The Italian Wars: A Baltasar Albueno Historical Adventure

Italian Wars It is the winter of 1502 and the Spanish and French Armies are contesting for control of the income and lands of the defunct Kingdom of Naples. Baltasar Albueno and his courtesan friend, Sheba of Tigre, enter into the conflict as agents of Venice on the Spanish side. The French have the edge with money, numbers and arms, but the Spanish have Gonsalvo of Cordoba, the most successful general of the era. The rest of Europe and the Ottoman Turks look on and hope for a costly and enervating stalemate between the two emerging superpowers as Gonsalvo's defensive combined-arms and hit-and-run tactics discomfit the French with their seemingly invincible offensive array of heavy cavalry, Swiss pike, and the new, fortress-reducing mobile artillery. Baltasar and Sheba, experienced and skeptical observers of their masters' follies, combine intelligence gathering with private commerce. They bend their efforts to avoiding violence, making their fortunes, and assuring a rapid escape should things go awry. Theirs is a story of friendship and mutual need evolving into an improbable and enduring love as, with imagination and spirit (and an occasional homicide), they strive to survive and even flourish in a war made increasingly lethal with new weapons and tactics. "The tentative and naïve Baltasar of Venetian Exile has emerged as a man in full in The Italian Wars: experienced, skeptical, resourceful and inner-directed. The girl, Sheba, has fared even better. A formidable and sexy team, of which we expect much in the future." "...rescues Gonsalvo of Cordoba from an undeserved obscurity in the English-speaking world. One of the great and innovative military figures of Renaissance Europe." "An action-packed tale with a humorous and unobtrusive subtext reflecting on diplomacy, commerce, war, espionage, assassination, the flesh trade, predestination, and the Sacrament of Penance-a piquant and sumptuous banquet for the lover of historical fiction."