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{{quote|''"He was not the most honest of men, nor the most pious one, but he was a brave man."''|'''Íñigo de Balboa''', ''The Adventures of Captain Alatriste''}}
 
''The Adventures of Captain Alatriste'' is a series of novels written by Arturo Pérez-Reverte starring a Spanish soldier-turned-mercenary-turned-sword-for-hire, the titular Diego Alatriste y Tenorio (who was never an actual Captain in the Army, [[Non -Indicative Name|but was called that way]]). Alatriste is a veteran of the [[Eighty Years War|Flanders War]] that lives badly in 17th-century Europe, looking for shady jobs and sometimes being lead to international conspiracies involving the Spanish Crown and the Inquisition. At the same time, Alatriste trains a squire, Íñigo de Balboa, the orphan child of an old friend; Íñigo serves as the narrator of the story. The series includes adventures and noir in a well-researched historical setting.
 
Seven books have been published so far, with two more in the making:
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* [[Badass Spaniard]]
* [[Beard of Evil]]: Alquézar.
* [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]]: [[Non -Indicative Name|Angélica]] de Alquézar.
* {{spoiler|Bolivian Army Ending:}} In the movie, and confirmed by [[Word of God]] for the books. It's just that the author has not bothered to write the scene down yet.
* [[Compressed Adaptation]]: The movie is mostly a cut-and-paste job of elements from all the books. Which means that unlike in the individual books (which all had interesting plots), we don't actually get an engaging plot, just a selection of set pieces (it's as if the movie was a series of illustrations for the novels).
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* [[Edutainment Show]]: The series was created by the author to teach his teen daughter about the Spanish Golden Age, with each book being devoted to one aspect of it. In the published books, these are respectively Politics, Religion, the Flanders War, Economics, Theatre, the low-scale [[Forever War]] against the Turks in the Mediterranean and the long time love/hate relationship between Spain and the Republic of Venice.
* [[Eighty Years War]]
* [[Evil Counterpart]]: Gualterio Malatesta is basically Alatriste without the [[Screw the Money, I Have Rules]] part.
* [[Famous Ancestor]]: A joke in the later books reveals that Alatriste is a grand-nephew of [[Don Juan|Don Juan Tenorio]] (the author had in fact chosen Tenorio as Alatriste's mother's family name in homage to Don Juan, when he was writing the first book).
** Note that in the original legend (and especially Zorrilla's play ''Don Juan Tenorio'', which is the one most Spaniards are familiar with), Don Juan is just as famous as a duelist as a, er, "seducer", so this also works as a sort of [[In the Blood]] for Alatriste.
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* [[Historical Domain Character]]: Lots of them.
* [[Hitman With a Heart]]: Alatriste.
* [[Historical in In-Joke]]: ''The Sun over Breda'' has one about how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Surrender_of_Breda this painting] was made (and why Alatriste ''does not'' appear on it).
* [[Homage Shot]]: In the movie, the scene of the surrender of Breda is modelled after Velazquez's famous painting.
* [[Honor Before Reason]]: Many, many times.
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* [[My Country Right or Wrong]]: "Your king is your king" (even if he is a jackass).
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: María de Castro is a rather obvious stand-in for the real actress [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Calderon María Calderón] with a few changes for story purposes.
* [[Precision F -Strike]]: Several instances. It's also pointed out in the first book that sailors learn insults phonetically in other languages to shout at the opponent before the expected [[Boarding Party]].
* [[Screw the Money, I Have Rules]]: Alatriste is paid to slay two men but refuses when the first one he is about to kill begs him to spare ''his companion''. This makes him an enemy of the people who hired him.
* [[Shown Their Work]]
* [[Sinister Minister]]: Inquisitor Bocanegra.
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