By Dorothy Dunnett

To the men exposed to his rule Lymond never appeared ill: he was never tired; he was never worried, or pained, or disappointed, or passionately angry. If he rested, he did so alone; if he slept, he took good care to sleep apart. “—I sometimes doubt if he’s human,” said Will, speaking his thought aloud. “It’s probably all done with wheels.

This series first came to my attention probably over 30 years ago. I bought the beautiful Vintage Paperback editions around 25 years ago when a local book seller was having a sale. And there they sat. Looking very pretty and impressive, giving my library a certain intellectual credibility. The series would tap me on the shoulder every so often, but I never seriously considered starting them until recently. I read a recent review from one of my Goodreads friends https://www.goodreads.com/review/show… and I thought “people are still reading these?” Then I read some more reviews, and then I read a few scholarly type blog posts and essays. I started to get excited, but very very intimidated at the prospect of reading the first one, The Game of Kings. But then I thought, “Becky if you’re going to read these before you lose your faculties, you better get a move on. You can do hard things!” So I did.

And it was daunting. It is a deep dive into 16th century history, arts, culture, warfare, and politics that our formidable author assumes you are already familiar with. She also assumes you are fluent in multiple languages. There are no translations or footnotes-those are in a whole separate 400 page book. And a lot of the actual English isn’t that comprehensible either. Here’s an example:

“Johnnie Bullo! Man, I wish you’d take to wearing clappers on your breeches; you’re desperate sore on the arteries. And that last damned powder you gave me would have done Jimmie of Fynnart a twelve- month and pointed up the whole of Linlithgow if you laid it on with a trowel. Will ye bring to mind it’s my inner workings you’re repairing, not the Toll Brig o’ Dumfries.”

The book is peopled with real historical figures both obscure and famous. And Lymond of Crawford, our main character, mostly talks in poetry, double entendres, quotations from sources no modern reader has any business even hearing of, let alone being passing familiar with.
“ I wish to God,” said Gideon with mild exasperation, “that you’d talk–just once– in prose like other people.”
If Gideon Somerville was not a favorite character before, he certainly was one after that comment to our hero. I almost gave up several times. But I did some more research, trying to take good care to avoid spoilers (though didn’t always succeed), and found out that virtually everyone felt the same way I did at the beginning. But to a man and woman, I was assured that it would get easier and I would be rewarded.
I quote from a blog entry called “The Game of Kings in 15 minutes”. https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/… Highly recommend if you’ve already read the novel

RANDOM SCOTTISH PEOPLE: Lymond is back.
READERS: And we’ll have to wait hundreds of pages to find out why.
LYMOND: *is incomprehensible*
PIG: *is drunk*
READERS WHO ARE NEW TO THE SERIES: wtf?
READERS WHO HAVE READ THE WHOLE SERIES: You’ll learn.

Two things in particular helped me. One, someone wrote that The Game of Kings could be read as a stand alone (I have commitment issues with series books and tv shows) and I discovered a wonderful website improbably named “Now You Have Dunnett” https://nowyouhavedunnett.blogspot.co… for which I am eternally grateful. It took me through each chapter and scene almost paragraph by paragraph, translating the more important foreign language quotes, explaining the context when it was important, giving historical background, and pointing out little things that I might have missed that would become important later on. I would read a chapter, sometimes two and then go back to the website on those chapters to check for understanding. Eventually, I could go for longer and longer periods with confidence before having to check back to make sure I understood what was going on. At about the 25% mark, I not only started to comprehend without help (forgetting the foreign language quotes and esoterica which I just skipped over) but started to see the appeal and actually enjoy what I was reading. I started to get The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Count of Monte Cristo, and unabridged Les Miserables vibes. The first two being youthful favorites re-read many times, and the last reminding me of the feeling of pride and accomplishment as I waded through it without skipping.

So what about the actual book, you may ask? Enough already about your personal relationship with it! Well, as I said, the first sentence of the book is “Lymond is Back”. Back Where? From Where? The setting is Scotland in 1547, a time of war with England and great unrest politically, religiously, and every other way. King Henry the VIII has just died and the English powers that be want his young son Edward, (A.K.A. The Prince of The Prince and The Pauper) to be betrothed to Mary, the 5-year-old Scottish Queen. Loyal Scots do not want that.

We first meet our hero robbing and pillaging a friend of the family’s castle, to insure ultimate chaos, introducing the victim’s pet pig to the joys of adult beverages. Then he moves to his own family’s castle where, drunk, he breaks in with his gang of mercenaries, flirts with his new sister-in-law, robs his mother’s guests, threatens their lives, exchanges barbs with the mother he hasn’t seen for over 5 years, and stabs her best friend. He finishes off his busy day by locking them inside the castle and setting it on fire. Lymond is indeed living down to his reputation as obnoxious, amoral, ruthless, and other synonyms too numerous to list including brilliant and funny. He is a notorious proven traitor to Scotland and an outlaw also wanted for a crime so horrible and shocking that I won’t say what it is. And if possible, the English hate him almost as much as the Scots. But all is not what it seems. No, indeed. Because Lymond is back to *spoiler alert* prove his innocence, restore his reputation as a loyal Scotsman, serve his country, and protect his family. Not an auspicious start, Lymond.

And that is the most detailed I am going to get about the plot. Because if I went on, it would take me a long long time and I wouldn’t know where to stop. There are whole books written about this novel alone, only the first book in the series, as well as on the whole series. But we have many adventures and meet many people both very very good, very very bad, and very in between. Also very clever, wise, and cunning, and very and very obnoxiously thick-headed (I’m looking at you, Richard.) There is espionage, betrayal, revenge, romance, secrets, alchemy, reconciliation, tragedy, comedy, a duel considered one of the best ever written for the page, and a courtroom trial/very welcome info dump to rule them all.

This was Dorothy Dunnett’s first novel. As she says in the forward, she grew in wisdom as she wrote. And I think she meant that she saw the need to make the subsequent books a little more accessible to the other  99% of the population of potential readers. Either that, or a wise editor firmly took her in hand. From all accounts the best are yet to come, so now that I have conquered, that is, managed to survive, this first in the series…Onward