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