The Musketeers Marathon - S1E4: The Good Soldier

 

This is another pretty good one.

The Duke of Savoy, who is married to King Louis' sister Christine, has come to Paris to sign a treaty of alliance between France and Savoy. Upon arrival, he narrowly survives an attempt on his life, but Aramis discovers the would-be assassin is a former Musketeer named Marsac. Five years earlier, Aramis and Marsac were the sole survivors after a troop of Musketeers were massacred during a training exercise near the French-Savoyard border. Marsac has learned that the Duke was responsible for the massacre, and persuades Aramis to investigate. But the Musketeers' loyalties are thrown into question when Captain Treville is implicated. 

Meanwhile, the Duke refuses to sign the treaty until the assassin's motives are determined. In reality, he suspects Cardinal Tucker of being involved in the disappearance of his Chancellor, Clouset, five years earlier. His First Minister, Gontard, is tasked with investigating rumours that Clouset is being imprisoned in France.

This episode has a greater focus on political intrigue than swashbuckling action. I can't go into too much detail, because there are plenty of surprises I don't wish to spoil. However, it's interesting to see the rifts that are threatening to form. Aramis has to persuade d'Artagnan not to bring Marsac in (which does provoke a funny warning in which d'Artagnan threatens to take it personally if he's hanged), and they hide him at Constance's house. Porthos and Athos realise they're keeping a secret after the debriefing, and Constance threatens to evict d'Artagnan for the deception. Athos and Porthos are also reluctant to investigate Treville.

The episode also sees d'Artagnan grow closer to Constance. She goes back on her initial eviction, citing that she'd miss him. He later punches out Marsac for making improper advances towards her. I must admit the "rescue romance" trope isn't a thing I'm keen on when it's played straight. Yeah, it's a typical swashbuckler trope, but I can do without it. However, there is a subversion here. Constance asks d'Artagnan for a favour that her husband can't know about; she wants to learn how to fight.

All in all, it's a great episode with some tense intrigue and a few poignant moments. I especially like one comedic payoff with Gontard learns of Clouset's imprisonment.

The Musketeers Marathon - S1E3: Commodities

 

3:10 to Yuma, anyone? Actually, this is one of my favourite episodes, and when the show truly picked up.

The Musketeers have been dispatched to Le Havre to arrest Emile Bonaire, a flamboyant merchant and explorer played by James Callis, for violating a trade agreement between France and Spain. Unfortunately, the journey back to Paris is not a simple one: Bonaire's wife, Maria, attempts to rescue him on several occasions; Bonaire's financier, Paul Munier, is looking for a return on his investment and has sent thugs after him; and two Spanish agents (because everyone who isn't French speaks with their native accent) are shadowing them along the journey.

When Porthos is wounded in an ambush, Athos is forced to give him shelter at a dilapidated chateau; his ancestral home as the Comte de la Fere. While Aramis treats Porthos' injury, Athos becomes withdrawn as he's forced to spend the night, haunted by memories of his marriage to Milady de Winter. Meanwhile, Porthos - who is now established to have been the son of a freed slave - is fascinated by the tales of Bonaire's travels and dreams, until he discovers that he's actually a slave trader.

While there's still some great action, with a barfight, an ambush, and a horse chase, this episode has a greater focus on drama. We get flashbacks to when Athos was happily married, interspersing moments of him wandering through the chateau. He doesn't share this with anybody except d'Artagnan. There's also the tension between Bonaire and Porthos, who is almost on the cusp of killing the merchant outright.

Bonaire makes an interesting "villain of the week". He presents himself as a suave and charismatic figure, so you kind of warm up to him. In reality, he's just a snivelling coward who will say anything to save his own skin. Nonetheless, that is something he's good at, especially when he's brought before the Cardinal to account for his misdeeds. It's frustrating when you want to seem him get his just desserts, but so satisfying when he eventually does.

Good episode, with great tension and drama from multiple fronts.

