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The Three Musketeers
It’s the classic tale — but not exactly the way you remember it...
Paris, France. 1625.
A young woman named d’Artagnan bears the heart and the blade of a musketeer, but must prove herself before she can earn her rank and uniform.
The spy and assassin Milord de Winter advances an agenda of villainy and unbridled ambition, and will destroy anyone who gets in his way.
The so-called ‘three inseparables’ of the queens’ musketeers — the noble Athos, the forthright Porthos, and the gentle Aramis — bond in friendship and love with d’Artagnan. But for all three, that love will be tested by fate and the unforgiving past.
The Queen Louise and the Queen Anne rule a France besieged by enemies — and threatened by Anne’s affair of the heart with the Duke of Buckingham.
Monsieur de Treville, the captain of the musketeers, inspires the adulation of the soldiers who serve under him, and sees in the young d’Artagnan the potential for greatness.
The Count de Rochefort, killer and kidnapper, shows off his villainy with a cool demeanor and a well-shaped mustache.
Kitty, the young valet of Milord de Winter, quietly collects intelligence on the malign deeds of her employer but knows she dare not threaten his power — until meeting d’Artagnan gives her a cause worth fighting for.
The young tailor Constance, agent of the Queen Anne, must navigate the dangerous ground of the queen’s forbidden romance — even as she navigates an unexpected romance of her own when d’Artagnan falls head over heels in love with her.
And in the shadows, the Cardinal de Richelieu pulls the strings that control the fates of royals and assassins, lovers and soldiers, as their eminence seeks to control the future of France at any cost.
Since its initial publication in 1844, The Three Musketeers has remained one of the most popular adventure novels of all time, inspiring countless editions, over a century’s worth of film and television adaptations, and any number of bold rewrites and reimaginings. For editor and author Scott Fitzgerald Gray, The Three Musketeers was very much the gateway narrative that opened up a young reader’s broad appetite for stories of action, adventure, history, and romance. But despite the general marvelousness of the novel that has been fueling the imaginations of readers and writers for more than a century and a half, it came to Gray’s attention that something was amiss in Dumas and Maquet’s exclusive focus on crafting their narrative around a bunch of straight white men — and that it was long past time for The Three Musketeers to take on a broader perspective.
This book is not a brand-new novel. It’s not a rewriting of The Three Musketeers narrative slid over to a new milieu, or a new story inspired by the original. This is an edit and update of the full novel written by Alexandre Dumas, Pere, and Auguste Maquet — but with some subtle (okay; not-so-subtle) changes.
This is the classic Three Musketeers, but populated by a more diverse range of characters in a seventeenth-century France where colonialism just somehow never existed. This is a book whose mix of queer, straight, cisgender, nonbinary, POC, and white protagonists are meant to reflect and connect with the widest possible range of the many readers who have fallen in love with this story over the years — and to invite a new generation of readers to fall in love with Dumas and Maquet’s timeless tale in a new way. This is a book very intentionally meant to draw the ire of those who like to scream about how historical accuracy in fiction means that all characters should be straight white men, and to encourage those people to understand that the real world has no need for them, and they should all just shut up.
This is the story of d’Artagnan and Constance; Athos, Aramis, Porthos, and Treville; the Queen Anne and the Queen Louise; Milord and Kitty; Rochefort and Richelieu. Edited and updated from the William Robson translation by Scott Fitzgerald Gray (We Can be Heroes, the Exile’s Blade trilogy; editor for the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game) and exquisitely illustrated by Aviv Or (Critical Role, Acquisitions Inc., Thornwatch, Up to Four Players), this is the story of a France that never was — but which will come to life for all time in the pages of this new edition.
Bienvenue and welcome.
Paris, France. 1625.
A young woman named d’Artagnan bears the heart and the blade of a musketeer, but must prove herself before she can earn her rank and uniform.
The spy and assassin Milord de Winter advances an agenda of villainy and unbridled ambition, and will destroy anyone who gets in his way.
The so-called ‘three inseparables’ of the queens’ musketeers — the noble Athos, the forthright Porthos, and the gentle Aramis — bond in friendship and love with d’Artagnan. But for all three, that love will be tested by fate and the unforgiving past.
The Queen Louise and the Queen Anne rule a France besieged by enemies — and threatened by Anne’s affair of the heart with the Duke of Buckingham.
Monsieur de Treville, the captain of the musketeers, inspires the adulation of the soldiers who serve under him, and sees in the young d’Artagnan the potential for greatness.
The Count de Rochefort, killer and kidnapper, shows off his villainy with a cool demeanor and a well-shaped mustache.
Kitty, the young valet of Milord de Winter, quietly collects intelligence on the malign deeds of her employer but knows she dare not threaten his power — until meeting d’Artagnan gives her a cause worth fighting for.
The young tailor Constance, agent of the Queen Anne, must navigate the dangerous ground of the queen’s forbidden romance — even as she navigates an unexpected romance of her own when d’Artagnan falls head over heels in love with her.
And in the shadows, the Cardinal de Richelieu pulls the strings that control the fates of royals and assassins, lovers and soldiers, as their eminence seeks to control the future of France at any cost.
Since its initial publication in 1844, The Three Musketeers has remained one of the most popular adventure novels of all time, inspiring countless editions, over a century’s worth of film and television adaptations, and any number of bold rewrites and reimaginings. For editor and author Scott Fitzgerald Gray, The Three Musketeers was very much the gateway narrative that opened up a young reader’s broad appetite for stories of action, adventure, history, and romance. But despite the general marvelousness of the novel that has been fueling the imaginations of readers and writers for more than a century and a half, it came to Gray’s attention that something was amiss in Dumas and Maquet’s exclusive focus on crafting their narrative around a bunch of straight white men — and that it was long past time for The Three Musketeers to take on a broader perspective.
