Sunday, June 24, 2018

Traitor's Blade (Sebastien de Castell)

Traitor's Blade
The Greatcoats series, Book 1
Sebastian de Castell
Jo Fletcher
Fiction, Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)


DESCRIPTION: When Falcio val Mond became First Cantor of the king's Greatcoats, traveling administrators of the King's Law and defenders of the common folk, it was the fulfillment of a childhood dream... a dream that became a nightmare the day the power-hungry Dukes struck down King Paelis and disbanded the Greatcoats. Now called Trattari, tattercloaks, traitors and cowards, they have been scattered to the four winds as the Dukes and Duchesses crush their people beneath heavy heels. But, before his execution, Paelis swore each Greatcoat to a personal quest, and Falcio means to complete it. Even when that quest marks him and his two remaining Greatcoat companions as assassins. Even when they are drawn into royal machinations in the most corrupt city of the realm. Even when the Gods and Saints themselves seem to have abandoned him. To give up on his quest is to abandon the last shreds of his honor - and his last shreds of hope that, someday, the Greatcoats might rise again.

REVIEW: Many reviews consider this a fantastical tip of the hat to Dumas's classic The Three Musketeers. Even knowing the tale mostly through cultural osmosis, that's about the closest description I can think of, a swashbuckling adventure of swordplay and camaraderie and seeking justice in an unjust world, riddled with larger-than-life characters (villains and heroes) who nonetheless feel real and rounded - at least real and rounded for their inherently larger-than-life world of both gods and magic. Falcio struggles to keep his much-battered notion of idealism alive in the face of twisted terrors and power-mad royalty and a world gone to rot at its very core. For all the glib lightness of Falcio's narrative voice, the story ventures into some dark territory at times, and many sacrifices are necessary. Some plot points border on tired tropes, but play out well enough I mostly forgave the odd low-hanging fruit. The tale moves at a fair gallop, with many twists and turns along the way to a satisfactory conclusion that sets up the rest of the series - a series I'll have to add to my bookstore shopping list now. (Like I needed another one to follow... but this is one of those problems a reader loves to have.)

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