oyceter. Dunnett, Dorothy - Niccolo Rising (Reply)

The short review: Dunnett! I had forgotten how much I loved you and your labyrinthe prose, insane plotting, high angst, and random funny animal bits. Dunnett being Dunnett, I feel it may even be slightly spoilery revealing who exactly Niccolo is, as he doesn't really show up for a good chunk of the book.

Thankfully, despite everyone in the book being fairly multilingual, all the dialogue is transcribed in English. This one thing already made the book much easier to understand, particularly when compared to the Lymond chronicles.

The other thing is that the hero is much, much less labyrinthe and fucked-up than Lymond, though really, that's not very difficult. I think pretty much everyone is less labyrinthe and fucked-up than Lymond. The strange thing is, I found that I actually quite liked Niccolo, which I wasn't expecting at all. I thought I'd admire him and be amused by his angst and woe, but he seems to be a genuinely nice person who tries to do good. How fresh! How astonishing! ;)

Also, there is an ostrich.

Spoilers for the book

I have to admit, I have pretty much no idea as to what happened in the plot. I think the entire thing, from the boat incident on, was part of some insanely elaborate and grandiose scheme that Nicholas had constructed, but I will take Dunnett's word on that.

Also, !!! to the revelation of Nicholas' paternity, along with the entire thing with Katelina. I feel rather sorry for her, as Simon is nasty. And good lord, that makes the St. Pol bloodline and succession rather complicated, doesn't it?

I am slightly weirded out by Nicholas and Marian getting married. On the one hand, yay for older women. On the other hand... twenty year age gap, Nicholas being raised as a child in her family, near-incest squick!

I feel obliged to ask: are there any cool women who get to do a lot? Katelina was ok, as is Marian, but they don't do too much.

In conclusion: Ostrich!

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