The Musketeers Marathon - S1E2: Sleight of Hand

 

I wonder if the Grubers had some French ancestry...

After getting into an illegal duel with another Musketeer, d'Artagnan is arrested by the Red Guards and abandoned by his friends. He's imprisoned in the Chatalet, and forced to share a cell with a sleight of hand expert named Vadim, played by Jason Flemyng. It's then revealed that his arrest was a ploy for him to get close to Vadim in order to investigate the theft of a large quantity of gunpowder. They escape during a visit from the Queen, and Vadim invites d'Artagnan to join his band of radicals. D'Artagnan learns that they intend to assassinate King Louis and Queen Anne, in order to incite a people's revolution. He attempts to warn the Musketeers, who conduct their investigation, but the plot isn't what it seems.

This episode has a lot of tension as d'Artagnan tries to infiltrate Vadim's organisation, especially as he's mistrusted by Vadim's right-hand-man Felix. Vadim's a pretty good villain too, stringing everybody along before he reveals his true intentions. The overall story is very similar to Die Hard: With a Vengeance, as Felix is dedicated to carrying out his revolution while Vadim's true goals are more criminal than political. That doesn't stop him from playing a few comic book villain tropes, including a death trap complete with gloating.

Said death trap involves Vadim leaving d'Artagnan tied up in a room full of powder kegs and a fuse. It's an old cliché, but it's still great. I especially like one moment in which d'Artagnan is able to free himself and extinguish the fuse. But when he leaves, the door to the room turns out to be booby-trapped, triggering several other fuses.

The duel at the beginning is pretty funny too. In an aversion to the "civilised" notion of honour duels, the other Musketeers tell him to do anything it takes to win, with Porthos remarking on how he taught d'Artagnan to kick his opponent in the groin. And when the Red Guards break up the duel, they subvert the typical "All for one and one for all" motto, replacing it with "Every man for himself" when they flee.

One issue I do have is that this episode seems to scale back the Cardinal's ruthlessness. The previous episode had him using Red Guards to murder and impersonate Musketeers to discredit the regiment, and ended with him having his mistress killed for being unfaithful. This time, he's working with the Musketeers to foil Vadim. Nevertheless, it does establish him a little better, and actually closer to the book version. Unlike many adaptations, (such as Tim Curry), this version of Richelieu doesn't wish to seek the throne for himself, but he does wish to control it. He's essentially Malcolm Tucker in 17th Century France.

In some continuity, Aramis saves Queen Anne's life after she's taken hostage by Vadim, and she presents him with a crucifix as a token. Porthos warns Aramis not to fall in love and mentions Adele, whom Aramis believes to have moved to the Cardinal's country estate.

Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow for the next episode.

The Musketeers Marathon - S1E1: Friends and Enemies

 

Well, it's a new month, and time to start the marathon.

It's 1630. France is ruled by the childish King Louis XIII, played by Ryan Gage. Stuck in a loveless marriage to Queen Anne of Austria, played by Alexandra Dowling, the king is more concerned with hunting than ruling. As such, he defers most state matters to his First Minister, Cardinal Tucker Richelieu, played by Peter Capaldi. The King is protected by an elite regiment known as the Musketeers, led by his close friend Captain Treville, played by Hugo Speer. When not on duty, the Musketeers share a rivalry with the Red Guards, the Cardinal's personal regiment.

Luke Pasqualino plays d'Artagnan, a farmer from Gascony with a talent for swordplay, who is travelling to Paris with his father to petition the king over the taxes levied upon them by Richelieu. While staying at an inn, they're robbed by bandits led by "Athos of the King's Musketeers", and d'Artagnan's father is killed while they're fighting them off. In the style of Inigo Montoya, d'Artagnan travels to Paris seeking revenge. He is seduced by Milady de Winter, the Cardinal's personal assassin and spy, played by Mamie McCoy. After Milady frames him for the murder of a Spanish envoy, he eludes the authorities and meets Constance Bonacieux, a cloth merchant's wife played by Tamla Kari. 

