Mild spoilers ahoy? Nothing specific, but these books rely on plot twists, so be careful.
The sad part is I started this book years ago and didn’t finish it. I understand why; for huge chunks of time reading the first half of it I had no idea what was going on. First, it’s written in a historically accurate style, so the characters throw around 16th century verbs and quotations that I didn’t follow. Second, I know virtually nothing about the wars between Scotland and England, so I was never sure who was doing what or why. (There is a lot of strategy, there is little explanation.) Third, nothing is actually explained until the end, when in a big courtroom scene our protagonist is forced to finally explain everything he’s done in the book. Fourth, nearly every scene in the first half of the book starts off with a new character in a new situation, (sometimes it’s someone we’ve already met in disguise, just to fuck with me), and I’m not great at keeping track of 7 intertwining plots. I admit, that does not sound like a ringing endorsement.
However. I’m not sure a book has ever taken me so much effort, but I also felt extraordinarily rewarded. Francis Crawford of Lymond is not an easy character to figure out, but he is awesome. He’s sort of a re-telling of Robin Hood, recently outlawed, currently bandit-ing and drinking and causing trouble for the English. His brother, Richard, who is a decent guy, absolutely hates him and has sworn to track him down and kill him for betraying Scotland; Lymond is also in the process of (maybe) seducing Richard’s bored wife Mariotta. Nothing about Lymond is particularly sympathetic; he humiliates other people to get his own way and uses them shamelessly (he manipulates a blind girl into doing his dirty work for him, for example). He lies to everyone all the time. He is also charming and charismatic and a good fighter and a great leader, but refuses to use any of that to actually help himself in any way. I didn’t like him much for the first half of the book, because we see him through someone else’s eyes, and he doesn’t want to be liked; it isn’t until the last third, when he loses control over the situation that the reader gets anything approaching the “real” Lymond, who is sympathetic.
That last third of the book alone, however, is worth the price of admission. Lymond gets caught, his only allies are killed, the letter he needs is stolen, and he ends up the only person who knows that Scotland is about to be betrayed. So while Lymond is trying to catch the man who will betray Scotland, everyone else is trying to catch him, and he ends up having to make a momentous decision, in a heroic moment that changes the whole tenor of the story. Even that goes wrong for him, however, and in the last few chapters we finally see the young man behind all the sarcasm and plotting. Awesomely, because I love nothing like a reconciled family plot, he gets thrown together with his brother for a while, trying to convince him that he never actually committed treason 6 years earlier. The only man who could have exonerated him has just died, and no one else will believe him, particularly not his brother Richard. The trial, of course, allows the reader to figure out what in hell was going on in the first half of the book (and made me immediately need to re-read the entire fucking thing.) Awesome? Awesome.
The second book, Queen’s Play, is also excellent; the Queen of Scotland wants Francis Crawford to go to France and protect her daughter, Mary, because he is so fucking awesome. Only he can’t tell anyone his mission, because it would be really insulting to the French King. Naturally, someone is trying to kill Mary, and that person is perfectly happy to try and kill Lymond, as well. He goes undercover (for the first 65 pages of the book we know he’s around, but not which character he is; the eventual reveal is totally worth the annoyance) and gets super popular for his ludicrous ineptitude at the French Court. As always, Lymond is really good at everything (juggling, singing, drinking, making fun of himself and everyone else) except getting the people he’s trying to help to like him. By the end of the book his closest allies are trying to figure out how to help him save the Queen and simultaneously expose his duplicity to the court, to ensure the King of France will hang him. No one is as mean to Lymond as he is to himself, however.
My favorite moment of the book – I’m sorry, I must gush -- is when Richard (his brother) shows up briefly in France. Richard is around just long enough to holler at his younger brother for being a total moron and risking his own life over and over. Richard is still just as annoyed with his brother as he was in the first book, but now he understands him -- he may be the only person in either book who does. Did I mention I love a reconciling brothers plot?
However. I’m not sure a book has ever taken me so much effort, but I also felt extraordinarily rewarded. Francis Crawford of Lymond is not an easy character to figure out, but he is awesome. He’s sort of a re-telling of Robin Hood, recently outlawed, currently bandit-ing and drinking and causing trouble for the English. His brother, Richard, who is a decent guy, absolutely hates him and has sworn to track him down and kill him for betraying Scotland; Lymond is also in the process of (maybe) seducing Richard’s bored wife Mariotta. Nothing about Lymond is particularly sympathetic; he humiliates other people to get his own way and uses them shamelessly (he manipulates a blind girl into doing his dirty work for him, for example). He lies to everyone all the time. He is also charming and charismatic and a good fighter and a great leader, but refuses to use any of that to actually help himself in any way. I didn’t like him much for the first half of the book, because we see him through someone else’s eyes, and he doesn’t want to be liked; it isn’t until the last third, when he loses control over the situation that the reader gets anything approaching the “real” Lymond, who is sympathetic.
That last third of the book alone, however, is worth the price of admission. Lymond gets caught, his only allies are killed, the letter he needs is stolen, and he ends up the only person who knows that Scotland is about to be betrayed. So while Lymond is trying to catch the man who will betray Scotland, everyone else is trying to catch him, and he ends up having to make a momentous decision, in a heroic moment that changes the whole tenor of the story. Even that goes wrong for him, however, and in the last few chapters we finally see the young man behind all the sarcasm and plotting. Awesomely, because I love nothing like a reconciled family plot, he gets thrown together with his brother for a while, trying to convince him that he never actually committed treason 6 years earlier. The only man who could have exonerated him has just died, and no one else will believe him, particularly not his brother Richard. The trial, of course, allows the reader to figure out what in hell was going on in the first half of the book (and made me immediately need to re-read the entire fucking thing.) Awesome? Awesome.
The second book, Queen’s Play, is also excellent; the Queen of Scotland wants Francis Crawford to go to France and protect her daughter, Mary, because he is so fucking awesome. Only he can’t tell anyone his mission, because it would be really insulting to the French King. Naturally, someone is trying to kill Mary, and that person is perfectly happy to try and kill Lymond, as well. He goes undercover (for the first 65 pages of the book we know he’s around, but not which character he is; the eventual reveal is totally worth the annoyance) and gets super popular for his ludicrous ineptitude at the French Court. As always, Lymond is really good at everything (juggling, singing, drinking, making fun of himself and everyone else) except getting the people he’s trying to help to like him. By the end of the book his closest allies are trying to figure out how to help him save the Queen and simultaneously expose his duplicity to the court, to ensure the King of France will hang him. No one is as mean to Lymond as he is to himself, however.
My favorite moment of the book – I’m sorry, I must gush -- is when Richard (his brother) shows up briefly in France. Richard is around just long enough to holler at his younger brother for being a total moron and risking his own life over and over. Richard is still just as annoyed with his brother as he was in the first book, but now he understands him -- he may be the only person in either book who does. Did I mention I love a reconciling brothers plot?
Lymond is such a fascinating character because Dunnett is so willing to let him be bad. We know he’s a good guy with good motivations; he’s just incredibly ruthless about getting things done. I’ve read the first two books in a marathon four day session (these are not books that can be read in two days each without staying up all night to finish) and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t gone to Amazon to read excerpts from the third already. This series has ruined all my plans to get work done this summer.
Grade for both books: A!!!!!!!
originally posted 2007
I would imagine that by now you would have read her House of Niccolo and possibly her masterpiece, King Hereafter? I wonder if you have also enjoyed her "modern" thriller series the Dolly series? Enjoyed your review. Her warts and all approach to character is just part of the magic.
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