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Yoohoo Somerville! And Lymond fans

29 replies

FlaviaAlbia · 06/07/2017 16:36

I don't know if you remember but you recommended it to me if I liked Dorothy L Sayers and some others and told me it was worth sticking with it as I was finding it hard going at the start.

I've just finished Game of Kings and loved it. I don't think I can buy the next one just yet though as I need to catch up on the sleep I missed reading it Grin

I have another 5 books ahead of me in the series, I'm so happy Grin

OP posts:
Somerville · 07/07/2017 17:17

Oh definitely, Flavia. Much easier 2nd time through, when you can keep track of main characters, and you know what's going on in Lymond's head when he's setting his mother's castle alight, etc... (trying to mention things only in the first third, in case Nat reads this.)
Something that helped me to get through the start, when I was wondering wtf this Lymond weirdo was up to and why I should care, was it being pointed out to me that we very rarely see anything at all from his point of view. In fact it's rare to see so little from the POV of the main character, and it's part of what makes the books so interesting. We see the side of Lymond that he is showing to whichever character whose POV we're reading, and their prejudices and interpretations. We in turn have to interpret that - Dunnett makes us work for the pleasures of her writing. It also means when there occasionally is a scene from Lymond's POV, and we meet the real him, it thumps us in the heart.

Original poster
FlaviaAlbia · 07/07/2017 17:07

Ha! I may have groaned and nodded Grin

I'm rereading it now and it's so much easier to follow the second time now I've got to know the characters

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Somerville · 07/07/2017 11:49

Oh how exciting - I love getting another convert!

Did you shout 'bloody hell YES!' when Gideon said 'I wish to God that you'd talk - just once - in prose like other people.' Grin

Let's see how long you can wait before you succumb to QP...

I recced it to another MNer recently too, and she's part way through GoK... @NataliaOsipova

Original poster
FlaviaAlbia · 06/07/2017 16:40

Oops, meant to tag @Somerville so you see this Blush

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