Meanwhile, we also follow three Musketeers: Athos, a troubled nobleman played by Tom Burke; Porthos, a boisterous bruiser played by Howard Charles; and Aramis, a romantic libertine played by Santiago Carbrera. They're tasked by Treville to search for a troop of musketeers who disappeared in Chartres with a number of important letters. After learning both he and the Spanish envoy he was due to meet failed to make the rendezvous, they return to Paris and are confronted by d'Artagnan. After a brief fight, Athos is arrested for murder and robbery. Aramis and Porthos must then seek d'Artagnan out to help clearing their friend's name.

This episode provides most of the traditional swashbuckling clichés you'd expect from a story of its kind. While I'd say it's a genre that's built on cliché, it would be nice to see them done a little differently from time to time.

I especially like the sequence after the intro in which the Musketeers are introduced. It establishes their characters perfectly:

• Athos is shown waking up in his room surrounded by wine bottles and looking forlornly at a locket, implying he's lost somebody. He promptly dunks his head in a bucket of water (after punching through the layer of ice on the surface), dons his uniform, and heads out. It establishes that he puts duty first, even when it's painful for him.
• Porthos is shown playing cards with a Red Guard who accuses him of cheating. After Athos suggests a duel, the Red Guard agrees and then kicks Porthos' sword away. Porthos fends him off with a fork, laughing all the while. This shows his boisterous and cunning nature.
• Aramis is shown to be sleeping with the Cardinal's mistress, and is forced to dangle from a window so he isn't caught by the Cardinal. As his friends laugh at his predicament, he falls. This shows his romantic notions, and their tendency to land him in trouble.

Yes, it's traditional swashbuckling action, but I still love it. In fact, I'd often say that Aramis and Porthos were one of the inspirations for Kestrel and Scar.

The Musketeers Marathon

Yeah, I'm procrastinating again. Writing's been a bit slow lately, with job-hunting and house-hunting. I'm still working on The Pirate King, the follow-up to Gentlemen of Fortune. Trouble is, I'm also getting distracted by other ideas for stories featuring Kestrel and Scar. After all, I want to see what kinds of mischief they can get into. On top of that, I've got my Swanwick workshop to prepare for August. For the last couple of years, most of my writing has been university assignments and ghostwriting. Since then, I've found that if I don't have deadlines I don't have as much discipline.

Anyway, to try and get back into the swing of things, I've decided to do another marathon. I've mentioned previously that I'm fond of the BBC's short-lived series, The Musketeers. It's not exactly an adaptation of the classical tale by Alexandre Dumas, but more of a fan fiction. Nonetheless, I still love it, and often cite it as one of the inspirations for the Kestrel and Scar stories.

Over the next month, I'm planning to work my way through the series and provide a write-up of each episode. I'll try and keep spoilers to a minimum, but this might be difficult.

Get ready for some classical swashbuckling action with some very British-sounding French people. I'll have my first review posted tomorrow.

Film Review: The Gentlemen

 

It's been a while since I posted on here. Job hunting stress and writers' block often go hand in hand. With this in mind, I decided to do another film review. A while back, I did reviews of Guy Ritchie's London gangster films; Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and Snatch. The other night, I checked out his more recent entry in that genre; The Gentlemen.

Matthew McConaughey plays Mickey Pearson, an American expatriate living in London who operates a large cannabis empire. He's also a high society figure, who maintains a strong relationship with members of the English aristocracy (he hides his labs on their estates in exchange for paying their upkeep). He seeks to retire from a life of crime and sell his business to Matthew Berger, an American billionaire played by Jeremy Strong. Things get complicated when Dry Eye, a Chinese gangster played by Henry Golding, learns that Mickey's getting out and seeks to buy him out. After Mickey refuses, one of his labs is raided by a gang of MMA fighters and rappers known as "The Toddlers". Mickey has also made an enemy of Big Dave, a tabloid editor played by Eddie Marsan, after publicly refusing to shake his hand at a black tie event. Dave hires Fletcher, a private investigator played by Hugh Grant, to investigate Mickey's aristocratic connections. Fletcher then offers to sell his findings to Raymond Smith, Mickey's second-in-command played by Charlie Hunnam. Their meeting serves as a framing story for the rest of the film.

