Where have I been? Well, I have been reading this book (kindle estimated reading time: 15 hours) and then ALSO accidentally rereading the 1st book in the series, because I know someone reading it who wanted to ask questions, and -- anyway, all the Dunnett. ALL OF IT.
So how to talk about the last book in a series, without spoiling the whole thing? Honestly, it would be hard to spoil if you hadn't read 1-5 because you won't know who everyone is or why they're so important, or why I cried so hard at the end. Books one and two are comedy-action-adventure, with a gut punch of feelings at the end. Three and four are action-adventure but the serious kind, with life or death hanging in the balance and our hero relentlessly pursuing justice and/or revenge no matter what the cost. Five was his attempt to run away from his friends, family, and feelings, but because he is This Kind of Hero, six is where he is dragged back to face all the messes and solve all the problems he's created along the way. We get most of our assembled band of heroes back, we get war on a grand scale, and we get, finally, the romance that kicked off in the last book.
You'd either love or hate the way the book treats the romance; it gets very nighttime soap opera "oh my god, PLOT TWIST, THEY CAN NEVER BE TOGETHER, OR CAN THEY??????" They are soulmates, and the book makes it very clear that they not only literally complete each other but basically read each other's minds and are connected in their very souls. This is fine with me, because if Francis is the smartest guy in Europe, and the most ruthless, and the hottest trash fire, then she (I am being deliberately ambiguous) is smarter, more sensible, and puts up with none of his self-pitying bullshit. She's better than he is, which he realized at the end of the last book. Every character in the series has a strong opinion on either them being soulmates who must be brought back together, or that they will only ruin each other and must be separated. The Queen of Scotland has an opinion. The King of France has an opinion. Nostradamus has an opinion. It is both hilarious and hilariously over the top, and I love it -- but I'm happy to read a romance about two people who really genuinely complete each other, even if it gets so poetic and mildly ridiculous that at one point the entire French army appears to be discussing whether or not Francis will die if he can't have sex with her. (That happened. It was great.) This is, gloriously, historical fan fiction, which is to say Francis is a Mary Sue of the highest order, and so like any good fic protagonist, everyone is absolutely obsessed with his love life. Also, everyone loves him even when he doesn't deserve it (and bless the characters who smack him when he needs it). But also HE NEEDS A LOT OF LOVE, HE'S SO SAD, SECRETLY.
With 22 minutes left in the book, I was absolutely sure (even though I've read it before) that there was no possible happy ending. And then with 5 minutes left in the book, I was sobbing with joy. It's a beautiful end to the series. It wraps up a lot of things, and leaves the future of the characters delightfully open to what might happen next. Francis says over and over that he's retiring, but a character like his would never really just go home forever. Everyone in these books feels so amazingly real, I can't believe that half the characters are fictional. I'm going to spend a lot of time rereading the last few pages to make sure the happy ending really did happen, and imagining how beautiful all their futures are going to be.
Grade: A
#47 in 2016
Showing posts with label reread. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reread. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Saturday, April 30, 2016
The Ringed Castle, Dorothy Dunnett
A reread, of course, and I have a lot to say but I'm not sure how to talk about it without spoiling everything.
Ten years ago I got halfway through part two of this book and put it down for six months. My memories of this book are misery, Lymond being really mean, and endless scenes of description of Russia. I knew it set up important things for Checkmate, though, so I wasn't going to skip it in my reread.
Me from the past, I have good news and bad news.
The bad news: you could BASICALLY skip all of part two, Lymond's Adventures in Russia, and not miss that much plot. Or any plot. I'm genuinely not sure any forward story momentum would be lost if you just read part one (In Which Philippa Is The Best) and then skipped straight to part three (Back In England). Well, you'd miss a pretty great fight scene, you'd miss a pretty great sex scene, and you'd miss Diccon Chancellor, who I like a lot. (Don't google him, he's a real guy, you'll spoil yourself for good stuff.)
The good news, though, is that I got through this book in four days, so no, it's not an unreadable slog. Part one is a delight, as it's 90% narrated by Philippa, who is my favorite character in the series. (Petition to rename books four, five, and six The Legendary Philippa Chronicles.) Part three has a lot of stuff I can't talk about without spoiling really important plot that readers shouldn't be spoiled for. Francis is, indeed, a total jerk for a lot of the book, but he's not the icy monster I thought I remembered. He's sad, and he's struggling, and he has perfectly good reasons for everything he does, if you look at it from his point of view. There is some brutally emotional stuff where everyone is furious with everyone else, and it makes sense no matter who you sympathize with.
