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
I'm currently on my first re-reading and this time around I'm looking at it as a study project, I have the Companions, the Ultimate Guide to The Game of Kings and a special note-book bought just for it :) I'm still on GoT, but enjoying following your own progress.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how I'll feel about Checkmate because the first time around I was slightly disappointed (as much as you can be with DD). I just couldn't accept the reasons for all the ANGST. It was just so frustrating, possibly the most frustrating book I've ever read (in a good way?). But that ending! So, 10 years after the first read, maybe I'm more patient!
That's so funny -- this is my first complete reread in about 10 years as well, and I just picked up the Companion. I remember Checkmate as being flawless, which I think might be because I read the last part of Ringed Castle and went straight into it, and then read the whole thing in a couple of days, staying up all night. This time I was surprised to realize just how angst-ridden it was. As I got closer to the end I kept thinking, "THIS is what I loved so much? This is ridiculous!"
DeleteBut it swept me up with it anyway, and I decided that I feel like it actually does fit the entirely over-the-top tone of romantic adventure of the whole series. (Secret opium addiction? Sure. Everyone he loves dies? Absolutely. Soulmates who can read each other's minds? Why not.) The end is so purely joyful that it erased a lot of my skepticism, because it feels so earned. I still love it very much, but I also can't wait for the friends I have currently reading the series to get here so we can talk about how it does and doesn't work.
Since you mentioned it, (i didn't in my other comment today because the main audience seems to be women)this series comes with a great dollop of soap :-) I have also read this series twice but with about 20 years between. This soapy tendency is there in spades in The House of Niccolo but it is the richness of the Historical background in both events and characters that attracts me. King Hereafter I found less soapy but I found her quite radical theories from such tantalizing fragments quite appealing. I found her modern mystery series "Dolly and..." quite dry.
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