Customer Reviews

Ringed Castle

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Most reviews of the Lymond series focus on Francis Crawford of Lymond, the enigmatic, often-tortured central character around whom all the other characters revolve. This isn't surprising because he is the central player on the stage. But my favorite character is Philippa, not just because she is genuinely good, but because whenever she enters a scene, it simply begins to sparkle.

Dorothy Dunnett obviously feels a great love for Philpipa because she gives her the best lines and gave her a marvelous sense of humor. She is a wonderful character, both funny and wise. But her greatest attribute is her strong moral character, her desire to do the right thing. In the prior novel, her desire to save Lymond's son caused to her to risk everything--not everyone would become a member of a harem in an effort to save a life. In Ringed Castle, her desire to reconcile Lymond with his family causes her to place herself at great risk.

With regard to Ringed Castle, I didn't find it as consistently compelling as Pawn in Frankincense, but it is still a wonderful book, particularly the haunting and tragic voyage back to England and the last 100 pages at the English court.

I have a tinge of sadness in the realization that I have only one more installment to see how it all ends, to see if Philippa can ultimately tame Lymond.

Luckily, this series is so strong on many levels I can look forward to many productive and enjoyable re-readings.

In Novemeber 1997 in Orinda CA, on a book tour for her latest Niccolo book, I had the pleasure to hear Dorothy Dunnett read aloud the "Revels" scene (essentially the last part of Part Three, Chapter 9 from The Ringed Castle) which is my favorite scene in the entire series. She is truly a remarkable woman, still hearty at 75, with a wit and intelligence rarely scene in real life. She told us she reads numerous (sometimes hundreds!) of history books before writing each novel to make sure that nothing in the novels contradicts anything from known history. She has created in the Lymond Chronicles the best historical fiction I have ever read, and the most compelling fiction of any genre I have ever read. When she does her book tour for the final Niccolo book in 2000, be sure to go see her--it may be your last chance to see one of the most remarkable women authors of the twentieth century.

I first read this book 30 years ago & it was intriguing enough that I spent 10 years collecting the rest of The Lymond Chronicles books. Difficult to read at first, perserverance pays off. The Lymond series are not books that can be skimmed. Dunnett's style is to drop hints throughout her books that lead to later plot twists. Characters cannot be taken at face value but are developed throughout the books; her villains quite often are smiling & charming on the surface. Historically accurate, the period during which these books are set was in constant political turmoil. I remember being frustrated with "The Game of Kings" (Book 1 in the series) because I couldn't keep up with the many political alliances. The Lymond Chronicles is my favorite historical series & I've read all the books a number of times. Francis Lymond is the most intense, intriguing, engaging character I've met

In The Ringed Castle, Dunnett expands her screen. The 16th Century was a time when the world was tittering and swaying on the edge of a global world. Lymond, in Russia, and in his relationship with Chancellor seems to be aware of this and be reaching for something much bigger even than Russia. They both seem to be sailing into the age of Englishtment and the voyage is lethal and dangerous. Within 100 years, that complex world they know will be utterly destroyed and replaced with something much more grim. In this book Lymond finally falls in love. (I also wish Dunnett would include translations for her non-bilingual readers.) I, personally, don't think I have ever been more enthralled by a hero.

This book has less action in it than the preceeding novels in this series, but even so, more action than most. We see our hero making his way in an 15 Century Russia. As each book goes by I find that I have difficulty maintaining a liking for this man. He is extremely hard and bitter, and appears to have no loyalties to friendship while he tries to make his point. Even so, I find I still have to keep reading because these books are so powerful. In this book Lymond falls in love, but in true Lymond fashion, feels that he can't share this with anyone, let alone his lady love. I await with much trepidation the final installment in this series in order to find out if Lymond bears any human characteristics or not.

I am a big fan of the Lymond series by Dorothy Dunnett, though following her character Francis Crawford of Lymond through his many complex journeys is anything but predictable. Lymond's character becomes almost difficult to enjoy at times, but ever more fascinating as the reader watches Lymond make his life choices and then reap the consequences; some of them quite terrible. In this installment, his allegiance to Ivan of Russia gives Crawford extraordinary power and leadership, but makes him a hard man, even harder than he has been in previous books.

Although I would unhesitatingly recommend Dunnett's Lymond Series (all of her work that I have read so far) to any fan of either historical fiction or clever, subtle writing, I want to protest the undefensibly sloppy proofreading evident in the kindle versions. It is not unusual to encounter one egregious error after another, errors that would have been readily caught by even the most casual perusal of the output of the sad device that produced the text. Dunnett's writing and we, the paying customers, deserve better than this contemptuous treatment by Random House.

