Cliff's notes to the Lymond Chronicles

[rachelmanija]

yhlee is contemplating reading Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles after repeatedly bouncing off the first fifty pages of the first book. In case she decides to actually do this, can a few of you suggest an easier entry point (perhaps the archery contest? perhaps the second book?) and summarize the action up to that point?

(I confess, this is as much for my own amusement as it is for her edification.)

Humungous spoilers in comments, obviously.

Comments

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Well, as I told Yoon, I too hated Game of Kings, and when I reported this sensation, the Dunnettheads of my correspondence roundly recommended trying the Niccolo books instead.

The which I have not gotten around to trying, but, considering the reason I hated the first Lymond book was Lymond himself, trying a novel that does not feature him is an avenue I can at least imagine pursuing.

[riemannia.livejournal.com]

I loved Niccolo, though I'm not sure I liked the series better.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Gah, my impression was that the Niccolo books were even harder to read than the Lymond chronicles! pameladean said of the Niccolo books:

Don't beat yourself up if you just can't get into it. (You may take to it like a duck to water, of course.) I'm not sure I could have without the training of reading her other stuff. On the other hand, the setting is fascinating and the distancing from the protagonist quite remarkable. It is quite remarkably opaque, though. In the Lymond books (GAME OF KINGS being the first) she plants ivy all around the signposts; in the Niccolo books she has simply hammered them into the ground.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.composition/msg/56648c9eed206dbf?dmode=source

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Well, you could point her toward Francis Lymond of Crawford, Zombie Master of Culter (http://www.livejournal.com/community/la_la_la_2004/3184.html).

[oyceter]

I'd start with just around when Christian Stewart gets it. Or a wee bit before. It's been a while since I've read it, but that's when I start flipping through like crazy. And since it took a year to get to that point, I'd forgotten everything (or just not understood it) anyway, so obviously you don't have to know what went on before!

Well, though it might be helpful to know that she's blind.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I'd start with the third book. All you need to kinow you can pick up, and they start to be better and better written at that point.

Lymond will always be irritating, but at least with more complexity than in the first two when he's just smug Mr. Perfect who everyone, male and female, is in love with--or obsessed with--or both.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I've also bounced off that 50 pages, so could you please post spoilerlessly if anyone comes up with anything that might work?

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I'll have to flip through GoK, but my first suggestion would be to start with Queen's Play.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I wasn't crazy about Queens' Play, but I did finish it without bogging down too badly.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.

Was there anything about it that you did particularly like?

I am very fond of the character Philippa (or is it Phillipa? she has a very hard name to spell!) Somerville, and Queen's Play might be the only book she does not show up in. Alas, it looks to me like you probably wouldn't enjoy the rest of the series, but it's too bad you didn't get to meet her.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I can't help. I got recommended to Lymond by two friends who I ordinarily trust and -- oh, I don't remember the name of the book they said I should try with but it had human chess pieces and every time a chess piece got taken Lymond had to decide who would get killed as in really dead.

I thought it was so gratuitous and stupid I took a long time to forgive Dunnett in any way. But I got over my prejudice long enough to read King Hereafter (not Lymond, Macbeth), and I've forgiven her -- but the Lymond books are definitely Not Necessary For Human Consumption, in my lights. Just read the Macbeth book. It's excellent, excellent, excellent.

[eub.livejournal.com]

Coincidentally, I just read that scene twenty minutes ago, and would concur with the gratuitous. I liked Vonnegut's better.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

That scene worked for me, but Pawn in Frankincense definitely needed the buildup from the preceding books. Maybe ritaxis would have had the same reaction if she'd read the 3 previous books, but I think it would have at least been muted. That's an *awful* book to start with, since it takes time to earn the trust and investment needed for that scene to pay off.

[riemannia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you can't start with Pawn. You need at least the previous book, if not all of them. The scene worked for me, even if it took me three years to forgive Dunnett.