Twenty Years After Book

Wow! Just wow! I loved The Three Musketeers, but - if anything - I think that this was even better. Twenty Years After is the second installment in the Musketeers' tale (one that continues into a third part, 'Ten Years Later', which is normally split itself into three, the last of which is The Man in teh Iron Mask). That might be because I didn't' already know the story, but I think it was also because there's now a world-weariness about the four heroes. All now in their forties, they're almost anachronisms: shining beacons of valour, but surrounded by people interested only in personal gain and money. Cardinal Mazarin is a pale shadow of Richelieu, whose evil is petty and base, almost managing to bring D'Artagnan down to his level. In fact for almost half of the book, the Musketeers are split in two warring factions, which adds enormous tension to the storyline. Overall, I recommend this book even higher than the first one - it's just as well written (this is no hack work, which is what I felt with Scott's Ivanhoe), this is genuine literature. But literature told at super pace and with a nail-biting plot. Ach -just read it, you won't regret it.