Basically a 17th century male buddy story, featuring four basically shallow, self-centered, and often quite not nice hotheads gallivanting around having fun and waving their swords around in the service of the king. Entertaining read and interesting view of the times, but really didn't find the characters much more likeable or worthy of admiration than your average Hollywood buddy movie. Milady and Richlieu (the baddies) are really the most interesting and deep characters by far.