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Right where I'd left off after posting the last bit, the plot took off like a rocket. I've now finished the book. I must now rush out to find some edition, any edition of The Ringed Castle so I can take the rest to Japan with me.
I did eventually acquire some sympathy for Lymond when Christian Stewart died. (I wasn't as shocked by that as I might have been, as she had "sacrificial maiden" written all over her. I was relieved that my favorite characters-- Gideon, Kate, and Phillipa-- made it out of the book alive, as I had been expecting them to die horribly. Whew.)
And, as everyone mentioned, much of what was puzzling was resolved. Sort of. Lymond definitely doesn't try for a simple plan when an elaborate one can be substututed, though.
Also, I love melodrama, and any book in which the hero is accused of blowing up a convent and killing a) four nuns, b) six girls, c) one of whom is his sister d) whom his brother accused him of committing incest with-- did I read that sentence correctly?-- is a must-read as far as I'm concerned.
After all my bitching, I should mention the book's virtues, which are that the prose is terrific when it's comprehensible and often even when it's not, and that the characters are interesting even when they're not likable. Most of all, they say that a movie with one great scene will succeed, and a movie with three great scenes will be a smash hit; this book has at least six great scenes, of which my favorite was Lymond questioning a little girl, with the fate of her parents depending on her answers.
So I ended up really enjoying this, even though it frequently read like this:
Lymond narrowed his exquisite conflower-blue eyes. "Like Duryodhana in the pool, I wonder if you might be a quincunx hyperborean tatterdemalion. Sic transit gloria mundi. The chariot wheel of Karna still turns, yet foi la cruz. Even Amaterasu was amused in her fuliginous cavern. Tumara naam kyaa he??"
The smaller man tossed back his hair, which, though bright as the aurium of Midas Rey, was no match for Lymond's burnished gelt. "Ore wa hagane no renkinjutsushi," he declared. "Shin da!".
Though only the faintest twitch of the twelfth hair of Lymond's eyebrow betrayed it, Will Scott realized that for the first time ever, Lymond was surprised. But the Master of Culter controlled his feelings masterfully.
"Shukriya," said Lymond, with an edge of danger in his voice. "Miru! Watashi wa kanzen no renkinjutsushi!"
"Huh?" inquired Will Scott.
"My dear Will," said Sybilla, "You must be a complete fool to be unaware of the truth which no one has ever told you, and to still believe that Lymond is a traitor. As everyone thinks he's a traitor, he behaves like a traitor, he says he's a traitor, and you've spent the last three months doing traitorous activities at his side, how is it that you have failed to perceive that he is nothing of the sort? Terrible consequences will come of your foolishness!"
I did eventually acquire some sympathy for Lymond when Christian Stewart died. (I wasn't as shocked by that as I might have been, as she had "sacrificial maiden" written all over her. I was relieved that my favorite characters-- Gideon, Kate, and Phillipa-- made it out of the book alive, as I had been expecting them to die horribly. Whew.)
And, as everyone mentioned, much of what was puzzling was resolved. Sort of. Lymond definitely doesn't try for a simple plan when an elaborate one can be substututed, though.
Also, I love melodrama, and any book in which the hero is accused of blowing up a convent and killing a) four nuns, b) six girls, c) one of whom is his sister d) whom his brother accused him of committing incest with-- did I read that sentence correctly?-- is a must-read as far as I'm concerned.
After all my bitching, I should mention the book's virtues, which are that the prose is terrific when it's comprehensible and often even when it's not, and that the characters are interesting even when they're not likable. Most of all, they say that a movie with one great scene will succeed, and a movie with three great scenes will be a smash hit; this book has at least six great scenes, of which my favorite was Lymond questioning a little girl, with the fate of her parents depending on her answers.
So I ended up really enjoying this, even though it frequently read like this:
Lymond narrowed his exquisite conflower-blue eyes. "Like Duryodhana in the pool, I wonder if you might be a quincunx hyperborean tatterdemalion. Sic transit gloria mundi. The chariot wheel of Karna still turns, yet foi la cruz. Even Amaterasu was amused in her fuliginous cavern. Tumara naam kyaa he??"
The smaller man tossed back his hair, which, though bright as the aurium of Midas Rey, was no match for Lymond's burnished gelt. "Ore wa hagane no renkinjutsushi," he declared. "Shin da!".
Though only the faintest twitch of the twelfth hair of Lymond's eyebrow betrayed it, Will Scott realized that for the first time ever, Lymond was surprised. But the Master of Culter controlled his feelings masterfully.
"Shukriya," said Lymond, with an edge of danger in his voice. "Miru! Watashi wa kanzen no renkinjutsushi!"
"Huh?" inquired Will Scott.
"My dear Will," said Sybilla, "You must be a complete fool to be unaware of the truth which no one has ever told you, and to still believe that Lymond is a traitor. As everyone thinks he's a traitor, he behaves like a traitor, he says he's a traitor, and you've spent the last three months doing traitorous activities at his side, how is it that you have failed to perceive that he is nothing of the sort? Terrible consequences will come of your foolishness!"
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