Purity Of Blood

And worst of all is the person who acts as exegete of The Word–whether it be from the Talmud, the Bible, the Koran, or any other book already written or yet to come. I am not fond of giving advice–no one can pound opinions into another’s head–but here is a piece that costs you nothing: Never trust a man who reads only one book.
- page 160

The above is in reference to the agents of The Inquisition, who play a frighteningly large part in Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s Purity of Blood, up to and including the imprisonment and interrogation of the book’s narrator.

Purity of Blood is the second part of the Captain Alatriste series. Pérez-Reverte, normally a writer of mysteries, has pursued the swashbuckling adventures of this terse and dangerous titular character since 1996, and the English versions of these books are finally making their way into this country. Captain Alatriste came in ‘05, Purity of Blood in ‘06, The Sun Over Breda this year, and The King’s Gold and The Caballero In the Yellow Doublet in the next two years will finish it up. I’ve only read the first two so far, but I intend to follow the series through to its end. (Even though I have heard that Sun of Breda is a bit different and lackluster.)

But on to Purity of Blood, which I just finished. Personally, I think I enjoyed this one even more than the first book, although it is possible that that’s simply because I had a better idea of what to expect. See, the thing to keep in mind regarding the Alatriste series, is that despite the author’s immense love for Dumas, Sabatini, et al, (as expounded upon in the excellent The Club Dumas) these books are definitely not those old swashbucklers.

This is mostly for two specific reasons. First of all, the characters are ensconced in their own time, and their own ethics, moreso than most within the genre. None of the main characters, who are almost all Spanish Catholics, have any problem with seeing Protestants of all kinds (especially the Flemish) as Godless heathens, and Jews are even worse. Our “hero” is more than willing to kill a man with little to no reason, and is also a mercenary swordsman who often, essentially, becomes an assassin.

This is all given a nice balance by the narration, which is being told decades later by the boy he is forced to look after. Our narrator still often discusses heretics and the like, but by the time he is telling us his story he has clearly become almost as disillusioned in many things as the Captain is throughout the series. The quote at the top of this review shows plainly enough that he’s no religious fanatic–none of our heroes are. They are simply of their time.

The second thing separating the Captain Alatriste series from most swashbucklers is the pacing. Like the one non-Alatriste book of Pérez-Reverte’s that I’ve read, these novels move relatively slow, although they don’t feel like it. We get to the actual events of the story in slower time than, say, Dumas or Sabatini would take us there, but this is because Pérez-Reverte spends more time on character and introspection than those. He is, after all, a modern-day author. Thankfully, everything that delays the story is still very interesting, so it works out just fine. Sure, the climax to the first book would probably be the end of the first act (at most) of a Dumas book… but then again, given the short length of each Alatriste novel, some authors would probably make it all one long book anyway. If you don’t mind the fact that Pérez-Reverte is clearly writing a series, so each book doesn’t wrap up everything, you’ll be fine.

Onwards to Purity of Blood itself, the story sees powerful enemies that Alatriste made in the first book aligning themselves with The Inquisition, which clearly does not bode well. Between a few acts of swashbuckling derring do we get an incredibly chilling look into the experience of being at the mercy of Spain’s religious fanatics of the time, along with some insights on why Spain fell so far into decline around this time.

Don’t worry about too many statements being made, though. The book does conclude with a viciously breathtaking knife fight, after all.

All told, Purity of Blood is a quick, exciting read, and a more modern approach to what is, in essence, that old-fashioned swashbuckling adventure. But keep in mind that you really are reading a smaller piece of the whole story, so it won’t be the most satisfying thing ever… at least, not until the series finishes. That kind of thing has never really bothered me, though, so long as it is well done. And hey, at least each Alatriste book isn’t a blundering, many-thousand-page, twentieth-or-so-in-which-nothing-happens of the whole work… unlike some people I could name.