Once again, this film employs an impressive array of characters which provides a ton of great dialogue. Mickey is suave and charismatic, but does show his ruthless side at times. Fletcher's sleaziness gives him some great back and forth with the more straight-laced Raymond. Michelle Dockery plays Mickey's wife Rosalind, who runs a garage that serves as one of Mickey's fronts, but is just as streetwise as he is. Big Dave is obnoxious (evidently someone in the crew hates tabloids), but it's great to see him get his just desserts (with a certain nursery rhyme I'll never look at the same way again).

If there's anybody who steals the show, it's Colin Farrell as The Coach. He's a gym owner who serves as a mentor to the Toddlers, but tries to keep his hands clean of criminal activity. Nevertheless, when the Toddlers steal Mickey's cannabis, he tries to protect them by offering his services to Raymond. He also gets all the best lines. He needed a lot more screen time.

In one subplot, Mickey is asked by one of his aristocratic friends to recover his daughter from a group of heroin addicts she's fallen in with. Raymond is reluctant to embark on the mission, harbouring a strong prejudice against heroin users. It creates a tense scene as he meets with the addicts. He attempts to retain a veneer of pleasantry, but you get the idea he's trying not to lose it.

If there's anything I do have to criticise, there's one plot element which stems from this which doesn't seem to get resolved. I can't really talk about it here due to spoilers, but it does provide an interesting "butterfly effect" vibe. Nevertheless, it's a loose end which doesn't get tied off.

All in all, it's a funny story about how it's not easy to leave some lives. It's currently available on Netflix, and I highly recommend you check it out.

Book Review - Burrowed

 

It's been a while since I've posted on here. You could say I've been getting some writing done. Anyway, today I'm taking a look at Burrowed a fantasy novel by Maressa Mortimer. This post is being made as part of a Reading Between the Lines blog tour.

Blurb

The beautiful island of Ximiu has a plan for a more sustainable future. But not everyone living on the island is on board. Jasira, daughter of the governing matriarch, is determined to uncover the dark forces threatening her home. With the help of her friends she embark on a desperate bid to save her island community. When the price is higher than she had bargained for, will Jasira still find faith and beauty in the world around her?

Review

This was an intriguing read. Marketed as a fantasy, it nonetheless takes place in a modern society, which brings across the feeling it could be real and take place somewhere in our world. This is backed up by the fact that the island's society is Christian. However, it retains a fantasy element on account of the fact it doesn't clue you in to where exactly the island could be situated. There's mention of a mainland, but doesn't state any country name. Nonetheless, I think this works to the story's advantage, because the ambiguity lets the reader make a decision on exactly where it takes place.

The story is told from the point-of-view of Jasira Colmadis, the daughter of the Xibai, who rules the island. We explore her friendship with Ilori, the son of the Vice-Xibai, as they navigate the effects of the Serving Clean Island initiative the government is pushing for. The island's residents are being asked to sell their cars, but when the cars go missing before they can be sold on the mainland, that sets a mystery in motion.

I quite like how Jasira plays the detective, and a lot of the story is dedicated to how people are feeling the effects of the push for the sustainable future. It's almost as if the initiative is being sabotaged. It's a slow-burning mystery, but one that keeps you guessing.

Burrowed is available here.

About the Author

Maressa grew up in the Netherlands, and moved to England soon after finishing teaching training college. Married to Pastor Richard Mortimer they live in a Cotswold village with there four children. She is a homeschool mum, enjoying the time spent with family, travelling, reading and turning life into stories, she wants to use her stories to show practical Christian’s living in a fallen world.

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Happy writing.

