Dunnett, Dorothy - The Spring of the Ram (spoilers)
Tue, Mar. 6th, 2007 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterUh. So. I have pretty much no idea what actually happened in this entire book, which makes it very like Queen's Play from Lymond.
What I think happened (with commentary):
Spoilers
The chronology on all this is really mixed up.
Out of sheer evilness, Simon St. Pol offers his round ship Riberac to Pagano Doria, who renames it something else. (What is a round ship, anyway? I kept picturing a ship that was a half-sphere, which really made Pagano Doria less imposing in my mind.)
Pagano Doria then convinces twelve-or-thirteen-year-old Catherine de Chattery that she wants to marry him, except he has to hide her until she has her period so they can't be separated. (By the way: EW! EW! EW!)
For some reason, Nicholas has to go off to somewhere in the Middle East with Julius and company, and Julius gets into trouble for some other past reason possibly having to do with the church. Nicholas finds out about Catherine, and the deadly race between him and Pagano Doria is on.
There is an immensely amusing scene in the Turkish baths in which Pagano Doria tells Nicholas about the joys of male lovers and attempts to sic one on Nicholas. Only it turns out to be the king! I can't tell if he just wants to meet Nicholas privately to commission something or if he wants to sleep with Nicholas, or both. Probably both, given that this is Dunnett and everyone seems to want to sleep with Nicholas. (Someone please tell me that Dunnett has been adapted into manga? It's so obvious that there should be Dunnett manga! Can't you see it? Bishounen Lymond, long, beautiful yellow hair flowing in the non-existent breeze, giant cornflower eyes sparkling up at whatever woman he's intent upon seducing. And of course there would be many gratuitous shirtless!Lymond scenes.)
Pagano Doria sets their ship on fire, and because of something, they have to escape, so there is a clever plan involving lentils and the plague. (That was cool.)
Catherine gets her period and Pagano Doria teaches her how to have sex. (By the way: OMG EVEN MORE EW! EW! EW! *scrubs out brain*)
Stuff Happens.
Nicholas gets swamp fever and mistakenly babbles the information about Katherine and her (bastard) baby, who is being passed off as Simon's true heir. Everyone is horrified by Nicholas' plotting. It is revealed that Nicholas did this and got swamp fever on purpose, and he tells Loppe not to trust him.
More Stuff Happens.
They manage to get Pagano Doria killed without it looking like it was Nicholas' fault, and they flee the Middle East. Nicholas learns Marian is dead and he is Catherine's guardian. Tilde decides she hates both him and Catherine.
The end.
While I like getting stuff from Nicholas' viewpoint, as opposed to the completely opaque Lymond, I feel like Dunnett is cheating by having these "OMG! WOES! Niccolo meant to do this ALL ALONG!" moments. If I'm in his head, I feel like he should be thinking about these things! It looks a lot more like authorial high-handedness and less like character opacity to other characters.
Also: EW to Pagano and Catherine. Just... EW.
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riemannia's collected posts
What I think happened (with commentary):
Spoilers
The chronology on all this is really mixed up.
Out of sheer evilness, Simon St. Pol offers his round ship Riberac to Pagano Doria, who renames it something else. (What is a round ship, anyway? I kept picturing a ship that was a half-sphere, which really made Pagano Doria less imposing in my mind.)
Pagano Doria then convinces twelve-or-thirteen-year-old Catherine de Chattery that she wants to marry him, except he has to hide her until she has her period so they can't be separated. (By the way: EW! EW! EW!)
For some reason, Nicholas has to go off to somewhere in the Middle East with Julius and company, and Julius gets into trouble for some other past reason possibly having to do with the church. Nicholas finds out about Catherine, and the deadly race between him and Pagano Doria is on.
There is an immensely amusing scene in the Turkish baths in which Pagano Doria tells Nicholas about the joys of male lovers and attempts to sic one on Nicholas. Only it turns out to be the king! I can't tell if he just wants to meet Nicholas privately to commission something or if he wants to sleep with Nicholas, or both. Probably both, given that this is Dunnett and everyone seems to want to sleep with Nicholas. (Someone please tell me that Dunnett has been adapted into manga? It's so obvious that there should be Dunnett manga! Can't you see it? Bishounen Lymond, long, beautiful yellow hair flowing in the non-existent breeze, giant cornflower eyes sparkling up at whatever woman he's intent upon seducing. And of course there would be many gratuitous shirtless!Lymond scenes.)
Pagano Doria sets their ship on fire, and because of something, they have to escape, so there is a clever plan involving lentils and the plague. (That was cool.)
Catherine gets her period and Pagano Doria teaches her how to have sex. (By the way: OMG EVEN MORE EW! EW! EW! *scrubs out brain*)
Stuff Happens.
Nicholas gets swamp fever and mistakenly babbles the information about Katherine and her (bastard) baby, who is being passed off as Simon's true heir. Everyone is horrified by Nicholas' plotting. It is revealed that Nicholas did this and got swamp fever on purpose, and he tells Loppe not to trust him.
More Stuff Happens.
They manage to get Pagano Doria killed without it looking like it was Nicholas' fault, and they flee the Middle East. Nicholas learns Marian is dead and he is Catherine's guardian. Tilde decides she hates both him and Catherine.
The end.
While I like getting stuff from Nicholas' viewpoint, as opposed to the completely opaque Lymond, I feel like Dunnett is cheating by having these "OMG! WOES! Niccolo meant to do this ALL ALONG!" moments. If I'm in his head, I feel like he should be thinking about these things! It looks a lot more like authorial high-handedness and less like character opacity to other characters.
Also: EW to Pagano and Catherine. Just... EW.
Links:
-
riemannia's collected posts