Dunnett, Dorothy - Checkmate

[oyceter]

I'm still sort of vaguely blah from the loss of the entire Lymond world, but luckily found Figgs and Phantoms in the store. Except now I have a real hankering to reread Perlious Gard, given the Elizabethan period thing. Hrm.

It's so strange how I feel such a loss because I've finished a series, but it hurts.

Dunnett broke Philippa =(.

I loved this book even though I could pretty much see Dunnett pulling all the strings to get Lymond and Philippa together. It does, however, vaguely amuse me that the last book in the Lymond books is basically a romance novel. Dunnett also uses pretty much every single cliche in the book, but it works for me because there's the weight of five other books of characterization and events behind this one.

First we've got Lymond secretly in love with Philippa but valiantly denying it because he doesn't think he's worthy of her, and the angst that comes from watching Philippa jest with him and not realize that he's in love with her. Then we've got Philippa in love with someone she thinks is in love with another person (the in love with her mother thing is an extra twist), and the ensuing reader angst that comes with her not knowing he's talking about her.

Oh I forgot. First of all, we have the marriage of convenience, a time-honored romance tradition ;).

Added to this is the childhood-crush syndrome, or the "he doesn't notice her because he thinks she is still a child although she's been growing up while he wasn't looking" thing. "While he wasn't looking" in this case being, "while he was in Russia attempting to take over the eastern hemisphere."

Then both of them are courting the Wrong People, causing both of them angst because of the mutual not-knowing, and then, the wonderful scene in which Lymond reveals to Philippa who he's really in love with, and then proceeds to tell her that they can't be together because of his mysterious birth and dark past, assuming she is only infatuated with him and that it will pass.

Added to all this is the immense angst of Lymond's headaches and loss of sight and suicide attempts and Philippa's attempts to keep him and the Crawfords safe from Leonard Bailey and the Lennoxes. And half the people close to them violently opposing the marriage, and another half attempting to get them to stay married (I am quite impressed and amused with Dunnett getting both the star-crossed lovers separated by fate effect and then then yentas/destined to be together thing all in one).

Then comes the scene when Lymond does realize Philippa is as deeply in love with him as he is with her (gah, I love this scene). And right before the planned annulment, Philippa breaks herself on Leonard Bailey.

Ow. Although why is it that usually the women are broken and tortured by bad sex and/or rape whereas men are broken by death of family members/betrayal of past lovers/maniacal egotistical enemies/mysterious pasts/all of the above and the women react by not being able to touch while the men react by having to have meaningless sex all the time?

It's strange, considering everything that goes on in the Lymond books, but the biggest stretch for me was the notion that Lymond simply could not live without sex or touch. I think it makes sense psychologically, but as a non-touchy-feely person myself and after having read too many books in which the hero cannot control his own sex drive, it was a bit too much.

Anyhow, on with the cliches. So now we have the happy couple completely in concord in terms of mind and spirit but now unable to touch and all the angst that ensues from that. Said couple then separates because of that, despite pining for each other and being perfect for each other. Then suicide attempt the second, then capture by enemy, then death in front of Philippa's eyes... I nearly freaked out at this part, because I was sort of skimming and saw the last line of the chapter, Jerott mourning, "My beloved is dead" and thought it was Lymond. And I kind of thought Lymond was going to have a happy ending, but Dunnett doesn't really pull her punches.

And happy last bit in which the heroine is miraculously cured of her fear of being touched.

I poke fun, but I loved every second of it, and, as I said, I think it works because we've had five books of background, watching Philippa grow up, watching Lymond and how he interacts with people. Too often the cliches of "in love but never able to show it because of evil enemy" don't work because the enemy is never evil enough, whereas we've had very concrete evidence throughout the first five books that whoever Lymond touches, he does a pretty good hatchet job on their lives, inadvertantly or not. And the dark past/unworthy of heroine sort of works as well because the reader has gone through many of the horrible things Lymond has done, and because Dunnett doesn't always try to justify it morally. She allows Lymond to be very, very grey. I think too often authors try to have it both ways -- have a scary, angsty hero, but then they want the readers to like him, so it turns out he was never that bad to begin with, which really wreaks havoc with the dramatic tension.

However, I could have lived without knowing that Lymond was indeed the true heir of Culter -- poor Richard!

I think one of the problems with Checkmate (and with Ringed Castle) is that Dunnett never manages to find an archenemy quite as scary as Gabriel, or a dilemma quite as painful as the chess game in Pawn. So the climax of Checkmate isn't the resolution of the big problem of the book, but rather, the resolution of Lymond and Philippa's relationship. She does try to tie it with the main plot of the book, but it doesn't quite work out as well as the tie of the emotions and the actions in Pawn, so that both hit their climax at the same, horrible moment.

Anyhow, despite this, I loved loved loved the book and the series (as pretty much everyone can tell from the previous emotional posts), and I've reread the ending about ten times already.

I'm making the boy buy me the books for my birthday ^_^.

Links:
- rachelmanija's review

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I'm still sort of vaguely blah from the loss of the entire Lymond world, but luckily found Figgs and Phantoms in the store.

