The Sun Over Breda

Written by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Narrated by Eddie Lopez

The third swashbuckling adventure in the internationally acclaimed Captain Alatriste series.

Fifteen-year-old Iñigo Balboa enlists to serve as his master’s aide, and narrates their further adventures of swordplay and skirmishes, mutiny and wartime honor, as Captain Alatriste rejoins his Cartagena regiment to take part in the battles and siege of Breda. In Spain, Alatriste’s
nemesis, Luis de Alquézar, grows more powerful, as Iñigo’s mysterious friend Angélica hints at some plans upon his return. Once again the exploits of the seventeenth-century mercenary will thrill and delight the legions of readers eager to cheer a hero for the ages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781705080115

Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Arturo Pérez-Reverte is the #1 internationally bestselling author of many critically acclaimed novels, including The Club Dumas, The Queen of the South, and The Siege, which won the International Dagger Award from the Crime Writers’ Association. A retired war journalist, he lives in Madrid and is a member of the Royal Spanish Academy. His books have been translated into more than forty languages and have been adapted to the big screen.

Reviews for The Sun Over Breda

[vikinglitespear · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Much better than the first two books in the series.

[altheaann · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the third in Perez-Reverte's 'Captain Alatriste' series, however, I felt that the author was inspired to write this book mostly out of a desire to write a book about the Siege of Breda and Velasquez' painting 'The Surrender of Breda', not because the events forward the ongoing story of Diego Alatriste and his squire (the narrator) Inigo. It almost seems random that these two characters are here, at these battles - they could almost be any two characters. (We don't get any more progress in Inigo's tragic(?) obsession with the beautiful Angelica de Alquezar, either). That said, however, if one is interested in a historical novel of Spain set during the Thirty Years' War, and a well-researched, interesting account of a soldier's life during those times, this is quite a good book.

[jessiejluna · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I like the Alatriste novels, but this one was a little depressing. And very muddy. I will admit it has been a while since I've read it since I am cataloging as I am packing, but I mostly remember the mud. A very introspective chapter in Alatriste and Inigo's time together, and a necessary part of the story, but not the most enjoyable one.

[gildaclone · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Captain Diego Alatriste is in the miserable damp fog of the Netherlands fighting the "Hollanders" and trying to break the siege of Breda. This book, like the other Alatriste novels, is narrated by his Basque mochilero/sidekick Iñigo Balboa. Iñigo is starting to feel like more of a man as he tastes his first real combat. This book is more about honor and battle glory etc. than the other two, which were more about personal exploits. As usual, the somewhat heavy-handed writing style of Pérez-Reverte only adds to the atmosphere, charm, and derring-do of the book. One example of this is the opening paragraph, "...The canals of these Dutch are damp on autumn mornings. Somewhere above the curtain of fog that veiled the dike, a blurred sun shone palely on the silhouettes moving along the road in the direction of the city.....That sun was a cold, Calvinist, invisible star unworthy of the name, its dirty gray light falling on...." Other turns of phrase that I appreciated were "you would have thought the devil was vomiting heretics" to describe advancing soldiers coming out of nowhere and Alatriste's taunt "You would never want people to call you the baby butcher." Another favorite descriptive passage in the book is this image of Alatriste himself, "Diego Alatriste seemed to be somewhere fay beyond all that. He had thrown off his hsat, and tangled, dirty hair fell over his forehead and ears. His legs were planted firmly apart as if nailed to hte ground, and all his energy and wrath were concentrated in his eyes, which gleamed red and dangerous in his smoke-blackened face."

[harrietthespy_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the third book in the Captain Alatriste series. This one was a little harder for me to read. In this one we are in battle with the Captain and his ward, Inego (?). I am not familiar with the history of Spain during the Inquisition, so I got a little lost. But I did really enjoy the book.

