Game of Kings, by Dorothy Dunnett

Game of Kings
By Dorothy Dunnett

Lymond Chronicles

I have just become the exception to a rule. I have been told that in general if you like one of Dorothy Dunnett's two chronicles, Lymond or House of Niccolo, you will not like the other. It has to do, I think, with the force of the main characters in each. I read the entire Hose of Niccolo series, and I just finished reading the first volume of the Lymond Chronicles, and I loved them both. In fact, Game of Kings knocked me right off my feet almost from the first sentence. This is now officially my second favorite novel. (If you don't know what my favorite one is, you haven't been paying attention.)

It is the first novel of a six volume series. I wonder what it would have been like to read it when it was the only one and the fate of the protagonist was not already implicit in sequels. The fellow in question is Francis Crawford of Lymond, the master of Coulter. He is the younger son of Lord Coulter, now deceased, and the younger brother and heir apparent of the current baron, Robert. Like Niccolo Lumond is a man who is misjudged and mistrusted and even reviled by just about everyone who knows him or knows of him. Bothe Niccolo and Lymond inspire instant distrust and an assumption of the worst. Unlike Niccolo, the reader starts out knowing nothing better, assuming the worst about him right along with all the characters in the novel. He is not engaging, except in the way a traffic accident enhahes your attention. How much more satisfying, then, to get to know him and come to understand him.

We drop into his life and story not long after he has returned without sanction from exile and two years as a galley slave of the French. We see what seems to be a terrible fellow, a robber, a trickster, ruthless, hard-hearted and sociopathic if brilliant, erudite and possessing the most silver of tongues. The story is about his rivalry with his brother who loathes him for his past crimes and more Freudian issues, and his ambiguous actions as the leader of a band of criminals. This is a complex story, a series of mysteries, of a man's true character obscured not only by what is believed about him but by his own self-destructive actions. Did he really do these terrible things, selling out his countrymen and causing a slaughter of Scots by the English under the Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, the corruption of the scion of a respected house, the seduction and tricking of a good hearted blind woman, the kidnap of his brother's wife and the killer of her unborn child, a spy for the enemy, and, the ultimate charge, the murder of his own sister Sister Eloise? The story unfolds in a dance of revelation and deceit, cruelty and love, loyalty and betrayal.

I thought Niccolo, at least at first, was the most engaging protagonist I had ever encountered. Like Lymond, you come to know him in all his brilliant complexity over the course of the entire series of novels, and I know that I shall have to read the House of Niccolo again since I will now know Nichoals's secrets from the start. It's the same with Lymond. At least with this first in the series, I will have to watch what I see and keep in mind what I now know to really appreciate the artistry of the work.

Dunnett is a joy to read, not the least because of her skillful plotting and even more more awe inspiring character development. She is simply a joy to listen to.. so many wonderful images, choices of wrods, such as calling Lymond's personality "incalculable", and such subtlety with language.

It's not often that I hear, at the end of the cassette book, "End of " followed by the title and author of the book and sit smiling savoring the conclusion. usually I am either sad to lose the world I have been immersed in or just relieved that I can now move on to another book. This one, Dorothy Dunnett's Game of Kings, leaves me satisfied and awed. What a blessing to be able to experience such brilliance, such insight, and such language.