BOOK RECOMMENDATION!

This picture has very little to do with Dorothy Dunnett's The Lymond Chronicles, except for the sentence structure in the last bit. Most of Dorothy Dunnett's sentences go something like this: "Bedded in scent and blinded with cloth of gold, The O'LiamRoe watched with the rest as, blackhooded, tall crosses trembling, a file of clergy appeared and paced slowly towards them. The Triumphant and Joyous Entry had begun."--Dorothy Dunnett, Queen's Play (Vol. II of The Lymond Chronicles)

The series is amazing. Its hero (antihero?), Francis Crawford of Lymond is dashing, swashbuckling, and apparently amoral. The beauty of Dunnett's writing is that she keeps you guessing until the very end of the series. Is Lymond essentially good, and simply in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or is he a loveable villain, a more dangerous Mr. Rochester type of man? Or is he neither of these things? With his assortment of friends, lovers, and hangers on, he circumnavigates the world and gets involved in palace intrigue and international relations. The series is set in the 16th century, spanning the years between 1547 and the early 1560s, and cameos are made by Ivan the Terrible, Henri II, Catherine de Medici, Sultaness Roxelana, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth. Lymond is Scottish, and Mary Queen of Scots, although a toddler at the beginning of the series, is a recurring tertiary character, a very different person than she is often portrayed.

Lymond's world is populated by royalty, nobility, rogue Scots, gypsies, murderers, knights, crusaders, ladies of high and low birth, Irish freedom fighters, Protestants, Catholics, Calvinists, Muslims, Jews, seers, prophets, scientists, artists (bad and good), prostitutes (male and female), courtesans, courtiers, innkeepers, serving wenches, Russians, Spaniards, Scots, Turks, English and French men and women, elephant tamers, mercenaries, priests, businessmen, adventurers, pirates, traders, animals, long-lost friends, long-held grudges, bastards, heirs, wives, mistresses, misplaced children, and love (requited, unrequited, pure, adulterated, for gain, forbidden, forgotten, and re-forged).

Ambiguous action, wonderful prose, interesting characters, all of these things are waiting for you in The Lymond Chronicles. Along with Lymond, Dunnett's engaging and awesome hero, are other favorite characters. One is Philippa Somerville, who goes from hating Lymond at age ten, to admiring him as a teenager, to maybe something more as she reaches twenty and the series draws to a close. There are also Will Scott and Jerrot Blythe, whose devotion to Lymond stem from different emotions, and whose outlook on life is colored as a result. Oonagh O'Dwyer, the mysterious Irishwoman appears as the series revs up, and then just as abruptly is gone, but her presence is enough to propel the series forward, and change its tone from one of playful action, to one of more introspective and rich questing. Then there are Margaret Lennox, Graham Reid Malett, Marthe, and Robin Stewart. There are Archie and Adam and Danny and Turkey Mat. There's Salablanca. There are Sybilla, Lymond's mother, and Richard, Lymond's brother, and the rest of his family. By the end of the series, it has become apparent that no matter the quests he goes on and the people he meets, or advises or does business with, or sleeps with, or loves, the real story is about his history. Who is Francis Crawford of Lymond? Dorothy Dunnett does eventually give us the answer, but only after six volumes of beautifully dense prose, characters wicked and witty, and an epic the likes of which will color any story you go on to read. From their use of chess as a faint through-line, to their dabbling in various foreign languages, these books are perfect for summer. Or really any time.

Please enjoy. These are my favorite books:

The Lymond Chronicles, by Dorothy Dunnett (in order):

The Game of Kings

Queen's Play

The Disorderly Knights

Pawn in Frankincense

The Ringed Castle

Checkmate