Well, you could go for the Niccolo books.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the real climax was FIF so she had to do the angsty thing for the rest.

The thing that depressed me after I first finished it was the realization that the great work that Lymond and Phillippa swore to do would only last as long as Elizabeth. After came the Stupid Stuarts--descended, btw, from Mary Queen of Scots.

I used to amuse myself with constructing an alternate timeline wherein the Crawfords' work actually mattered...which meant a Crawford marrying into the Stuarts, therefore taking away the stupidity, and thus Cromwell is routed, etc, etc.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

No, she couldn't. Pfui.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

To be fair, Lymond is broken by sex, too. One of the reasons he isn't good enough for Philippa is that he's whored himself out to both sexes.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

It seems to me quite clear that the purpose of Lymond and Philippa's work is to preserve Scotland during James I's minority. It's clear that Dunnett (and therefore the reader) disapproves of Mary while she's still in France. Lymond will certainly be one of the nobles who helps depose her. At the cost, of course, of putting Margaret Lennox's grandson on the throne...

Your rationalization may vary.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I remember discussing this with friends, way back when the book first came out. This argument was put forward. I didn't like it because I wanted a long term work, one that would last, and while Scotland might have been preserved for the time, there was the humiliation of the '15 and especially the '45 ahead. Thus the notion of an alternate timeline, wherein the Stuarts stay on the throne--and flourish!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Perhaps Lymond buried Mary under a hedge and spent a long and glorious reign masquerading as her? God knows the cross-dressing is right up his alley. As it were.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Jerott mourning, "My beloved is dead" and thought it was Lymond

Heeee! Of course! And Jerrott thought that as well ... You know, one of the things that makes the end of Checkmate kinda sorta not a happy ending for me is, as you say, all the people who've been broken along the way - Oonagh, Lymond's child, Marthe, Jerott (and lots of others!) I wonder how someone who feels such immense guilt for the death of his sister will be able to live with the weight of all the dead ...

I like the Niccolo books (well, the first seven, anyway - haven't read the last one yet), but I would advise not reading them RIGHT after Lymond.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Now that's an idea!

[oyceter]

I think I shall hold off a little, given that the Lymond books have had a really bad effect on my sleeping habits.

I need to sleep for a good week now to make up for staying up till 4 every day...

[oyceter]

That's true... I guess I'm trying to come up with examples of men who have bad sex and end up swearing off sex instead of becoming rakes.

Er, outside of slash fanfic that is.

[oyceter]

That's one of my problems too -- I love the happy ending because, well, I am a total sap, but I think it sort of glosses over a lot of the trauma.

Actually, that's my general problem with happy endings. I always want to see what happens after the "happily ever after."

I'm really tempted to read the Niccolo books now for a fix, but I think I would keel over from sheer lack of sleep!

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Ooh!

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's my general problem with happy endings. I always want to see what happens after the "happily ever after."

Yes. I really, really want to know what happened with Francis and Phillipa--how they managed to stay together, how she managed to deal with his wackiness (for instance, was he a true manic-depressive? if so, that implies he would still have problems), if they had children, etc., etc..

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Thus the notion of an alternate timeline, wherein the Stuarts stay on the throne--and flourish!

Doesn't Joan Aiken do that in The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and the subsequent novels in that series? It's the evil Hanoverians always plotting to take over the throne in those, as I recollect ...

Sorry, just a totally random thought that popped into my head and nothing at all to do with Lymond!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I believe you are right--I never quite got into that series. It's in mind to give it another try, but anyway, you are right.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Well, I haven't read 'em since, um, a very long time ago, so I don't know whether they've stood the test of time - but I do remember quite loving Dido Twite the first time I read them and they were very *cleverly* done.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

I nearly freaked out at this part, because I was sort of skimming and saw the last line of the chapter, Jerott mourning, "My beloved is dead" and thought it was Lymond. Tant que je vive to that last scene.

However, I could have lived without knowing that Lymond was indeed the true heir of Culter -- poor Richard!
I sort of felt that way too. But I thought that was more important as an explanation why Sybilla did what she did than as important new information about Lymond himself.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

The Niccolo books don't really constitute a fix for what you're missing.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Read The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. Best. Book. Evah.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

A manic-depressive with migraines! No wonder I feel affinity. I once explained on a bulletin board that I couldn't really lust after Lymond when what I really wanted to do was hand him two Remeron and the phone number of a good cognitive therapist.

Dunnett is all about the breeding; of course they had children. Little neurotic brilliant babies, babbling in Old French before they could lift their tiny stilettos.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I left the books thinking Sybilla was a self-indulgent jerk. The Love Conquers All theme just didn't work for me.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I couldn't really lust after Lymond when what I really wanted to do was hand him two Remeron and the phone number of a good cognitive therapist.

[choke]

Little neurotic brilliant babies, babbling in Old French before they could lift their tiny stilettos.

ROFLMAO!!!

[oyceter]

Ooo, ok.

I'm highly susceptible to book suggestions ;).

[oyceter]

Doh. How are they different? Still readworthy?