Who is the antagonist in this book?
It’s everyone. Every character spends most of their effort antagonizing other characters.

Read more: The Three Musketeers

This was a much goofier book than I had imagined it would be. It’s like if you crossed Don Quixote with a Hardy Boys novel, an Indian soap opera, an action movie from the $5 bin, and a slice-of-life manga.

Every character is a caricature of themselves, constantly pushing themselves to absurd extremes. They’re all super geniuses with perfect, intricate plans to outsmart their enemies. The only trouble is, their enemies are also super geniuses with perfect intricate plans, and to make things worse, they’re also main characters.

Everyone wins, everyone loses. A beautiful woman is executed, and the Cardinal gets his comeuppance.

This book is literally the opposite of yesterday’s Snow Country.

5 stars.