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I didn't think this was as good as Pawn-- not that anything could possibly top the latter's angst-meter, but I had several additional problems with it. I didn't find the setting as interesting, even though it was more new and exotic to me; but even still, I find cold and barbarism and bad food and a sort of early joyless totalitarianism much less interesting than the coexistence of a high level of sophistication, civilization, and art with freaky decadence and a different and more sophisticated sort of barbarism in the Turkish court. Also, there were hardly any women in Russia, except for Guzel, and she did surprisingly little.
Which brings me to my next problem: insufficiently interesting characters for Lymond and Phillippa to play off of, so the book only really caught fire in the last third when they finally got together. Which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it; I loved the Slata Baba scenes, and everything Phillippa was in, especially in the last third.
So Lymond saved Gabriel and Joleta's child because he thought it had a better chance of growing up relatively normal, not having been abused quite so much, and because Phillippa loved him. But how could Lymond possibly have known at the time which was which? I was under the impression that there was no way of knowing. He said Guzel confirmed it; did he mean she had tipped him off in advance?
I think, on the whole, I would have preferred not to know. I mean, I did want to know what Lymond thought he was doing, but I would have liked to have not ever known the boy's parentage.
As for Lymond's parentage, I have no friggin' clue. Must be soemone we know about already, but there's not that many male characters we've met of his parents' generation. Or maybe some historical figure I've never heard of. This will be hard not to have be anticlimactic.
Just started Checkmate. Jerott and Marthe!
Which brings me to my next problem: insufficiently interesting characters for Lymond and Phillippa to play off of, so the book only really caught fire in the last third when they finally got together. Which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it; I loved the Slata Baba scenes, and everything Phillippa was in, especially in the last third.
So Lymond saved Gabriel and Joleta's child because he thought it had a better chance of growing up relatively normal, not having been abused quite so much, and because Phillippa loved him. But how could Lymond possibly have known at the time which was which? I was under the impression that there was no way of knowing. He said Guzel confirmed it; did he mean she had tipped him off in advance?
I think, on the whole, I would have preferred not to know. I mean, I did want to know what Lymond thought he was doing, but I would have liked to have not ever known the boy's parentage.
As for Lymond's parentage, I have no friggin' clue. Must be soemone we know about already, but there's not that many male characters we've met of his parents' generation. Or maybe some historical figure I've never heard of. This will be hard not to have be anticlimactic.
Just started Checkmate. Jerott and Marthe!
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Also? Best, First. Line. Ever.
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YES!
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The highpoint of that book...well, let's just brought to you by the letter L....
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You don't know for sure, though. Through most of her life (there are a couple of exceptions) Dunnett deliberately avoided resolving the question of which was which, and whether Lymond's reasoning was right.
I think the dead child is Lymond's, myself. I am big on the angst.
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But she also said that there's room in the text for both interpretations.
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P.
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