(no subject)

[white_hart]

Having just finished Pawn in Frankincense I am now flailing about incoherently. So many twists and turns and doublings-back of plot! So many things that seemed to so obviously be one thing, only to turn out to be something completely different!

OK, this was not my first Dorothy Dunnett so I wasn't exactly surprised. Just a bit breathtaken at the sheer extent of it.

Also, the chess game managed to be even more nailbiting than the courtroom scene/card game in The Game of Kings, and I didn't even think that was possible. And more emotionally devastating than the deaths of Christian Stewart in The Game of Kings and Will and Wat Scott in The Disorderly Knights, and those had me staring at the page in disbelief. And, obviously, I am left with far more questions than answers. With only two more Lymond books to go (admittedly, two very substantial books) I do wonder whether it's even possible to tie everything up neatly.

In any case, although I have all the books on my Kindle already, I think I need to read something easier and much, much fluffier next. Something where the protagonists aren't enmeshed in betrayal and torture and forced to make heartbreaking, impossible choices. Possibly Wodehouse, though I'm not sure that's quite it; something along those lines, anyway.

I did actually find a copy of the next book in the Oxfam bookshop yesterday lunchtime, but given the utter atrociousness of its cover I'm very glad I already have them all on Kindle...

Comments

[aunty_marion]

I'd have to get mine (all paperbacks) off the shelf to check them, but I got Game of Kings, Queen's Play, and The Disorderly Knights as a present for passing my A-levels (I think), so in 1972. I'd had QP & DK from the library before then, but they didn't have GoK!! So I dived in for about five hours, emerging only to go to the loo and (reluctantly) eat. I bought the rest as and when they came out...

ETA: I've just checked, and it looks as if my copy of Checkmate had the same cover artist - it's the same face on the man! Three of them, for some reason, have a dark-haired bearded man on the covers, and GoK, though possibly a different artist, has a rather-too-old blond and a girl who I suppose could be meant to be Christian Stewart, in a frankly 'historical bonkbuster' pose... Ah well. I didn't buy them for the covers. (The only time I've ever bought a book in spite of the ghastly cover was when I bought a replacement for one of my Darkover novels, which had got lost in the post when I lent it to my sister (!!!!), and the only copy I could find was one with the ghastly bald white aliens on it. So I covered it in red shiny paper so that I didn't have to look at it.)

[white_hart]

The one above is definitely a bit bonkbusterish. And the woman's hair is basically straight out of Dallas (apparently historical illustrations share with historical dramas the tendency for the women's hair and make-up to be far more typical of the time they were made than the time they are set in).

In my head, Francis looks like Wesley in The Princess Bride, more or less. The picture is definitely not him!