Very mild spoiler, I guess: Francis gets the punch in the mouth he's been basically begging for the whole book, and it's delivered by someone who richly deserves a chance to punch Francis in the mouth.
The REALLY good news: Dunnett hits nearly all the swashbuckling tropes in these books. There are sudden rescues, noble self sacrifice, near-death experiences, sudden reveals, sudden reversals, chess games and card games fraught with tension, prophecy, disguise... I mean, it's all here. But it's not until The Ringed Castle that you get romance, with all its over the top tropes, including fainting, pining, and sudden revelations of "oh no, I fucked up; I love her."
(DID I MENTION PINING? THERE IS PINING.)
And at the end there is some unbearable -- no, you know what, even to name the trope would be to spoil it, mildly, so I won't. I'll just sit here shouting at my Kindle and highlighting virtually every sentence to reread, possibly while crying, later.
Grade: .......this is as close as I'm coming to giving any of these books a B, because you really can skip the middle, but damn the end is SO GOOD. A.
#40 in 2016
Ten years ago I got halfway through part two of this book and put it down for six months. My memories of this book are misery, Lymond being really mean, and endless scenes of description of Russia. I knew it set up important things for Checkmate, though, so I wasn't going to skip it in my reread.
Me from the past, I have good news and bad news.
The bad news: you could BASICALLY skip all of part two, Lymond's Adventures in Russia, and not miss that much plot. Or any plot. I'm genuinely not sure any forward story momentum would be lost if you just read part one (In Which Philippa Is The Best) and then skipped straight to part three (Back In England). Well, you'd miss a pretty great fight scene, you'd miss a pretty great sex scene, and you'd miss Diccon Chancellor, who I like a lot. (Don't google him, he's a real guy, you'll spoil yourself for good stuff.)
The good news, though, is that I got through this book in four days, so no, it's not an unreadable slog. Part one is a delight, as it's 90% narrated by Philippa, who is my favorite character in the series. (Petition to rename books four, five, and six The Legendary Philippa Chronicles.) Part three has a lot of stuff I can't talk about without spoiling really important plot that readers shouldn't be spoiled for. Francis is, indeed, a total jerk for a lot of the book, but he's not the icy monster I thought I remembered. He's sad, and he's struggling, and he has perfectly good reasons for everything he does, if you look at it from his point of view. There is some brutally emotional stuff where everyone is furious with everyone else, and it makes sense no matter who you sympathize with.
Very mild spoiler, I guess: Francis gets the punch in the mouth he's been basically begging for the whole book, and it's delivered by someone who richly deserves a chance to punch Francis in the mouth.
The REALLY good news: Dunnett hits nearly all the swashbuckling tropes in these books. There are sudden rescues, noble self sacrifice, near-death experiences, sudden reveals, sudden reversals, chess games and card games fraught with tension, prophecy, disguise... I mean, it's all here. But it's not until The Ringed Castle that you get romance, with all its over the top tropes, including fainting, pining, and sudden revelations of "oh no, I fucked up; I love her."
(DID I MENTION PINING? THERE IS PINING.)
And at the end there is some unbearable -- no, you know what, even to name the trope would be to spoil it, mildly, so I won't. I'll just sit here shouting at my Kindle and highlighting virtually every sentence to reread, possibly while crying, later.
Grade: .......this is as close as I'm coming to giving any of these books a B, because you really can skip the middle, but damn the end is SO GOOD. A.
#40 in 2016
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
secret reread: part 4 of The Game of Kings
This section has everything: a high-stakes card game, a trial, a duel, a chase, noble self-sacrifice, sarcasm, amazing ladies saving the day (Agnes, Christian AND Sybilla all get to be phenomenal in this section, and shout-out to Kate for also being awesome), brothers being brothers, and A HUG. THERE IS A HUG.
These books are either your jam or they aren't, but god, I love them. I laughed out loud at the following bit. Here's the set up: Francis is an outlaw, and for the first 2/3rds of the book his brother Richard has been chasing him. Francis is a sarcastic monster, and my favorite. Francis doesn't want Richard to catch him, because Richard is so mad that he'll murder Francis and end up hanging himself. ...plus Francis doesn't want to get murdered, I suppose.
