outcome either). I'd give the next installment a chance, but if it plods like "Breda,'' I'll be giving up on Alatriste.

Here's why I disagree with the poor reviews of this novel and why, the more I think about it, the more I consider this story very well written:

1. The pacing of the book is precisely what one might expect from a siege - periods of page-turning excitement between several pages of soldiers and characters getting used to one another, struggling to keep seeing their "enemy" as their "enemy," and trying to survive in the nasty, brutish world of the early 1600's warfare. The simple fact that all of the reviewers finished the book speaks to the ability of Perez-Reverte's writing to carry you through the non-fast action parts.

2. There are moments in the book - for instance, when Inigo receives a letter and Captain Alatriste talks to him about it - that are exquisitely captured; one can picture the scene, the sounds, the voices, the background as if you are watching a movie. Truly a master writer at work, knowing just what words to put in...and just what can be left out.

3. The action scenes that take place around the siege and in the story are unique for two aspects: one, they are very original; and two, as the action proceeds, you get a real feel for both the characters, their motivations, their fears, the confusion they find themselves in, and the tragedy of their courage and ideals.

If you are expecting an Erol Flynn swashbuckling derring-do, yes, you'll be unimpressed. If you're expecting an adventure story close to what likely happened to men who lived and died 400 years ago, I cannot imagine a better author and a better book that captures this moment.

I have long been a fan of Arturo Perez-Reverte. Novels like The Club Dumas and The Seville Communion are among my favorites. He is now in the midst of a series of short novels starring Captain Diego Alatriste and his faithful squire Inigo Balboa. Though by no means poor novels, to me they are not nearly as engaging as his others.

In The Sun Over Breda, we join the Captain and Inigo in the siege of the Dutch town of Breda. In these waning years of Spain's Golden Age, the crown is fighting desperately to retain its possessions in the face of declining wealth and Protestantism. The Captain and Inigo are models of Spanish valor and pride but they also see the futility of where things are going. Unfortunately, in this novel, things aren't going much of anywhere.

Not too surprising since the central event in this novel is a siege which, by its very nature, is not very exciting. Perez-Reverte tries to add some energy to the proceedings by relating side events to the siege, like a mutiny by the soldiers, a skirmish in the mining tunnels and a night raid on a Dutch position. Still, when it comes right down to it, there is very little action in this novel to keep things moving forward.

Perhaps these novels are much more popular in Perez-Reverte's native Spain where the events and context are immediately clear. For me, however, this novel just doesn't have the spark of his previous ones--even the previous ones in this series which have gotten steadily less interesting after an excellent opening adventure.

The Sun Over Breda is the third in this five volume series. Of course, I will read the others to see how the tale wraps up. Perez-Reverte is a strong enough writer and has written enough excellent books to keep me wading through these very short novels. Still, I will be happy when he's done with the Captain and Inigo and moves on to something else.