King Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu—as all readers of Dumas know—ruled Paris back in the 1630s. There were musketeers too, and formerly a brave band known as the Cardinal’s Blades, disbanded a few years earlier under a cloud. But they are about to be reinstated, led by their old leader: the world-weary Captain La Fargue. The reason for this is a new threat from Spain, led by the infamous Black Claw cult. which could see both king and cardinal toppled. A plot instigated by those ancient enemies of mankind...dragons!

Dragons in Dumas’ France? This is not actually a historical novel but a fantasy—a la Naomi Novik—where everything is pretty much the same as it would have been back in the 1630s, apart from one. Everything else is how you imagine it to be, as cape swirling, moustache-twirling musketeers strut their stuff in the streets, doing all the usual things. The problem with this book is that there is not enough about Pevel’s parallel universe that is actually different from the real thing. Whole chapters go by, and you would think that you were indeed in Dumas’ world—and then a dragon pops up. They appear to have been grafted onto the story rather than being as much a part of it as they ought to, and the fantasy fan in me who delights in reading about world building wants so much more than this. Either a full-blown fantasy novel where many things are different, or a straight swashbuckling historical adventure—there are never enough of those around.

This is Part One of a new series, so it will be interesting to see what transpires in the next book as the plot thickens. Much of this initial volume is taken up with a seemingly endless number of rather sketchy characters lining up to be reinstated as the Cardinal’s Blades. Pevel can certainly write action scenes well, and is reasonably adept at sketching in a scene. It is the characters who remain shadowy.