[dougwood57 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

`The Sun Over Breda', third book in the Alatriste series, departs from the first two installments that took place entirely in Madrid by taking Captain Alatriste, our narrator Inigo Balboa, and the readers to war in the Netherlands, where they find an unwelcoming landscape of mud, canals, a weak northern sun - and bloody fights with the heretic Calvinists. This tale has plenty of fighting for those readers who thought the first two books lacked action. The story settles into the siege of Breda in 1625, which lasted ten months in reality but did not feel nearly that long in Perez-Reverte's telling. Depending on who's doing the naming, the campaign was part of the `Dutch Revolt' or `80 Years War' that lasted from 1568 to 1648 with a 12-year break in the middle. The war also drew in English participation beginning under Elizabeth and featured the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. The war overlapped with the better known Thirty Years War and ended with de jure recognition of the Dutch republic, the Staats General. Thus, the war was an early key to the gradual shriveling of Spanish power as its gold and glory were poured into continental religious wars on behalf of the Catholic God. Perez-Reverte develops complexity in the character of Inigo as he emerges from boyhood in more ways than one. The reader is, of course, treated to numerous instances of the renowned hidalgo touchiness over any perceived insult to `honor'. Perez-Reverte introduces a number of new characters in the military unit in which Alatriste fights and Inigo serves as a mochilero (a military pack-carrier, but that sounds so mundane), including their despised colonel - seemingly despised for being much like the soldiers, but above them in rank. The hidalgo's medieval obsession with honor and machismo certainly hastened the downward trajectory of the Spanish (Habsburg) crown. Perez-Reverte includes his trademark mixing of reality with fiction as he playfully has the renowned painter Diego Velazquez put Captain Alatriste into the background of his famed `Surrender of Breda'. This enjoyable entry in the series has more with action than the first two books, while developing Inigo as a more fully-formed character. `The Sun Over Breda' can be read as a stand alone historical novel, but the reader will really should take up the series at the beginning. Perez-Reverte also includes plenty of foreshadowing for the rest of the series. Unfortunately for us English-only readers, `The Sun Over Breda' is the last translated book in the series (six in Spanish so far) for now.

[saltypepper_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Less of an adventure story than the other Alatriste novels I've read, this one is more a lament for the plight of the Spanish infantryman of the time as he represents the common man, the spanish character, and the common solider. Good and well-written, but not as delightful or entertaining a read as the others.

[jco123_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting book by Perez-Reverte. About the siege of Briea by the Spaniards. Seems to get into a lot of the real life part of the war, not necessarily as much of the "exiting" sword fighting as the other books in the series. Not necessarily one of the best, but it was a nice read.

[iftyzaidi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The historian in me absolutely loved this. If the greatest strength of the first Alatriste novel was how vividly it brought early 17th century Madrid to life, here Perez-Reverte really brings to life the war in the low countries. I suppose one might feel that the novel is more a series of vignettes than a fully structured story, but I thought that it succeeded wonderfully in capturing a certain period in the lives of the two main characters. The descriptions of the siege, the trench warfare and life in the tercios of Imperial Spain are brilliantly conceived and executed and to my mind as vivid as any classic war novel. The development of the relationship between Alatriste and his ward, Inigo is also well done. I also liked the departure from the swashbuckling adventure of the previous books and the exquisite dissection of the horrors of war.

[thorold_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I've heard good things about Pérez-Reverte, but this was a bit of a disappointment. The English translation is dreadful - no translator is listed in the colophon, so presumably it was done by a committee, some of them taking Donald Rumsfeld as their model of English prose style ("...this soldier has gifted us with his opinion"), and others the late Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The sentences are long and winding, the parentheses endless, the grammar eccentric, and the vocabulary as full of bogus archaisms as any Victorian historical novel. There are a few extra special ways in which the perpetrators manage to torture the reader, like the odd idea of translating the formal Usted literally as "Your Mercy", rather than the much more natural "you" or the conventional English form "your grace". Surely only a theologian would quibble about the difference between grace and mercy in this context? Then there are the horribly flat translations of the many bits of poetry interspersed in the text. Ugh.I'm prepared to accept that Pérez-Reverte may be a good and interesting historical novelist, and worth reading in Spanish: there is a lot in his descriptions of the everyday life of seventeenth century infantrymen, and in the battle sequences, that leads me to think that he knows what he is talking about both historically and psychologically - presumably his background as a war correspondent comes into play here. But I'm certainly not going to attempt to read any more of his books in English. I wonder what the French translations are like?

[jmaloney17 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is part of the Captain Alatriste series. This one is takes place during the war in Breda among other places. This is definately a war story, which makes it a little different than the other books in the series. Good, but not my favorite of the books so far.

[clstaff · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

For those of you who like a bit of wit with your gritty historical novel.