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42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First book in greatest series ever written, 16 Feb 2002
By A Customer
Game of Kings is the first in a series of six books: Queens' Play, Disorderly Knights, Pawn in Frankincense, Ringed Castle and finally Checkmate are the other books in the series. They centre on Francis Crawford of Lymond, 16th century Scottish mercenary soldier, spy, wit, lover... think of the most dazzling hero you've ever read about and then multiply it by a few thousand. Whilst this book takes place solely in Scotland and Northern England, the other books will take you to Russia, North Africa, France, Germany, Mala and Istanbul. You'll encounter the young Mary Queen of Scots, Mary of Guise, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, Ivan the Terrible, Bloody Mary and the young Princess Elizabeth, to name but a few. Dunnett's sense of period is impeccable and with a few words she can conjure up the sixteenth century so well you feel you are there in person. Did I mention wit? There is that in plenty, any high drama is always tempered with irony or laugh out loud farce. She is simply brilliant.
Above all there is Lymond, the most tortured of all heroes. If you can get past the first couple of chapters and get used to Dorothy Dunnett's style of writing (she never insults the intelligence of her readers, quite the opposite), her books are the sort you'll read and re-read until they fall apart. This is the first in the series, so enjoy!
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33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lymond Series No 1: Brilliant but not for every taste, 21 April 2006
This is the first book in a series which you will either love or hate. It is also one of those multi-book series which must if at all possible be read in the right order, which is
1) The Game of Kings
2) Queen's Play
3) The Disorderly Knights
4) Pawn in Frankincense
5) The Ringed Castle
6) Checkmate
There are two reasons why this series, and indeed the author's similar "Niccolo" series, should be read in chronological order. The first is that the plots are incredibly complicated and if you read them out of sequence you have no chance of understanding what is going on. The second is that many of the characters meet their deaths in ways which are particularly nasty both for themselves and for the characters who survive them. I know from experience having made the mistake of reading one of the later books first, that advance knowledge of when someone is going to die, and of the horrible shock Lymond will experience when he finds out about it, can spoil the pleasure that the reader might otherwise have had when meeting that character for the first time.
Like the books the central character, Francis Crawford of Lymond, is brilliant, violent, and extremely complicated. Unlike the books he is very flawed. Lymond is a mercenary with particular interests in Scotland and France, and gets involved in nefarious deeds all over the world as 16th century Europeans knew it. Dunnett brings the splendour, cultural ferment, and violent cruelty of the Renaissance world splendidly to life.
If you are at all squeamish, or do not like having to make your brain work overtime to follow a book, leave this series alone. This story is neither "chewing gum for the brain" nor a comfortable read. And even if you prefer flawed heroes to knights in shining armour, Lymond may infuriate you from time to time. But if you can put up with these features, these books will richly reward the effort you make in reading them.
There is no middle ground: you will either hate the Lymond series or recognise these books as one of the greatest works of historical fiction ever written. Or very possibly both !
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The first of a wonderful historical series, 28 Nov 2005
I have just finished the last of the six - Checkmate. I was gripped from the first - Game of Kings. The writing is stunning, the plots complex and very exciting and the hero, Francis Crawford, is mesmerising. I highly recommend all six to anyone who is fond of historical fiction. The stories are all set in amongst genuine characters and events over a period of 10 years in the middle of the 16th C starting in Scotland with the young Mary Queen of Scots but taking in history and politics during that same period in England, Russia, Malta, Turkey and France. The personal stories of Francis, his family and friends/enemies are twisted through the whole in a wonderfully witty, moving and fascinating manner. To start with I was slightly daunted by the detail but persist - the rewards are great.
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