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I went all the way to the famous used bookstore Acres of Books in Long Beach in search of any edition of The Ringed Castle, but none were there. Nor did it exist at Borders, though the others did. Dammit.
I am now about fifty pages into Queens' Play. It's a much easier read than the first book, despite the terrifying list of characters at the beginning, representing four factions and full of entries explaining in scary detail who's related to who and what their titles are-- none of which I am likely to remember-- and the simpler ones are like this:
Thomas Ouschart (Tosh), a funambulist
Despite this, the book is light and even funny so far. Lymond is on the Queen's business (sort of) in France, and is shepherding around an endearingly gauche Irish lord and pretending to be a member of his entourage. (I knew it was him right away.) There's a beautiful Irish maiden who will probably not survive the book and who was involved in an intrigue which has not yet been explained, but which played out very amusingly. I kept flashing back to Henry V's "Tennis balls, my liege?"
If I'd started here, I think I would have liked Lymond better. Here he's introduced as a top spy on a mission, and we see him executing it as best he can under difficult circumstances, and not having everything go his way. (OK, probably it is all going according to his Sekrit Plan, but so far it's not looking too good.) What's not to like? Whereas in the first book, he was introduced as a god among men who was busy rocketing about the countryside being melodramatic and inexplicable and making his family miserable, all the while exuding smugness and spouting totally incomprehensible witticisms. Amazingly, eighty pages into Queens' Play, he hasn't yet done or said anything that pissed me off. We'll see how long that lasts...
I am now about fifty pages into Queens' Play. It's a much easier read than the first book, despite the terrifying list of characters at the beginning, representing four factions and full of entries explaining in scary detail who's related to who and what their titles are-- none of which I am likely to remember-- and the simpler ones are like this:
Thomas Ouschart (Tosh), a funambulist
Despite this, the book is light and even funny so far. Lymond is on the Queen's business (sort of) in France, and is shepherding around an endearingly gauche Irish lord and pretending to be a member of his entourage. (I knew it was him right away.) There's a beautiful Irish maiden who will probably not survive the book and who was involved in an intrigue which has not yet been explained, but which played out very amusingly. I kept flashing back to Henry V's "Tennis balls, my liege?"
If I'd started here, I think I would have liked Lymond better. Here he's introduced as a top spy on a mission, and we see him executing it as best he can under difficult circumstances, and not having everything go his way. (OK, probably it is all going according to his Sekrit Plan, but so far it's not looking too good.) What's not to like? Whereas in the first book, he was introduced as a god among men who was busy rocketing about the countryside being melodramatic and inexplicable and making his family miserable, all the while exuding smugness and spouting totally incomprehensible witticisms. Amazingly, eighty pages into Queens' Play, he hasn't yet done or said anything that pissed me off. We'll see how long that lasts...
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