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The King's Gold | 
 enlarge | Author: Arturo Perez-reverte
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $14.00
You Save: $10.95 (44%)
New (21) Used (8) from $14.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 5431
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.2
ISBN: 0399155104
Dewey Decimal Number: 863.64
EAN: 9780399155109
ASIN: 0399155104
Publication Date: August 14, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: New in new dust jacket. 1st edition, 1st printing, not remainder. 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches.
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Product Description
From acclaimed and bestselling author Arturo Perez-Reverte comes the fourth adventure of Captain Alatriste, the brooding, charismatic hero of his wildly successful Spanish swashbuckling novels (The New York Times).
Arturo Perez-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 Perez-Reverte a literary superstar and his fictional seventeenth-century mercenary a national icon.
The Kings Gold picks up in Seville, 1626. After serving with honor at the bloody siege of Breda, Captain Alatriste and his protege, 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 its 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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| Customer Reviews:
 In the Footsteps of Dumas, Henty and Sabatini August 21, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
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.
Another good adventure novel from Arturo Perez-Reverte August 20, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you've gotten far enough along the Captain Aaltriste series of books to reach The King's Gold, then you probably know what to expect. If you've enjoyed the series up until now, you will like the latest instalment. It has a bit more action early on along with the signature detached malaise of the hero/narrator that you've already read about in the previous books, Captain Alatriste, Purity of Blood, and The Sun Over Breda. If you haven't done so, go back and start with Captain Alatriste and you'll be enjoying some very well-researched historical swashbuckling through Spain in the early 1600's. If you read this and think "hey, I wanted more meticulously thought-out historical detail alongside my sword fights, check out Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. Otherwise, enjoy these novels for what they are, a really good writer having some fun with history and doing an homage to the adventure novels he grew up reading.
If you've been waiting for the books to do something unexpected, keep waiting. Part of the fun of these novels is that while the story moves forward, the tone and characters never really change or develop. This makes the books fun and quick to read but also makes each book tend to blur with the others. I recommend you try The Fencing Master or The Flanders Panel for Arturo Perez-Reverte at his best (so far).
 excellent seventeenth century swashbuckler August 17, 2008
2 out of 10 found this review helpful
In 1626 Seville, everyone who is anyone waits for the annual treasure ships to begin to arrive at the port. Although a festive feel hangs all over the city as the vessels represent how powerful Spain is and how proud the Spaniards are of their nation, some of the royal inner sanction will steal for their personal use; others will challenge their actions trying to insure the booty makes it into the treasury.
In that gala atmosphere, a bone weary Captain Diego Alatriste and his associate Inigo Balboa arrive exhausted from a recent siege (see THE SUN OVER BREDA). Exhausted they need money as living in the city when the treasure ships arrive is exorbitant; the merchants and shop owners charge two arms and two legs for everything. However when King Phillip IV, concerned with looting when the nation needs the treasury to finance its world domination especially in the Americas, orders Alatriste to seize a cache of gold to place in the royal coffers. Hiring street thugs, Alatriste and his dirty dozen or so masquerade as pirates as they invade the gold ship. There they find waiting is Alatriste's long time enemy Gualterio Malatesta and a horde of mercenaries who beat them to the vessel.
This seventeenth century swashbuckler is an excellent action-packed thriller in which the escapades keep on coming yet the Captain, his prime antagonist and several other key players come across as fully developed. The story line is fast-paced yet provides a fascinating look at Spain at the height of its power as this is the country's Golden Age and for us fans of this superb series a rebirth of the Dumas golden age.
Harriet Klausner
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