A review by timinbc
The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett

5.0

I'm going to go with the full five. The fact that I may need to re-read this surrounded by reference books does not lessen its excellence.

Francis Lymond is a Marty Stu at nearly everything, but he's not perfect. Most especially, he doesn't really trust anyone, and he interferes in others' plots more than anyone since Bugs Bunny.

The excessive erudition is tempered by some of the sharpest dry British wit I've ever read, and I have read a lot of it.

If you like scheming and double-crosses in your political-history stories, this is the book for you.

It would help to have a rudimentary understanding of cross-Channel history after Henry VIII, but not essential.

I feel smarter for having read this.