"Playing Out" the Work Day

I realise I haven't posted much on here lately. Well, working in an internship while also taking care of a ghostwriting commission does make things pretty hectic at times. With this in mind, I thought I'd discuss a new ritual I've adopted.

Since I work remotely, I've been told it's important to have a ritual at the end of the work day. Especially because I live in a studio flat and don't have a lot of room for a dedicated office space. My internship's part-time, which leaves with time to work on my writing, and I've been trying to accommodate both as best as I can. For example, I have very strict "office hours" in my internship, and have made it clear that I don't respond to any calls and emails outside of this time. That's one way of maintaining discipline when working from home. But I also found another practice.

Since I've been doing a lot of work in the Western genre lately, my parents opted to give me a harmonica for Christmas. I've been dabbling in it, just finding a few tutorials online, and have recently adopted a ritual I like to call "playing out". When I finish work for the day, I do some harmonica practice before I work on my writing. I sometimes find that playing some period-appropriate tunes can get me into the right mindset. 

With that in mind, I've been teaching myself an old cowboy folk song, "Red River Valley". I've just about got the hang of that one, and am now trying to play it from memory. I've also found tutorials for a couple of songs from O Brother Where Art Thou?. I've managed to pull of "You are my Sunshine" and am practicing "Man of Constant Sorrow", while seeking a few other tunes to add to my repertoire.

Well, that's all I've really got to say. For anyone else who works remotely: What are your end-of-work rituals? Feel free to share them here.

Either way, happy writing.

New Year, New Plans?

Playing the harmonica could be a plan.

Well, it's now 2022. Or "2020 2". An unwanted sequel to an unwanted year.

2021 was a rough year, but one with some major ups. I finished my Creative Writing degree last year, graduating with First Class Honours. Graduating during a pandemic is no small feat. I also published my first book, Gentlemen of Fortune, as part of one of my university assignments. After finishing university, I decided I wanted to stay in the city, moving into a studio flat. I also landed some work as a ghostwriter on a series of Western novels.

Although I'm no longer a student, I'm still involved with some of the university societies, particularly the one dedicated to table-top roleplaying games. It was refreshing to be able to run in-person games again, although I'm not sure how long that's going to last. I must confess that I actually enjoy running games via Roll20, because it's easier to accommodate battle maps and tokens. That's handy for settings which involve more firearms and the variables associated with ranged combat.

What are my plans for this coming year now that I've finished university? I don't know. I'm still working on a ghostwriting project, along with a follow-up story to Gentlemen of Fortune. On top of that, I started a fan fiction project based on Dawn of Defiance, an epic campaign for a Star Wars roleplaying game which I've been running since May last year.

Let's see how this goes.

Happy New Year, and happy writing.

Writing Hunter's Rules - A Guest Post by Val Penny

Hello everyone. I hope you've had a good Christmas. Today I'm delighted to once again welcome my good friend and fellow Swanwicker Val Penny to the Writer's Block, where she'll be discussing Hunter's Rules her latest instalment in the Edinburgh Crime Mysteries. Over to you, Val.

Thank you so much for inviting me onto your blog today, Andy. I am delighted to have a chance to tell you and your readers about Hunter’s Rules, the new novel in my series of The Edinburgh Crime Thrillers.

I've been writing and telling stories all my life. When I was a child, I used to make up stories for my little sister after our Mum put the light out and told us to go to sleep. Later, I wrote documents, contracts, and courses as part of my job, but my time was well accounted for, so I did not create any fiction.

However, I took early retirement when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and there were times when I suffered severe side effects from my treatment. I could not go out, spend time with friends or indulge in many of my favourite hobbies, but watching daytime television got very old very fast, so I turned to reading. It was the only thing I had the energy to do and could do safely.

I read voraciously, as I always have. I particularly enjoy reading crime fiction and thrillers. I indulged this interest with many novels including those by Peter Robinson, Ian Rankin, Linwood Barclay and Kathy Reichs. 

