Customer Reviews

The House of Niccolo: Caprice & Rondo

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Caprice was everything I expected from Dorothy Dunnet, and I expect a lot. Great atmosphere, great story. But warning, don't start with this book. Read others in the series first. Like all the Niccolo and Lymond books, Caprice is beautifully researched and difficult to follow in the beginning pages. There are dozens of characters, most witty, and they often read each other's minds. Even minor players have large roles, so that following their conversations--and indeed who's talking--takes some getting used to. But there's a reward. Soon, you catch on and and it's a joy. Dunnet's ellipses let you participate much more than a simpler presentation that gives every character's every thought to you straight up. These people become your own family, friends, acquaintances and enemies. Unlike another reviewer, I found the characters exquisite, but then I know them from several prior books. It really helps to read the first book, Niccolo Rising, if not the ones between, to understand Nicolas and sympathize with him. And I doubt Gelis, Nicolas'wife, or her actions would have any meaning at all to readers who had not sufferred through her betrayal in earlier books. But it's still a great story. This edition does have a nice list of characters and summary of the plots from previous books, which are very welcome.

The seventh of Dorothy Dunnett's eight book House of Niccolo series is Caprice and Rondo. The Niccolo books have never engaged me quite as thoroughly as her earlier series The Lymond Chronicles did. Those are among my very favorite historical novels ever. The Niccolo novels are good, but I have tended to find them a bit harder to follow. However, in the particular case of Caprice and Rondo, I was able to follow the action quite readily. Perhaps as the series comes to a conclusion the answers to the many mysteries are becoming clear.

This book opens with Nicholas in Poland. He's been kicked out of his company and exiled from Scotland and the Netherlands as a result of his actions in the last book. (This is another reason the Niccolo books are a bit harder to like: Nicholas does some pretty clearly bad stuff. Whenever Lymond seemed to be up to something bad, it turned out he was being misunderstood.) In Poland he spends a winter womanizing and drinking with the pirate Pauel Benecke, who wants him to join in a pirate mission the following summer. But Anselm Adorne, the upright burgomaster from Bruges who misunderstands Nicholas pretty comprehensively, and who stands in a role vaguely similar to Lymond's brother Richard Crawford in the Lymond books: a good man who tends to regard the hero as an enemy because he doesn't understand him, shows up on a mission to try to recover damages from an earlier piracy committed by Benecke. Also, Adorne and the Patriarch of Antioch, Ludovico da Bologna, intend to head to Tabriz to negotiate with the Persian Uzum Hasan for support against the Turks. (So far, every character I have mentioned except Nicholas is an actual historical character. Dunnett does this extravagantly, on occasion, I think, using characters mentioned very briefly in historical records, which allows her to claim a character is historical but treat said person just like a fictional character.) And Nicholas' long-time friend Julius and his wife Anna also intend to go East, to Caffa in the Crimea, to negotiate new trade agreements for their part of Nicholas' former Bank. Inevitably, Nicholas is drawn into accompanying Anna and the Patriarch to Caffa and Tabriz, and he's also drawn into (or does he do it on purpose???) shooting Julius so he can't come, and frustrating Adorne's plans so he has to go home, mad at Nicholas again. Follows then plenty of action and danger and sexual tension, (this last as Nicholas, frustrated by 8 years of separation from his wife Gelis, must resist his attraction to Julius' beautiful wife), as things go horribly bad in Caffa, and Nicholas ends up trekking to Moscow, and a meeting with the mysterious Greek with a Wooden Leg, Acciajouli, who was involved in the very first of Nicholas' escapades from Book 1.

In parallel, we follow Gelis and Katelijne back in Scotland and Bruges, as the evil David de Salmeton hoves into view again, ready perhaps to revenge himself on Nicholas by attacking those close to him. At the same time Gelis begins to work to resolve her conflicted feeling about Nicholas. Of course, eventually Nicholas is lured back to the west, to confront difficult revelations about his family, and about his relationship with Gelis, and with others, and to try to rebuff various threats to his family and friends.

Much is resolved: perhaps almost too much. Some of the eventual revelations are a bit lurid, and perhaps a bit too reminiscent of some "revelations" in the Lymond books. Nonetheless, the book is fascinating reading, absorbing, colourful, complex. Another fine chapter in an excellent series of historical novels.

In this 7th volume in Dunnett's intricate, superb historical series, protagonist Nicholas de Fleury is bent upon an aimless, self-destructive existence, matching pirate Paul Benecke drink for drink and woman for woman after being exiled from Scotland for plotting to destroy the country. But Nicholas' natural curiosity and intelligence are soon rekindled by a visit from his former mentor, Julius and Julius' beautiful, mysterious wife, Anna. Nicholas is lured on an adventure which will take him to the courts of Russia while he searches for the gold which was stolen from his in Cyprus. As usual, Dunnett has deftly woven a fascinating tapestry of history,culture and character. In Nicholas, Dunnett has created a complex, infinitely fascinating hero; a man capable of creating brilliant works of art but also capable of acts of astonishing cruelty. Nicholas' contradictory nature was shaped by his tragic childhood which is revealed when Nicholas' wife, Gelis, embarks on a mission to find the truth about his disputed parentage. Is Simon St. Pol really Nicholas's father or was his mother unfaithful as Simon has always claimed? Gelis hopes to understand what drives Nicholas in his relentless manipulation of people and events. Few authors have ever achieved the mastery of plot and character that Dunnett has developed. Her historical novels demand a level of commitment far greater than the average bestseller. But the reader is rewarded with a sophisticated, absorbing drama that becomes addictive.

