Purity of Blood (Captain Alatriste)

by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Book Overview

En esta segunda entrega de Las aventuras del capit?n Alatriste, en el azaroso Madrid de Felipe IV, entre lances e intrigas, la trama pondr? en juego la vida de los amigos del capit?n, haciendo surgir... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452287987
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Plume
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.9" x 0.6" x 5.2"

Customer Reviews

Spain in its Golden Decadence

This book is riveting! It depicts XVII Century Spain with so much detail and imagination. Capitan Alatriste, an anti-hero sword-for-hire with a code of Honor so true of the Spaniards, is spectacular. And his friend, the Legendary Don Francisco Quevedo, one of Spain's greatest writers, collaborates with him through the story. The book is sprinkled with Quevedo's verses as well as those of Don Luis De Gongora. Inigo, the Captain's 13 year old protegee, relates the story, a la "Lazarillo de Tormes." Simply delicious!

Purity of Blood

The second in the series about Captain Alatriste, an enthralling story of a seventeenth-century Spanish soldier who, after retiring from the Spanish army, served as so many ex-soldiers did as a sword for hire. Arturo Pérez-Reverte is one of the best authors I have read. Alatriste is an excellent read and I highly recommend it. Simply outstanding.

Adventure, Mystery, and the Human Condition.

The Captain Alastriste novels are packed with adventure, mystery, the human condition, and the ominous spectre of the Inquisition. As the Bernard Cromwell "Sharpe" novels do for the early 19th Century English empire and its soldiers, the Alastrite novels paint an intelligent and vivid picture of existence in 17th Century Madrid and Spain and the life of a professional soldier during that time. Perez-Reverte breathes new life into a genre pioneered by writers such as Dumas, and would be welcome by any fan of the Musketeers. I could not put down this book and anxiously await the next installment in April.

wonderful seventeenth century sword-buckler thriller

In 1623 Madrid Chief Constable Martin Saldana arrives at the crime scene of a strangled woman sitting in a sedan chair in front of the church; she holds a pouch containing fifty escudos and a handwritten note stating: "For masses for her soul". He confides to his friend Captain Diego Alatriste that he is unable to resolve who murdered the woman and what motive caused the homicide. Don Francisco de Quevedo asks Alatriste to help him before the soldier returns to his hometown of Breda, Flanders where hostilities have once again broken out. Francisco's daughter Elvira is being held at La Adoracian, a convent that is a harem for the dangerous Father Juan Coroado. The duenna who brought Elvira and two other novices there simply vanished. Adding to Francisco's fears is that he and his daughter are not "not of pure blood", which makes them fodder for the Inquisition fire. Alatriste accepts the assignment as he is not one to idly stand for the abuse of power, but soon connects Coroado's concubine center to the plaza homicide with both linked to the Inquisition. The sequel to the wonderful seventeenth century sword-buckling CAPTAIN ALATRISTE, is a terrific action-packed tale that starts off with the plaza homicide and never slows down until the final confrontation. Besides the heroic escapades of the lead protagonist, who has some set backs during his rescue attempts, readers obtain an in depth look at Inquisition Spain, but the historical tidbits are cleverly interwoven into the fabric of the adventures. Once again Arturo Pérez-Reverte provides a fabsulous fast-paced thriller starring a wonderful super soldier who delays his entry to the war flaring up back home to risk his life trying to rescue a damsel in distress. Harriet Klausner

Sentirse espadachín

Cuando termié de leer esta libro descubrí que era el segundo de una serie. Sin perder tiempo busqué el primero (Las aventuras del Capitán Alatriste) y me lo devoré en cuestión de horas. Si bien es cierto que se puede leer sin haber leído el primero, es mucho más sabroso leerlo con la información entregada en la primera parte. Iñigo Balboa,un jovencito que llegará a ser escudero de Alatriste, será quien nos narre lo que pasa: con su óptica de niño que se hace hombre, de cómplice de un extraordinario soldado que no tiene pares con la espada, pero que por honor desafía a un hombre de poder, a inquisidores. Iñigo se verá en un fuerte aprieto del cual sólo Alatriste es capaz de salvarlo.