200 Words or Less: Traitor’s Blade (The Greatcoat’s #1) by Sebastien de Castell

Welcome to 200 Words or Less, a weekly Friday feature here on The Tattooed Book Geek where I will bring to you reviews/thoughts of 200 words or less from the books I read before I started blogging. We all have them, books that we read and loved or even read and hated before we decided to start blogging and what better way than a quick fire review of 200 words or less to share your thoughts on them.

My Choice:

The Greatcoats – legendary heroes, arbiters of justice . . . or notorious traitors?

Falcio Val Mond and his fellow Greatcoats have been trained in the fighting arts and the Laws of Tristia – they are travelling magistrates bringing justice to all, rich or poor . . . or at least they were before they stood aside as the Dukes impaled their King’s head on a spike and took back the Kingdom. Now the land’s heroes are disbanded and reviled as traitors, their Greatcoats in tatters.

Facio, Kest and Brasti have been reduced to working for a nobleman who refused to pay them. Things could be worse of course, Things could be worse, of course – their employer could be lying dead on the floor while the three of them are forced to watch as the killer plants evidence framing them for the murder. Oh wait, that’s exactly what’s happening…

Now, the royal conspiracy that began with overthrowing an idealistic young king is about to spread to Rijou, the most corrupt city in the land: beginning with a carefully orchestrated series of murders and the attempted murder of an orphaned girl. If it succeeds, it will be the ruin of everything that the Greatcoats have fought for, but their only tools in this deadly fight are the tattered coats on their backs and the swords in their hands. These days every noble is a tyrant, every knight is a thug, and the only thing you can really trust is a traitor’s blade.

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Traitor’s Blade (The Greatcoats #1) by Sebastien de Castell.

Falcio Val Mond, Kest and Brasti are Greatcoats, part of a once legendary group who enforced the King’s Justice. Years have passed since then and the Greatcoats after stepping aside and allowing the Dukes to take the Kingdom and their King’s life are fallen heroes, known by another moniker throughout the lands of Tristia that of the ‘Trattari’ (traitors) by both the common folk and the nobility.

Told from the viewpoint of Falcio, he’s a terrific choice as the book’s narrator. The book features a present day storyline interspersed with flashbacks, detailing events of the past that are pivotal to the story.

The Greatcoats simply put are The Three Musketeers in a fantasy setting! And, it’s pure awesome! Each of the trio has a differing personality and the interplay and banter between them is a wonder to read, they are a trio of characters that you really get behind and root for.

Fun, fast-paced, well written with quality world building, cracking good swashbuckling action, occasional hints of emotion and villains to despise, Traitor’s Blade is a fantastic debut from de Castell, a wholly enjoyable adventure yarn and a splendid start to what is one of the must-read modern fantasy series.

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Quotes from Traitor’s Blade:

“That’s what being free means – not the right to do whatever you want, but the right to take a stand and say what you’ll die for.”

“The archer is the true weapon; the bow is just a long piece of wood.”

“Gods, man, don’t you start now,’ I said softly. ‘We’re going to get a terrible reputation if we just keep travelling across the countryside crying all the time.”

“I must have encountered the Duke somewhere on the road because I was carrying a sack with me and his head was in it.”

“The first rule of the sword is – put the pointy end into the other man”

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