Review 4/8/2026 9/10

Swashbuckling adventure is a fantastic thing. I think I realized earlier this year I'm an adventure guy. I like adventure stories. This story is utterly ridiculous and feels like it was written for a tabloid in the 1800s. It isn't profound, it is mostly four doofuses hacking and slashing their way through life. The blind love they have for one another is well summarized in one quote when d'art has the musketeers help him leave Paris and head for England without telling them why he must go. "When you go on a campaign, does the King give his reasons? He says, 'Porthos, fight!' and you fight. Then let's go and be killed where we're told to go! Is life worth so many questions?" — Aramis. I love this. They are absolute hooligans the whole time. Coming back from England d'art picks each up in turn and each story is sillier than the last. One of the musketeers has spent about a week locked in a basement drunk as a skunk eating the tavern keep out of house and home becasue of a misunderstanding where the local police had been trying to arrest d'art. I couldn't belive the number of times I was actually laughing aloud at this story. There were so many lines that went so hard as well the executioner at the end of the story throwing the silver in the river so Milady would know the execution was personal??? I swear I looked like a background character in that meme gif of the rap battle running around my house. I would love to have read this as a serialization how it came out originally. It felt like a collection of small stories with an overarching storyline and recurring characters. I could feel when a chapter ended a story and I felt they all wrapped up nicely. The shennanigans they got into to get into their storylines were often comedic and I appreciated that the story didn't take itself too seriously. Judging by the time this was written I suspect a lighthearted story was just what the public needed. I could write a hundred pages and comb through the three musketeers for hours but I sincerely believe you should read/listen to this one yourself.