This book is not a brand-new novel. It’s not a rewriting of The Three Musketeers narrative slid over to a new milieu, or a new story inspired by the original. This is an edit and update of the full novel written by Alexandre Dumas, Pere, and Auguste Maquet — but with some subtle (okay; not-so-subtle) changes.
This is the classic Three Musketeers, but populated by a more diverse range of characters in a seventeenth-century France where colonialism just somehow never existed. This is a book whose mix of queer, straight, cisgender, nonbinary, POC, and white protagonists are meant to reflect and connect with the widest possible range of the many readers who have fallen in love with this story over the years — and to invite a new generation of readers to fall in love with Dumas and Maquet’s timeless tale in a new way. This is a book very intentionally meant to draw the ire of those who like to scream about how historical accuracy in fiction means that all characters should be straight white men, and to encourage those people to understand that the real world has no need for them, and they should all just shut up.
This is the story of d’Artagnan and Constance; Athos, Aramis, Porthos, and Treville; the Queen Anne and the Queen Louise; Milord and Kitty; Rochefort and Richelieu. Edited and updated from the William Robson translation by Scott Fitzgerald Gray (We Can be Heroes, the Exile’s Blade trilogy; editor for the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game) and exquisitely illustrated by Aviv Or (Critical Role, Acquisitions Inc., Thornwatch, Up to Four Players), this is the story of a France that never was — but which will come to life for all time in the pages of this new edition.
Bienvenue and welcome.
600 pages, ebook
Published January 1, 2021
1 person is currently reading
52 people want to read
About the author
Scott Fitzgerald Gray
69 books13 followersScott Fitzgerald Gray is a specially constructed biogenetic simulacrum built around an array of experimental consciousness-sharing techniques — a product of the finest minds of Canadian science until the grant money ran out. Accidentally set loose during an unauthorized midnight rave at the lab, the S.F. Gray entity is currently at large amongst an unsuspecting populace, where his work as an author, screenwriter, editor, RPG designer, and story editor for feature film keeps him off the streets.
More info on Scott and his work (some of it even occasionally truthful) can be found by reading between the lines at insaneangel.com.
More info on Scott and his work (some of it even occasionally truthful) can be found by reading between the lines at insaneangel.com.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
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November 28, 2024I'm going to leave this without a rating, because I expected something so different, that it would be unfair.
You see, I expected a retelling, but this was more of a retranslation. The gender of the characters was changed, some were now POC or queer, and it was set in a queer-normative, non-sexist and non-racist world, but none of these things changed the plot significantly. This is still The Three Musketeers, only that d'Artagnan and Athos are women and Aramis is non-binary (and all except Athos are POC, which you can see from the illustrations, but is barely mentioned in the text).
But these things should change the plot.
Yes, even in a much better world without prejudices.
Sometimes especially in a much better world without prejudices.
Milady's entire scheming, largely works because she is a young, (beautiful) woman in a deeply sexist society. Because nobody sees a woman as a threat. Because nobody thinks a woman could lie and kill. But if Milady is suddenly Milord, and men and women are completely equal, then ... why does everyone take what he says at face-value? Why does Constance trust him, after having talked to him for about 30 seconds?
It simply doesn't work.
And yeah, having two Queens is great. #Progress! But biology still seems to work the same way, since in one half-sentence there's mention of the need for a father for the heir. Something I expected to become a plot-point, but didn't (how, since it wasn't in the original).
I would love to read an actual retelling set in this world, but this wasn't it.
You see, I expected a retelling, but this was more of a retranslation. The gender of the characters was changed, some were now POC or queer, and it was set in a queer-normative, non-sexist and non-racist world, but none of these things changed the plot significantly. This is still The Three Musketeers, only that d'Artagnan and Athos are women and Aramis is non-binary (and all except Athos are POC, which you can see from the illustrations, but is barely mentioned in the text).
But these things should change the plot.
Yes, even in a much better world without prejudices.
Sometimes especially in a much better world without prejudices.
Milady's entire scheming, largely works because she is a young, (beautiful) woman in a deeply sexist society. Because nobody sees a woman as a threat. Because nobody thinks a woman could lie and kill. But if Milady is suddenly Milord, and men and women are completely equal, then ... why does everyone take what he says at face-value? Why does Constance trust him, after having talked to him for about 30 seconds?
It simply doesn't work.
And yeah, having two Queens is great. #Progress! But biology still seems to work the same way, since in one half-sentence there's mention of the need for a father for the heir. Something I expected to become a plot-point, but didn't (how, since it wasn't in the original).
I would love to read an actual retelling set in this world, but this wasn't it.
October 18, 2020
This is a fun, fresh take on The Three Musketeers! I was really impressed by how it handles gender diversity; it does a lot of really cool things with pronouns and (lack of) assumptions about gender which I've never seen before, especially from a third person perspective. There are a lot of great takeaways for any authors looking to write a society without gender assumptions/roles. It all feels wonderfully natural.
Also, it has so many wonderful, dumb, queer idiots running around with swords. So good. They fight over the dumbest things and I am HERE FOR IT.
No full review on this one, as it was a sensitivity read I did. Full stars for enjoyment and being a great book all the same :)
Also, it has so many wonderful, dumb, queer idiots running around with swords. So good. They fight over the dumbest things and I am HERE FOR IT.
No full review on this one, as it was a sensitivity read I did. Full stars for enjoyment and being a great book all the same :)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews