This is a complicated book to review, because Dunnett's other series, the Lymond Chronicles, are my favorite books ever. And so as much as I liked this book, and as much as I told myself over and over not to compare it, of course I inevitably did compare it. It's also complicated because my Dunnett-reading friends haven't read this one yet, and as always there are twists and reveals I don't want to give away. (There great difficulty of getting people to read Dunnett for me, always, is that if you don't sell some of the upcoming plot, Game of Kings is so hard to get into. But there is no series that benefits more from a 100% cold read with no idea where it's going.)
Something I loved: the book is so beautifully written. The language is evocative and warm and describes life in Bruges (and Italy) so wonderfully that the atmosphere is immediate and enveloping. Dorothy's descriptions are so so so good.
Something I didn't love: a lot of this book involves people making very secret and sneaky trade deals. I teach about the alum trade in the Mediterranean Sea and I was still baffled about half the time, trying to keep the various Italian families and city-states straight. I finally worked out what was going on about 75% of the way through, when Felix did, but it meant that a lot of the book was meaningful meetings and people giving each other hints that I wasn't sure the significance of. (In fairness, as a reader of GoK you often have no idea what Lymond is up to or who he's making deals with, either, but there's enough of Will and Christian that it doesn't feel as overwhelming to me.)
Something I loved: Dorothy is so good at writing teenaged boys with a bad attitude. Felix is completely real in both his good points and his bad points, which makes him very frustrating to read about, even while you totally understand where he's coming from. I also loved (or hated, as appropriate) Katelina, and Simon, and Jordan, and Marian, all of whom felt like well-rounded real people. Oh, and Gelis. I'd read a whole book about Gelis.
Something I didn't love: From the very beginning, I felt like I had a grasp on who Francis Crawford was. Sure, his motivations were secret, but he was drunk and charming and sarcastic, with a bitter side and a noble side, and he was not to be trusted. I've read this book twice now and I'm still not entirely sure I get who Nicholas is. The descriptions of him in the first third of this book are baffling, and while I know that different characters see him differently, I never felt like Dorothy totally landed on an explanation of his behavior and attitude that I entirely understood. (No, not even at the end, when you learn a lot more about him.) The book cover describes him as a "good-natured dyer's apprentice who schemes and swashbuckles his way" through history. But that's not totally what happens. I could absolutely love a book about a nice guy who's secretly scheming, or a street-wise apprentice who's smart way above his station and fights his way to the top (which my kindle suggests is the plot). But without spoiling anything, that's not how he's described, especially at the beginning. I liked Nicholas. But I can't love him without understanding him better. Maybe in the next book??
Grade: B
#43 in 2017
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