Yoohoo Somerville! And Lymond fans

[FlaviaAlbia]

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

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

Oops, meant to tag @Somerville so you see this

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.'

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

Ha! I may have groaned and nodded

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

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.

Sorry, managed to post from my pocket before I'd finished typing there!

I won't put any spoilers in just in case Natalia hasn't got there yet and hunts me down but I was pretty smug about spotting a wrong 'un fairly soon after he appeared

It's funny the dialect words, every so often I come across a word my mum or gran would use and the rest are Dutch to me. I've been pleasantly surprised by how many terms are in the dictionary though!

I think I may need to Google, I think some stuff about Lymond's character is being implied during the last chapters but I'm not sure..

Ooh well done with the wrong 'un. I didn't, first time round, but I was in my teens - TBH I'm not sure I understood half of it, until I joined a Dunnett talk forum to pester them with all my questions.

Don't Google at this point unless you like being spoiled. Seriously, there's stuff implied even as early as GoK which isn't fully explained until the end of book 6 - Checkmate.

During this re-read you might want to carefully read the chapter intros, on chess, if you didn't last time. They help explain what's happening... though, since this is Dunnett, only once has figured out the Middle English For example, chapter one's intro, to my mind means: One's substance is shown by how one plays the game.

Hello! Yes - another GoK convert. I've (sadly) not got as far as I'd hoped to as the end of term madness kicks in, but loving it - especially the dialogue..... Hopefully I can make some further progress over the weekend

waves at Natalia

Ooh, I'll hold off Googling then. Hmmm. I'll have to keep notes to refer back to at this rate!

I really struggled at the chess intros tbh. DH taught me when we started dating but I never really took it to it, I'm not a good loser on the inside

I have a few more to read, and am currently without a book, so I think I'll make a start on the next on my list.

Where did you stop, Broomstick? I'll venture a guess at after finishing PiF?! Lots of people need a little breather then...

All this talking about them is making me feel tempted to re-read...

Dances 8 weeks to go.

Flavia
If you reeeeaaaalllly want to understand as much as possible about one book before going onto the next, then there is a book called The Dorothy Dunnett Companion. I'm not sure if it's still in print but there will be plenty of second hand copies kicking about online. Lots of the more obscure references are covered in there.

However, it really isn't necessary! The series can be read and enjoyed at a galloping pace (well, as far as time allows), with just the odd flick back at the character lists for each book, and then reread at a later stage with full knowledge of the sub plots and hints.

Hooray! Adore Lymond (though in real life he would be a complete train smash).

And quite fancy Richard too

Oh yes, can you imagine the AIBU's that could be written about Lymond at his worst?!

Allington - This will probably seem like a weird question, but I didn't promise you a book did I? I'm pretty sure it was someone with a username beginning with A, so I keep a look out on Lymond threads. It was returned a few weeks after I posted it - I must have copied address down wrong... but had cleaned out my inbox

Yes! Me! Ringed Castle!

I thought it was the South African post office (can take months for things to be delivered.

I'll PM you the address.

thankyouthankyouthankyou

And Richard has a few AIBU moments as well... especially in Checkmate, where everyone seems to go into collective insanity.

Though
"I have this younger brother/younger son/brother in law/sort-of-husband/fiancé-who-is-still-married-to-his-ex..."
could show up time and time again

Don't want to spoil any plots, but "my fiancé says he can't get divorced right now, but we can get engaged and sleep together" would be a cracker.

LTB

I think the first third of game of Kings would have ltb, ring 101, contact social services right now! and plenty of did you mean to be so rudes

Thanks Somerville, I'll have a look for that. I hate feeling like I've missed something that I should have understood!

Waves back at Flavia

Made decent progress today while waiting for DD1 to finish ballet and on two tube journeys. Just downloaded number 2.....

There's a group read through of the series on Goodreads atm. They're just starting Disorderly Knights, but take 2 months per book so you'd catch up easily.

(I started GoK with them, but couldn't resist carrying on and read all 6 again)

God I love these books, and the Niccolo ones. Read them first at 18 and have read them again, and again.

Having a re read of the Niccolo books at the moment.

You have such a reading experience ahead of you!

I'm so pleased to have reconnected Allington and thanks for PM. I'll get RC posted this week.

DameDeDoubtance also has a Lymond inspired username - those of you who are earlier in the series will encounter her namesake at a later stage. There have been quite a few on MN that I've spotted through the years. FrancisCrawford may turn up shortly.

I did snag the user name DamnDeDoubtance many moons ago but forgot the password so became a Dame!

The only bad thing about the books are that they spoil you for anything else afterwards, other books seem so pale in comparison.

DamnDeDoubtance is inspired!