Book 58: Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett

We have hit the point in this series where I genuinely have no idea how to discuss anything at all about this book without it being chockful of spoilers, so everything is under the cut!





OKAY. Pawn is a fascinating book, because it's both the clear Part II of the Gabriel arc that The Disorderly Knights began, but it also has its own narrative arc and thematic thrust that doesn't directly follow from Disorderly Knights. And Dunnett doesn't waste any time establishing that; within the first couple of chapters we have a whole slew of prophesies to grapple with, all of which are fairly distressing but the one involving Richard the most so, and Philippa emerges as a main POV character with her own arc that often (but not always) runs parallel to Francis's but isn't actually that concerned with his. It's a book of adventures while also being a book of both revenge and recovery, even when those two goals are so often at odds with each other.

Also I should mention that this book is SUPER GAY??? Like, I read a lot of gay romance, which is no surprise to anyone who's read this blog, and it's not like this is the first super gay book in the series -- Gabriel's rebuffed seduction (and eventual sexual punishment) of Francis in Disorderly Knights wasn't exactly heterosexual. But to have a hero of these books be textually bisexual in terms of his romantic partners, and to have a character like Marthe who is so clearly coded as a lesbian even if it's never as directly stated as Francis's exploits are, kind of blew my fucking mind. And that doesn't even begin to deal with the scene in which Marthe actually explains to Jerott that his real issue is that he's madly in love with Francis but can't deal with it, which like. All I can think of to compare that to is the scene in The Sound of Music when the Baroness tells Maria that she's in love with the Captain, only way meaner, because that's how Marthe rolls. And as if all of that wasn't enough, in comes Mikal, who both desperately wants to share love with Francis and then when Francis tells him that he's a broken shell of a human being who can't actually feel things, Mikal is basically like "well I will totally settle for hearing all the details of your life as a catamite then, just saying." I knew going into this series that everyone in this universe save three or four people wants to have sex with Francis, but my word.

So it's this great travel adventure with lots of sexual shenanigans and desires, and amazing new characters joining beloved established ones (hi Archie!!!!), and it's also possibly the most brutal book of the series thus far. Not just because of what happens to the babies (although that is obviously devastating), but because as a result of the prophesy about Richard and Francis being unable to save both babies and his confrontations with Marthe and the fact that Jerott cannot stop being the most judgmental asshole on the planet (the best that can be said about Jerott's progression in understanding Francis is that the time between him saying something completely unforgivable and him apologizing has shortened considerably) and Francis's unknown opium addiction (!!!!), by the end of this book Francis is physically and emotionally DESTROYED. He gets his revenge on Gabriel, and he makes him pay, and he saves as many people as he possibly can within the constraints of his universe. But he is a broken man as a result of it; he loses something fundamental to his soul in the process, and were it not for Philippa's intelligence and stubbornness there is no question in my mind that Francis wouldn't give himself the time he needs to rebuild himself. Dorothy seemingly wrote herself into a corner and then wrote herself right back out of it, and she did so with such skill that by the end of the book you can't imagine how any of that story could have gone differently, even though the entire thing is BANANAS.

One of my absolute favorite things that Dorothy does in her books is take classic tropes and invert them so brilliantly, or to use a trope that in most stories feels a bit like cheating and somehow make it feel brand new. It's so easy to imagine how the story of Francis and Philippa's marriage would play out in most books, especially after her time in a Turkish harem; she would have loved him since she was a small child, and he would be astounded by her newfound beauty when he rescued her from the harem and blah blah blah. And instead it actually is merely a marriage of convenience, the least bad option from a list of truly wretched ones, and each of them is pursuing their own agenda. She gives us the trope while making it totally unexpected. She's so good at this that it almost makes me angry.

Basically: this book is great and fucked up and sexy and terribly, terribly sad and it made me laugh like a crazy person at multiple points. I can't wait to finish this series and am also devastated to think that it will ever end.

Grade: A