I just wish the author had translated all the
foreign language dialogue, poems, songs,
quotations, etc. used in the Lymond Chronicles;
a great many of which I'm still trying to
decipher... Is there a support group?

Well, here it is, the second to last volume in the Lymond Chronicles. I shiver thinking that I have only one more before I have read them all, and Lymond will be out of my life. As if. Like just about every other nut about the series, I will read, re-read and then read a third time.

Let me just say the end of this novel is nothing like the beginning. We find Francis Crawford of Lymond and Sevigny in Ivan the Terrible's Russia. He is the supreme commander of the Czar's military forces, and by all appearances has completed his personal transformation into a cold, calculating machine. This serves him well in his present position, where ruthlessness is king. He has an unstable Ivan to manage, a resentful and murderous aristocracy to defend himself and the men of St. Mary's from, and, thank heavens, Philippa safely in England. No, wait, Philippa is never safely anywhere... but at least her attempt to join him in Russia is foiled. I would not have put it past her, but frankly I just was not ready for that.

While Lymond works to keep the Czar on task to rid Russia of the Tartars and thereby free the backward, zenophobic empire to get with the Renaissance, Philppa is a lady in waiting for the new queen, Mary Tudor. The plots and conspiracies are just too much for Philppa, who, while investigating Lymond's origins and half-heartedly seeking her annulment from him, gets herself embroiled with some dangerous folks, including the great mathematician, alchemist and astrologer, John Dee. Margaret Lenox is aiming to trip her up however she can, just to get her former boy lover's goat.

Enter a wonderful new character, the factual Richard Chancellor, one of the first navbigators to reach Russia by going north of Scandinavbia. He and Lymond become friends. Chancellor, in fact, was told by Margaret, who is riding high on the return of Catholicism to England, and who is shooting for her son, Lord Darnley, to become the next king, to warn our hero of dire consequences to himself and his loved ones if he does not come back to Scotland. Chancellor, whom she threatened to charge with heresy, does not inform Lymond until he absolutely has to, but manages to save his life during one of the promised attacks. It becomes clear that someone in either Lymond's or Chancellor's party is the culprit.

Everything starts to change when Ivan is convinced to send his best buddy and commander of all his armies to England to get Mary and her new husband, Philip of Spain, to give him weapons. After a grueling voyage and tragedy, Lymond is in London and sparring with his erstwhile bride. She has learned that he is a bastard, though the story changes a couple times as to the dramatis personae, and while the dramatic events of Bloody Mary's reign unfold, Lymond confronts his enemies and his great uncle, who, it seems, has been blackmailing his mother, something becomes apparent in Lymond. He is starting to get it. He is starting to recognize that he too has a caring nature and that there is some good to be had from the relationships in his life.

Like most Dunnett, The Ringed Castle s a mix of psychological drama, expert character development, absurd plot lines that you wouldn't miss for the world, and the totality a novel where you can't, tense and expectant, put the book down. During the reading of this volume, I went from thinking "The approapriate approach to reading Lymond is alarm, to the appropriate approach being intense anxiety. This magnificent self-destructive, brilliant, infuriating man is capable of anything, no matter how splendid or ridiculous.

I told someone the other day that the Lymond chronicles are like Mt. McKinley in Alaska. When you look for it on the horizon you see the mountain range. Scanning it you try to detect the tallest peak. None seem to top the others. Then.. you look above the clouds, and there, towering over the rest and as wide as several together, is McKinley. The Lymond Chronicles are to all other books I have read what McKingley is to the other mountains. No comparison.

I received this book from the Library for the Blind, unfortunately on one of their old cassettes. Four sides of it had about an eight minute gap thanks to a twisted tape. I look forward to when they get the Dunnett books onto the digital media where such problems are -- almost -- impossible.

OK, time to grit my teeth and send for Chckmate, volume six of the six-volume Lymond Chronicles

From That's All She Read, by Nan Hawthorne, [...].

This is the fifth 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

The Ringed Castle has one of the more memorable opening lines in historical fiction: "Not to every young girl is it given to enter the harem of the Sultan of Turkey and return to her homeland a virgin."

After the shattering events of book 4, "Pawn in Frankincense", Phillipa Somerville so returns to England while Francis Crawford of Lymond goes to Russia and takes service with Ivan the Terrible.

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 exceptionally unpleasant both for themselves and for the characters who survive them. If you read the books out of sequence, advance knowledge of how characters are going to die, can have a significant impact on the pleasure you would otherwise have had in reading about the earlier events of their lives when you do get around to reading the earlier books.

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.

In this book Phillipa Somerville, who was scarcely more than a girl when she first appeared in the stories, becomes a more important viewpoint character, developing as a heroine and counterweight to Franci Crawford.

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. Lymond's 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 !