It becomes increasingly clear in this, the seventh novel about Niccolo, that the focus of this whole saga shows deep interrelation with the author's earlier "lymond" series. In fact, Lymond's mother, Sybilla Semple, is clearly a 'St. Pol' and shares the same coloring as both Niccolo's father, Simon and Niccolo's elder son, Henry. If this all sounds as though the author, Dorothy Dunnett, can weave her spell around you-it's true. Her world is so vividly realized, yet the basic 'detective' element at the core of it (not for nothing has Dunnett also written some first-rate thrillers) will keep you on the edge of your seat, waiting for the next installment. Fabulous in every way; a little melodramatic in spots, but meticulously researched.

This the seventh book in the Niccolo series does offer some explanations of Nicholas's early life and gives some reasons as to why he did the things that he did. Brilliant Nicholas has been exciled to Poland. He tries to forget all of his previous life and become a devil-may-care pirate, but his history keeps coming in to interfere, and he has to resume his life in order to protect those that are dearest to him. In this book we contine to see the beautiful Anna, Julius's wife, and without giving the story away she is certainly not what she seems.
We also see Nicholas and Gelis get back together at the end of the story. That is indeed a happy occasion, but it puzzles me where Katalejne fits into this. We don't see much of her in this story, and that is a great loss since I for one feel that she is by far the superior heroine in this series.

I can't wait to read the last book in the series. Perhaps then things will all make sense. I found that there were some similarities between this series and the Lymond series, and that disappoints a bit, since the Lymond series is so superior. But this is still a good series and it's well worth the time spent to read it. I recommend reading all the books in the series in the order that they written.

January 1474 finds Nicholas de Fleury in Danzig. There are consequences from his vengeance in Scotland and Nicholas is in hiding. But Nicholas is not the only person at risk, and his need to protect those he feels responsible for including his estranged wife Gelis, their son Jodi, and many of his friends and associates, means that he is soon on the move. There is also a possibility that he may be able to recover the gold which was stolen from him in Cyprus.

Nicholas de Fleury is a fascinating and complex hero, and fifteenth century Europe provides a fascinating historical and cultural backdrop for his endeavours and adventures. While some of the action takes place in Western Europe, Nicholas travels to Russia and beyond. But then he returns, to face all manner of truths.

Three things make this series special for me: the larger than life character of Nicholas de Fleury himself; the way the fictional characters are inserted into history; and the way that the history itself comes to life off the pages.

This is the seventh volume in the House of Niccolo series, and to appreciate the series they really need to be read (and for some of us, re-read) in order. I'm writing this review having just concluded my fourth re-read of the book. Why? Because each reading has so far provided me with new insights and possibilities. Ms Dunnett's novels are like that: complex, sparkling and full of possibility. I'm looking forward to my re-read of Gemini, the final book in the series.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The gorgeous tapestry of the Niccolo series continues to be woven by artist/author Dunnett in the seventh volume. You could almost say this is the conclusion but surely it can't be! There are characters... no- people whose fate is unknown. Of course, that is just an example of how apparently life-like these novels are, carrying you into another time and place along with the persons- historical and otherwise- whose lives you are privileged to be a witness to. Thank you, Lady Dorothy.

This continuation of the Niccolo series is every bit as good as the earlier volumes. Leaves us longing for the last in the series.

Another wonderful step in the journey, but am eager to know when the eighth book is due out, anyone know? My son checked in London in the fall and it is not out yet there, and they usually get it before the USA does, so does anyone have an idea of when to look forward to this next, and last?, book?

I was disappointed with this book. It had received a good deal of critical praise. I don't really understand why. It's not a bad book, but it's not particularly good either.

Our hero, Nicholas, is a jack of all trades deluxe. Businessman, engineer, fighter, singer, horseman, archer, diviner, lover - he does it all, and does it all well. Why, the only person who can thwart him is...himself. Ugh. Being good at everything is nice, but it does make for a boring character. Furthermore, by the end of the book we learn that he's so darn clever, he knew what was going on all along. Well. That does drain the tension from the novel, doesn't it? Nicholas isn't the only problem. The characters - and there are a lot of them - speak with more or less the same voice, and a suspiciously modern voice at that. I suppose they must be in the Renaissance - after all, they're wearing the right clothes and eating the right food - but you could drop them in England in 1920 and I bet they wouldn't miss a beat. Their emotional relationships are right out of a television soap opera, including a truly odd shyness about...you know..."the act"...(soft focus, please). Lacking distinction, lacking personality, the cast becomes a dull blur.

In general, there's just too much going on in this book: too many plot lines, too many characters and too many places. Of course complexity is not a bad thing. But "plot" should mean more than "things happening one after another". One would like to see possibilities develop, then watch some mature, some wither and some die as the characters make their choices. There's no time for that in Caprice & Rondo. Here's a murder, there's a coup, there's a seduction, here's a revelation, there's a betrayal. How will they get out of this mess? Like this! Bang! On to the next episode! Let's go! go! go! To Caffa! To Tabriz! To Moscow! To Bruges! Oh my! It's a deus ex machina perpetua, and you can never forget the author's heavy hand grinding behind the scenery.

To be fair, Caprice & Rondo is part seven in a series. If you had read books 1 through 6 the characters, at least, would seem far more vivid and real, and the novel more enjoyable. But I can't imagine putting in that much effort for the promise of so little in return. Caprice & Rondo is too lofty to be good pulp and too workmanlike to be good literature.