Dunnett, Dorothy - Queen's Play
Mon, Jul. 12th, 2004 11:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterOk, that one went by a lot faster than Game of Kings! And now I'm torn between reading LJ and jumping along headfirst into Disorderly Knights, because eep! So caught up in the world now!
Though I found this one easier to read over all than Game of Kings, I didn't quite like the conflicts as much. First things first -- not enough Richard =(. Boo. My favorite part of the book was when Richard goes to find Lymond poisoned, and I just wibbled all over the place. And now I have bad evil thoughts of incesty slash fics, and I blame this entirely on fandom. But the brothers! Squee!
I was sad when Sybilla didn't really show up, because I like her. I couldn't quite make up my mind about liking Oonagh O'Dwyer or not -- my general impression of her is that she is very pretty and has black hair, but not much of a personality in my head now. I'm still desperately trying to find a female character to glom on, because in general that's how I read or watch large ensemble productions. And since Dunnett already killed off Christian Stewart, I've been sort of floundering through Queen's Play in that respect.
Gah, I really need some sort of giant family tree type thing with all the characters and their ages and relationships and political affiliations somewhere. I keep having to flip back to the front of the book -- Janet? Which Janet? Wait, Margaret Erskine is Margaret Fleming, right? and the like. Oh, I was all set up to like Margaret Erskine as well, especially her little speech to Lymond in the beginning about him not liking her because she was essentially taking Christian Stewart's place for Tom Erskine. I like how Dunnett remembers the previous book. I kind of missed the old Scottish characters from Game of Kings (ok, mostly Richard).
The climax of this book also didn't have the same impact the last half of Game of Kings had for me -- no giant unexpected death scene of liked female character, no wibble-worthy sibling duel with lots of angst and recriminations or any patching up later. But Lymond climbing the tower with Robin Stewart was quite nifty. Luckily, Robin Stewart annoyed me less than Will Scott. I also in general have no idea what went on with the plot, heh. O'LiamRoe just kept switching sides on me (or else he was really devious and was only on one side to start with?) and I can't for the life of me keep all the various factions straight.
That's ok. I'm hooked anyway ^_^. Besides, I can figure out the plot on rereads. I want to get to more wibbly character parts. (Is there going to be a good female character coming up who's not evil? I like Margaret Lennox because she's all schemy, but I want someone else to read too)
I just skimmed through the cast of characters in Disorderly Knights and am quite pleased to note that Kate Somerville is there! She's Gideon's wife, right? From Game of Kings? I liked her.
Links:
-![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
rilina's review
-![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rachelmanija on the first 50 pgs. and on the entire thing
Though I found this one easier to read over all than Game of Kings, I didn't quite like the conflicts as much. First things first -- not enough Richard =(. Boo. My favorite part of the book was when Richard goes to find Lymond poisoned, and I just wibbled all over the place. And now I have bad evil thoughts of incesty slash fics, and I blame this entirely on fandom. But the brothers! Squee!
I was sad when Sybilla didn't really show up, because I like her. I couldn't quite make up my mind about liking Oonagh O'Dwyer or not -- my general impression of her is that she is very pretty and has black hair, but not much of a personality in my head now. I'm still desperately trying to find a female character to glom on, because in general that's how I read or watch large ensemble productions. And since Dunnett already killed off Christian Stewart, I've been sort of floundering through Queen's Play in that respect.
Gah, I really need some sort of giant family tree type thing with all the characters and their ages and relationships and political affiliations somewhere. I keep having to flip back to the front of the book -- Janet? Which Janet? Wait, Margaret Erskine is Margaret Fleming, right? and the like. Oh, I was all set up to like Margaret Erskine as well, especially her little speech to Lymond in the beginning about him not liking her because she was essentially taking Christian Stewart's place for Tom Erskine. I like how Dunnett remembers the previous book. I kind of missed the old Scottish characters from Game of Kings (ok, mostly Richard).
The climax of this book also didn't have the same impact the last half of Game of Kings had for me -- no giant unexpected death scene of liked female character, no wibble-worthy sibling duel with lots of angst and recriminations or any patching up later. But Lymond climbing the tower with Robin Stewart was quite nifty. Luckily, Robin Stewart annoyed me less than Will Scott. I also in general have no idea what went on with the plot, heh. O'LiamRoe just kept switching sides on me (or else he was really devious and was only on one side to start with?) and I can't for the life of me keep all the various factions straight.
That's ok. I'm hooked anyway ^_^. Besides, I can figure out the plot on rereads. I want to get to more wibbly character parts. (Is there going to be a good female character coming up who's not evil? I like Margaret Lennox because she's all schemy, but I want someone else to read too)
I just skimmed through the cast of characters in Disorderly Knights and am quite pleased to note that Kate Somerville is there! She's Gideon's wife, right? From Game of Kings? I liked her.
Links:
-
rilina's review-
rachelmanija on the first 50 pgs. and on the entire thing