| The Game of Kings (Lymond Chronicles, 1) | 
 enlarge | Author: Dorothy Dunnett
Publisher: Vintage Books
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy Used: $1.94
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Avg. Customer Rating:  118 reviews
Sales Rank: 35115
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 543
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 0679777431
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780679777434
ASIN: 0679777431
Publication Date: April 29, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Standard used condition.
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| Customer Reviews:
 High Romance and High Camp June 6, 2005
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles are a stylish mix of high romance and high camp. The six historical novels are set in sixteenth century Scotland and Europe and tell the story of Francis Crawford, Master of Lymond, a Scot who is caught up in the battle for control of Scotland.
The Game of Kings, the first in the series, is set in 1547 Scotland: The English have successfully invaded Scotland, five-year-old Mary sits on a precarious throne, and Francis Crawford stands accused of treason.
At this point I no longer am sure what to say about Dunnett's book. I, personally, loved it and have ordered the remaining five books in the series. However, getting through the first hundred or so pages was an act of faith. I've spent the past few years reading a lot of easy, read-while-watching-TV books. This is not one of those. Dunnett's style demands complete concentration and attention.
Francis Crawford is a wonderful, charasmatic character. He's been compared to Byron, Lawrence of Arabia, James Bond, and Lord Peter Wimsey. The historical accuracy, wit, suspense, invention, and sheer excitement in Dunnett's books are undisputable.
Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles are the yardstick by which other historical novels are measured. They are a great treasure, but they are not for the faint of heart.
 Difficult but Rewarding June 4, 2005
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
These are lovely, beautiful books; rich in imagery and an extremely impressive grasp of the Renaissance and their politics. The main character, Lymond, is one of those perfectly, flawed people: good at all he tries, but deeply internally damaged and reaching. He makes an excellent antihero and while you can be annoyed at him, you love him all the same. I am continually in awe of just how well these books seem to represent the time period, and I recommend them to anyone who likes reading for the writing as much as the story, and can school themselves to make it through the difficulty of the beginning. They're an addiction, plain and simple.
However, there are some things to keep in mind. These books are not easy to read. Dunnett writes at a very high level and this book, the first one, clearly shows both the time frame it was written in (the early 60s) and the fact that this was her first novel. It virtually defines purple prose, with its convoluted style, other languages and the fact that many of the characters speak in 16th century Scottish slang.
Keep going, though. It's richly rewarding, the subtlety of the dialogue and action is wonderful, and you get used to it. Plus, the next books are much, much easier to read and not nearly as confusing, although the subtlety remains. (If you're really unsure, the Niccolo series, although Niccolo is not as compelling as Lymond, is a much easier read.)
EXCELLENT! April 10, 2005
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a superb series filled with action, intrigue, humor, tragedy, war, romance and, yes, a bit of mystery. Dunnett's research into the period was unparallel. This, the first book, is a bit difficult to get into, which is why I obtained the unabridged audiobook from my library and listened to it while commuting, but well worth the effort. She does use a lot of foreign phrases, which can make the reader a bit frustrated, but one can either pass over them and not lose the effect of the story, join the Game of Kings group on Yahoo, or look them up either themselves or in Elpeth Morrison's "Companion" books. If you're looking for a break from mysteries and love history, this is a marvelous alternative.
Triumphant beginning to the series February 24, 2005
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I'd heard that the Lymond Chronicles were good. I'd heard that Dunnett's writing and world-building were dauntingly clever, and that Lymond himself was dazzling. I'd heard that I wouldn't be able to put the book down.
All of which turned out to be true, and more. From captivating opening to satisfying conclusion, _The Game of Kings_ never attempts to hide the fact that it's a novel for those who like their historical fiction authentic and serious. For all the outpourings of devotion readers have lavished over Lymond down the years, this is no romantic fluff; it's densely packed, desperately clever, and richer in tone and texture than any book has a right to be. Simultaneously - and despite the great array of characters (both historical and purely fictional), intricate political machinations, and multi-lingual literary allusions - Lymond's first outing is pacy and gripping enough to make any activity that delays reaching its end seem like a waste of valuable time.
Lymond himself, renegade and outcast Francis Crawford, is quite simply one of the finest epic heroes I've encountered in fiction: brilliant, learned, witty, accomplished - and tormented. Not that this is immediately obvious; the novel opens with Lymond as a bitter, brutal, silver-tongued bully with an outlaw band in tow, burning down his mother's home and stealing the family valuables. Dunnett keeps his complex motives shadowed, as befits a man who has learned at cost what it is to have his trust comprehensively betrayed. It is only as he becomes closer to people (Lady Christian, Will Scott, and eventually his brother) that we begin to see beneath his glittering, casually-malicious facade. As a result, the reader (this reader, at least) grows into a more gradual, but much deeper and well-rounded, understanding of the character than if he'd been superficially likeable from the start.
Accomplished and utterly compelling historical fiction, which kept me guessing right to the end. Throughly recommended.
A Wonderful Frustration February 7, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I have read the Legendary Lymond Chronicles three times now, and continue to be astonished by the books; not least by the way in which they simultaneously aggravate and entrance the reader. Pretentious? Maybe. Campy? Certainly. Overblown? Absolutely. And yet, and yet, and yet . . . Francis Crawford is an incredible character, and the fascinating way in which the narratives are completely focussed on him and yet slightly removed, so that he always remains just out of the reader's grasp, is amazing. The prose is hyperintellectual and convoluted, and requires one's complete attention, but the rewards are many and varied. The tension built throughout the series is so extraordinary that by the time I reached the middle of the sixth book, I was literally tearing my hair out in empathetic pain for the characters. I take issue with the readers who object to Dunnett's foreign-language quotes . . . I think the novels are so authentic because the characters are exactly as educated as people of that time period would have been. I myself have no college degree, but I do know French and have an extensive musical background, which I think helped more than being multi-lingual. I had no trouble at all translating the quotes, or appreciating why they were there. I don't think that Dunnett was trying to "impress the reader", as some reviewers have accused; the quotes are completely consistent with the character, who is impressive both to himself and to everyone around him. Some rudimentary historical knowledge is helpful to understanding the background politics of the novels, but not required. Several times during my reading of these novels, I screamed in exasperation and threw them across the room, thinking: "This is the most ridiculously contrived and over-written indulgence on the face of the Earth," but I always came back to them, and have come back again and again. My favourite in the series is "Pawn in Frankincense," which is truly masterly, and if you are not reduced to tears at the end of it, you cannot be human.
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