After a while, I began to feel a little better and decided to start reviewing the books I read in a blog www.bookreviewstoday.info. I enjoyed doing that. Then, as I began to feel better still, I got restless, but was not well enough to do very much and I complained to my long-suffering husband about getting bored. It was then he challenged me: ‘If you know so much about what makes a good book, why don’t you write one?’ I did laugh. However, the challenge set, I have been writing police procedural crime thrillers set in Scotland ever since.

In fact, my publishers, will publish the sixth book in the series The Edinburgh Crime Mysteries on 01.01.2022. The main character is Detective Inspector Hunter Wilson, Hunter’s Rules.

I did two things with this novel that I have never done before: I don’t kill anybody in the book and the novel, Hunter’s Rules, actually has a prequel in my short story Cats and Dogs, which was published in a charity anthology of short stories, Dark Scotland, published in January 2021. Of course, both the novel and the short story can be read completely independently, but those who have read both may enjoy the conceit. 

I particularly enjoyed writing Hunter’s Rules and hope that my readers will enjoy reading the novel. I plan that the next novel in this series will appear in 2023. It will be entitled Hunter’s Festival and will take place during an Edinburgh summer during the Edinburgh International Festival. I’ll let you know more about that in due course!

Thank you again for hosting me, Andy.

My pleasure, Val. I wish you all the best with Hunter's Rules in the new year.

The Edinburgh Crime Mysteries are available on Amazon: Hunter's Chase, Hunter's Revenge, Hunter's Force, Hunter's Blood, Hunter's Secret, Hunter's Rules.

Hunter’s Rules is the sixth book in Val Penny’s Edinburgh Crime Mysteries series of novels published by Dark Stroke, as is The First Cut, the first book in the new series of Jane Renwick Thrillers.

She has recently contributed her short story, Cats and Dogs to a charity anthology, Dark Scotland. Her short story, The Corpse in the Catacombs will be published in the charity anthology, Dark Paris, shortly.

Val is an American author living in SW Scotland with her husband and their cat.

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Book Review - Snowflake's Big Adventure

I didn't think I'd be including reviews of children's books in my repertoire. I've previously posted a cover reveal of Snowflake's Big Adventure by Erin Mackey. Like before, this post is part of a Reading Between the Lines blog tour organised by Lynsey Adams.

Blurb

Sometimes going out into the world is scary, but it can also be exciting.

We all worry about our place in the world and Little Snowflake is no different. When the day comes for him to fall to Earth for the very first time, he’s filled with worry and wonder.  Guided by Mama Snowflake, Little Snowflake and the others anticipate their destination. He knows the possibilities are endless and wishes he could do them all.  There are so many things he could be, but will any of it be meaningful? Will he be satisfied with his destiny?

Snowflake’s Big Adventure is a fun and engaging picture book that helps children grapple with the age old question: “What is my purpose?” It teaches, them how to overcome anxiety and trust the wisdom of those around them. Combining beautiful pictures with powerful life lessons, this book could be your child’s next lifelong favourite.

Review

I don't really have much to say about this book without cluttering the review by reading too deep or getting cynical about the themes. It's a relatively short read and pretty much does what it advertises; A snowflake falls from the sky and contemplates their purpose in life. In their case, this could be landing on a hill used for sledging, or being made into a snow angel or a snowman. It explores the possibilities. I must confess that as a recent university graduate, the message is one that kind of resonates with me at the moment. All in all, it's kind of wholesome.

Snowflake's Big Adventure is available here.

About the Author

Helping kids to love reading one book at a time.  Erin Mackey writes in various children’s genres, including picture books, early readers, chapter books, middle grade fiction, and Young Adult fiction.  She has more than 40 completed picture book manuscripts and she continues to develop new story ideas on a regular basis.  So far, Erin has published picture books, middle grade fiction, and Young Adult books.  She enjoys spending time with her husband, family, friends, church family, and her crazy cats who constantly entertain her and get into trouble.

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Happy writing.