Traitor's Blade

A good book, despite the torture porn and the luck based plot.

The book has clearly a three musketeers vibe going on, although it is much grittier. The king is dead, the Greatcoats are dispersed. Three friends, Falcio, Kest, & Brasti, appear to be the last remaining members of that order. They roam about the world trying to uphold the King's Law, even though there is a king no more. They are honor bound to defend the weak against those who place themselves above the law.

A Greatcoat is like an elite sword fighter. Specialized in duels, they are unmatched in a fair fight. They are not fools, and have no qualms in running from danger when they think they cannot win a fight. Their coats acts as a very flexible armor, and also carries hidden compartments with some surprises with them.

They must know all the laws in order to act as Magistrates and resolve disputes where they go. They are trained bards, because in order for the people to remember their edicts, it is easier to remember a song then a proclamation, especially when most of the population is illiterate. Writing it down is not enough.

All hope is lost, everyone is against them.

The Dukes are the sole rulers now, and even though they agree there must be a king, he is meant to be their puppet, and to not make any ruling that goes against their will. They want to rule their counties as they see fit, and all of them are brutal, corrupt and cruel, some more then others.

There are knights in the world, proficient and honored fighters, heavily armored and charged to maintain order in the name of their Dukes. However, their definition of honor does not mean what they think it means. They torture, bully, raid and rape. They prey on the weak just like any other thug would, but under the protection of the law and their false sense of virtue.

The peasants have grown accustomed to living under oppression, and they see Falcio and his friends as out of touch with reality and over privileged, pretentious self righteous pricks. They hate them. And still Falcio believes they are worth fighting for.

The caravan masters, are the ones who control all commerce between the counties. They have greatly suffered with the loss of the king, because now no Duke wants to spend their resources to maintain the roads and protect the caravans against bandits. Still they hate the Greatcoats, and want nothing to do with them.

The Dashini is an ancient order of assassins that, hired by the Dukes, have destroyed the Greatcoats one hundred years ago. It took a long while but the Greatcoats have risen again. But now once again the Dashini were called to kill the remaining ones.

Regarding the plot, before the king died, he called each one of his Greatcoats and gave them one special and secret task, to be performed after his demise. No one knows what that order was except the Greatcoat himself, unless the King told them otherwise.

Falcio and his friends are trying to fulfill their King's last wish. Their are also trying to revive the Greatcoats, negotiating with the caravan masters to become the protectors of the roads,. It is a start at least, an improvement over their current status as pariahs.

There are rumors of existing other Greatcoats, and that they have turned to banditry. There are plots directed and ending their existence. Princesses needing protection to travel on the road. Murders, betrayals, Saints and a war at hand.

There is a scene with long and heavy depictions of torture, that I felt was much unnecessary. And I say this as someone who “liked” the torture scenes in The Outlander.

One major issue I had was that no mater how hurt or how stacked the odds were against the protagonists, they always found a way to beat it. Sometimes it involved using a somewhat clever plan, but much of the times it was sheer luck. Throw yourself in the face of danger, and hope everything turns out okay. Poisoned, outnumbered, up against better fighters. It doesn't matter. The hero always succeeds.

But that wasn't enough to offset all the fun the book offered. This is a worthy successor of The Three Musketeers.

The three Musketeers meets fantasy, an intriguing take on a classic story. The greatcoats are an ancient order of enforcers, but following the fall of the king they serve they are a disgraced and despised group despite upholding their honor. The nobles who overthrew the king have managed to tarnish their name in order to cement their own power. The ultimate story hidden in here is the battle between law and privilege, which feels like a pertinent tale today as ever. The idea that wealth and influence bring you beyond the law is one that is both uncomfortably close to the bone and important to address. Traitor's blade provides a very good critique of this.

On top of the more weighty moralizing in the story we have a wonderful group dynamic represented by the greatcoats themselves. Sebastien de Castell has produced a fantastic group of characters with some real dynamism to their relationship. This helps drive the story along with a sense of fun that never goes away.

I came to this book not knowing much about it really. Quite a lot of the reviews mention The Three Musketeers, so I had an idea that it might be something in this vein.

The story centres on the disgraced order, The Greatcoats, who, after the King of the land is executed are disbanded and wander around scraping a living selling their services to anyone who will hire them.

The main protagonist, Falcio is man who holds his ideals despite the fact that the world around him is corrupt and subject to the fickle whims of the leading classes.

I really liked this book. It's fast paced and easy to read. The characters are likeable and the relationship between the main characters and the supporting characters is something that drives the story along.

Like I said, I didn't really know anything about the book but did have some preconceived ideas about it being like the three musketeers s. However, when it comes to the second act, it kind of reminds me of that Clint Eastwood film, The Gauntlet.

This is an action/adventure story and the book has plenty of this in spades. In fact, it never really let's up and the story moves along at a breakneck pace moving from one situation to the next without letting up.

In some reviews, they mention that there is a lack of world building. However, I didn't find this to be a hindrance at all and I felt that it was left to my imagination rather than having it spelled out to me. I kind of imagined that the setting was a renaissance Italy type set up with the Dukes of the story resembling the Borgias.

At first, I was a bit unsure on where the story was going. However, when we get to the second act the story finds its feet and takes you along with it.

On one hand, there is not much ‘traditional' fantasy, however, there are fantasy tropes on the story, on the other hand there are loads of fantasy tropes in the book but used in way that seemed fresh.

All in all, I liked this book and now moving on to the second in the series.