Anyway, due to circumstances entirely beyond Francis's control, Richard DOES find him, and BURSTS INTO THE ROOM very dramatically, and Francis sighs and says:
"I know. Aha, oho, and every other bloody ejaculation. Let's take it as read. You're delirious at the idea of manhandling me and can't wait to start. I in turn may say I find your arrival offensive and your presence blasphemous, thus concluding the exchange of civilities and letting us get out of here. If there's anything novel or extra you want to add, you can think of it on the way home."
IT'S SO FUNNY. And then they fight to the death (kind of).
After GGK I needed a little breather in a similar genre, so I reread this, and even though I know how it ends I was still super tense and worried through the last bit, and then got all teary at the end. I love this book.
These books are either your jam or they aren't, but god, I love them. I laughed out loud at the following bit. Here's the set up: Francis is an outlaw, and for the first 2/3rds of the book his brother Richard has been chasing him. Francis is a sarcastic monster, and my favorite. Francis doesn't want Richard to catch him, because Richard is so mad that he'll murder Francis and end up hanging himself. ...plus Francis doesn't want to get murdered, I suppose.
Anyway, due to circumstances entirely beyond Francis's control, Richard DOES find him, and BURSTS INTO THE ROOM very dramatically, and Francis sighs and says:
"I know. Aha, oho, and every other bloody ejaculation. Let's take it as read. You're delirious at the idea of manhandling me and can't wait to start. I in turn may say I find your arrival offensive and your presence blasphemous, thus concluding the exchange of civilities and letting us get out of here. If there's anything novel or extra you want to add, you can think of it on the way home."
IT'S SO FUNNY. And then they fight to the death (kind of).
After GGK I needed a little breather in a similar genre, so I reread this, and even though I know how it ends I was still super tense and worried through the last bit, and then got all teary at the end. I love this book.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
The Disorderly Knights, Dorothy Dunnett
Part of an ongoing reread of the series, which is my favorite.
THIS BOOK IS SO GREAT. It starts off with Francis-and-Richard shenanigans, and then you get a lot of people trying to beat up or murder Francis, and you get Jerrott, finally, and um.... spoiler spoiler spoiler SPOILER spoiler SPOILER SPOILER!!!!!!!!! I will never forget how it felt to read this the first time, and getting to the end of the book, and going, "Oh holy shit, no. NO. OH MY GOD!!!!" when the reveal came through.
Note: Francis does a thing in here that seems unforgivable, but turns out just to be kind of shitty. I'm not delighted by it, but A) it's the 16th century, and B) it was written in the 1960s. Anyway, he pays for it, more or less.
Jerrott couldn't be more in love with Francis, or angrier about it, and I'm still delighted.
Grade: A
#13 in 2016
THIS BOOK IS SO GREAT. It starts off with Francis-and-Richard shenanigans, and then you get a lot of people trying to beat up or murder Francis, and you get Jerrott, finally, and um.... spoiler spoiler spoiler SPOILER spoiler SPOILER SPOILER!!!!!!!!! I will never forget how it felt to read this the first time, and getting to the end of the book, and going, "Oh holy shit, no. NO. OH MY GOD!!!!" when the reveal came through.
Note: Francis does a thing in here that seems unforgivable, but turns out just to be kind of shitty. I'm not delighted by it, but A) it's the 16th century, and B) it was written in the 1960s. Anyway, he pays for it, more or less.
Jerrott couldn't be more in love with Francis, or angrier about it, and I'm still delighted.
Grade: A
#13 in 2016
Pawn in Frankincense, Dorothy Dunnett
Part of an ongoing reread of my favorite series in the world, Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles.
Still brilliant, still heartbreaking, still the perfect denoument to the two part story of how Francis Crawford takes on a brilliant, truly evil villain. In order not to spoil all the phenomenal twists, I can't say much except: the end is still so tense I had to read it secretly at work all day, I cried at the end even though this time I knew what was coming, and this is the book where Philippa overtakes Francis as my favorite character. That scene at the end with them, man... Oh boy. Ohhhhh boy.
Grade: A
#19 in 2016
Still brilliant, still heartbreaking, still the perfect denoument to the two part story of how Francis Crawford takes on a brilliant, truly evil villain. In order not to spoil all the phenomenal twists, I can't say much except: the end is still so tense I had to read it secretly at work all day, I cried at the end even though this time I knew what was coming, and this is the book where Philippa overtakes Francis as my favorite character. That scene at the end with them, man... Oh boy. Ohhhhh boy.
Grade: A
#19 in 2016
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