A review by ejopet
The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett

"Ye murdering cur.... You'll end this night--"
"I know. Flensed, basted and flayed, and off to hang on a six-shilling gibbet--keep your distance--but not tonight.["]

It took a while for me to warm up to this book. Or rather, it took me a while to warm up to Lymond:
1) He comes across very smug. He always has a witty retort (or many), and he never seems fazed by anything (for the first half of the book or so).
2) He's very educated, but educated by the standards of 16th century Scotland, which means: Latin and French phrases and references to people and art I've never heard of (e.g. Roger Ascham). Not to mention, he has a circuitous way of speaking, so I had to read closely to figure out what he meant. This all meant that whenever he was present, I had the beginning of a headache, and was usually confused.

But I kept reading, because Dunnett's prose is gorgeous, and because I was charmed by the other characters. I loved the relationship between Richard and Mariotta (even when both of them are acting like idiots). I loved Christian Stewart and Sybilla. I loved Agnes Herries (side note: I need more media that so perfectly captures the surreality of being a teenage girl, living half in stories and half in the real world).

And then, subtlely and then all at once, Lymond captured me. It started with the first conversation that he doesn't come out the victor of, with Margaret Lennox. Then he ends up in worse and worse positions, until we can see beneath the self-possession and self-conception. By the end, I was totally invested in whatever happened to him.

I really recommend this book, though it is dense. I never quite got all the English Lords sorted out, and the politics was sometimes beyond me. I strongly recommend the ebook version, because I was constantly searching to remember which place is Heriot or Hexham or Annan--I would have been lost without it. But the personal (and sometimes very funny) moments and rich characters make up for any confusion.