Okay. So I read this book as part of a "please read my favorite books!!!" exchange with my friend over at Harriet Reads Books. She's reading a bunch of books by Guy Gavriel Kay, and I'm reading The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett, which begins with The Game of Kings.
Part of why this became an official exchange/contest (if you are looking for two people who can somehow turn reading into a competition, you've found them) is because Dunnett books are very very difficult to recommend. She told me this for many many months before I started reading this, and while I believed her, I didn't really understand until I started reading it myself. It's historical fiction that takes place in the mid-1500s in Scotland and England, and the book doesn't really go out of its way to explain the history. There's a list of characters at the beginning of the book, but while that's helpful for cross-reference it doesn't help much in terms of remembering who has done what (or why). The best way I can describe the difficulty with this book is that the first two hundred pages are essentially setting up the chessboard for the rest of the book, and in fact for the rest of the series. Lots of really interesting stuff happens in those two hundred pages, but you don't understand what or why it's important until page 400 or so. And it feels like every new chapter or subchapter starts from a new POV, and so you spend a ton of time just trying to figure who everyone is and why it matters. It's not a very fast read, but putting the book down for more than a day or two is also very risky, because getting back into the flow is so difficult.
However. Having said (and meant) all of that, the payoff in the second half of the book (and specifically in Part Four) is so good that it makes every second of confusion and frustration I suffered in the first half worth it. This is a book that has reveals that are so good and so unexpected that I don't actually want to talk about any of the plot. If you can get through the first two parts, you will end up gently tossing your e-reader in shock or tearing up while reading it on the subway, if you're anything like me. For a variety of reasons, I didn't go into this book completely cold - I knew who some of the good guys were, even though the text doesn't make it clear until halfway through the book, and I also knew who a couple of the bad guys were as well. I also knew it had to have a (mostly) happy ending, because my friend would never make me read it if it didn't, even though it's not a book without its tragedy. But even the minor details that I was spoiled for didn't ruin the suspense, because I had no idea how any of the story was going to come together, or how it would be resolved. And it's not just that the plot itself wraps up perfectly - the emotional impact of everything is so overwhelming.
The book doesn't pull any punches - when good things finally happen for characters you've been rooting for, it's such a relief because they have to suffer through so much first. And likewise, the emotional impact when things go wrong is real - mistakes have real consequences, and they aren't handwaved away or anything like that. You can trust that every emotion the book wants you to have will be earned, for better or for worse.
Dunnett's writing was influential for both Guy Gavriel Kay and C.S. Pacat, who have each written some of my favorite books, so it's fascinating to read Dunnett now. Some of her influence is in the themes and the relationships that all three writers focus their main attention on, and some of it is more granular than that - Kay in particular uses a few of the same narrative techniques Dunnett did, which meant that when they popped up in Game of Kings I was immediately familiar with them. Those moments felt like little gifts to me as a reader, like a breadcrumb trail of influences; suddenly I felt like I shared something with both Kay and Pacat as readers. It was one more thing that made reading Dunnett incredibly rewarding for me.
Grade: A
Part of why this became an official exchange/contest (if you are looking for two people who can somehow turn reading into a competition, you've found them) is because Dunnett books are very very difficult to recommend. She told me this for many many months before I started reading this, and while I believed her, I didn't really understand until I started reading it myself. It's historical fiction that takes place in the mid-1500s in Scotland and England, and the book doesn't really go out of its way to explain the history. There's a list of characters at the beginning of the book, but while that's helpful for cross-reference it doesn't help much in terms of remembering who has done what (or why). The best way I can describe the difficulty with this book is that the first two hundred pages are essentially setting up the chessboard for the rest of the book, and in fact for the rest of the series. Lots of really interesting stuff happens in those two hundred pages, but you don't understand what or why it's important until page 400 or so. And it feels like every new chapter or subchapter starts from a new POV, and so you spend a ton of time just trying to figure who everyone is and why it matters. It's not a very fast read, but putting the book down for more than a day or two is also very risky, because getting back into the flow is so difficult.
However. Having said (and meant) all of that, the payoff in the second half of the book (and specifically in Part Four) is so good that it makes every second of confusion and frustration I suffered in the first half worth it. This is a book that has reveals that are so good and so unexpected that I don't actually want to talk about any of the plot. If you can get through the first two parts, you will end up gently tossing your e-reader in shock or tearing up while reading it on the subway, if you're anything like me. For a variety of reasons, I didn't go into this book completely cold - I knew who some of the good guys were, even though the text doesn't make it clear until halfway through the book, and I also knew who a couple of the bad guys were as well. I also knew it had to have a (mostly) happy ending, because my friend would never make me read it if it didn't, even though it's not a book without its tragedy. But even the minor details that I was spoiled for didn't ruin the suspense, because I had no idea how any of the story was going to come together, or how it would be resolved. And it's not just that the plot itself wraps up perfectly - the emotional impact of everything is so overwhelming.
The book doesn't pull any punches - when good things finally happen for characters you've been rooting for, it's such a relief because they have to suffer through so much first. And likewise, the emotional impact when things go wrong is real - mistakes have real consequences, and they aren't handwaved away or anything like that. You can trust that every emotion the book wants you to have will be earned, for better or for worse.
Dunnett's writing was influential for both Guy Gavriel Kay and C.S. Pacat, who have each written some of my favorite books, so it's fascinating to read Dunnett now. Some of her influence is in the themes and the relationships that all three writers focus their main attention on, and some of it is more granular than that - Kay in particular uses a few of the same narrative techniques Dunnett did, which meant that when they popped up in Game of Kings I was immediately familiar with them. Those moments felt like little gifts to me as a reader, like a breadcrumb trail of influences; suddenly I felt like I shared something with both Kay and Pacat as readers. It was one more thing that made reading Dunnett incredibly rewarding for me.
Grade: A
Thank you for this very appealing description of the book that doesn't say hardly anything about what it's about! Love the series.
ReplyDeleteI read this first when I was about thirteen, and was instantly hooked (and in love!), even while I didn't understand the half of it at the time. Dunnett is such a good author, she demands that you pay attention, yet writes so well and so grippingly that you HAVE to pay attention! Glad you enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteHi Books, Booze and Brunch Blogger. This is Suzanne McNeill, editor of the Dorothy Dunnett Society's members' magazine. I have a favour to ask - please could you email me at editor@ddsoc.org. With thanks!
ReplyDelete