The Captain of Venice continues Sir William Gold's adventures in Italy (and a bit of Greece) as he serves under John Hawkwood during the Great Raid on Tuscany and, later, the defense of Venice in the Chioggian War with Genoa. It covers the back half of the 1370s, and like usual is full of descriptive battles and complex continental politics.

This novel is great, like all of Cameron's work, but it also treads mostly familiar ground. Gold commands, leads his company through a few light conflicts, and then builds up towards a more spectacular high-stakes conflict at the end of the novel. The Chivalry novels, much like the Long War stories, follow something of a formula. They're all great, but they're hardly ever unpredictable.

Gold is a fun protagonist, and his companions are more or less interesting. Some of them are more developed than others - some seem to only be named for Gold to feel their death more closely - but the main core of captains around him are fun, if a bit one-note (yes, Nerio likes women, and yes Fiore is good at fighting). 

I admit I was a tiny bit lost during the more minute descriptions of geography and troop movements in the last bit of the book. I'd recommend having a map of the lagoon of Venice and the Lido handy if you care about visualizing everything going on and aren't familiar with the lay of the land. 

I give these novels 5 stars almost by default these days, both because they are well-written and also because it's such an interesting period in history. The 13th-15th centuries are incredibly complex politically and modern military strategies and equipment are just starting to evolve and it's a treat to see developments play out on the pages in real time.