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 enlarge | Author: Dorothy Dunnett
Publisher: Vintage Books
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy Used: $0.97
You Save: $15.98 (94%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  117 reviews
Sales Rank: 42984
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 543
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 0679777431
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780679777434
ASIN: 0679777431
Publication Date: April 29, 1997
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| Customer Reviews:
 Francis Crawford of Lymond, 16C's James Bond? January 27, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
What fun! Its 1547, Henry VIII is dead and his young son Edward VII sits on the throne, as does a very young Mary sit on the throne of Scotland. Negotiations were made and broken to betroth young Mary to Edward and cement the two countries - or will the Scots marry her off to the dauphin of France instead? Francis Crawford of Lymond, a disgraced nobleman accused of treason sneaks back into Scotland and thus the game begins (to clear his name? is he working for the English as a spy? to murder his brother so that Lymond can inherit the Culter estates?).
Francis and his band of "merry men" immediately begin to wreak havoc, including setting fire to his brother's estate after stealing the silver and holding the ladies (including his mother) at knife point for their jewelry. Throughout, Francis' brilliant wit, sarcasm and heroism keep the reader enthralled and at times laughing out loud. Lymond's escapades take him up and down the breadth of Scotland as Dunnett slowly peels back the layers of her story and keeps the reader guessing until the very end, finishing in a trial of ups and downs, twists and turns ala Perry Mason.
This is not an easy tale to get into, especially if you have no passing knowledge of the Tudor/Stuart courts and noblemen during the 16C. Dunnett also liberally sprinkles her text with quotes from Latin, French and Olde English, you can purchase her companion book if you must know every word and nuance but I did just fine without it -- just skip the Latin you won't miss it. However, it's well worth the effort to stick with it until you "get it" as you will be well rewarded with a jolly good yarn, with as much action, excitement and swashbuckling good sword play as you would find in any Dumas novel -- for me that is the highest compliment I can give any author. A solid five stars, and I am now starting book two in the series, Queens' Play (Lymond Chronicles, 2).
Outstanding, almost addicting January 9, 2008
The "Chronicle of Lymond" is a must for all lovers of historical fiction. Do not even bother to buy one book at a time you might end up without one to read and get very frustrated. It is simple I couldn't put it down and wish there was more books like that. When Dunnett described a place I knew, I was stunned about her exactitude and precision. And enjoyed to still learn more. You swallow this whole collection at an incredible pace with the same easiness as drinking a glass of water and ask for more at the very end. Remarkable, Dorothy Dunnett is a Master in her Art.
Buy this and the others in the series November 28, 2007
The most fantastic series written. Would take as my Desert Island luxury. For people who like "faction" and political intrigue, the series is peerless.
Lymond Series No 1: Brilliant but not for every taste September 6, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
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 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 !
The Queen of the Genre August 16, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
You have to want Dorothy Dunnett. Really want her. Because she doesn't make it easy. She throws quotes at you in Greek and Latin and French and German and Italian and Spanish and doesn't supply you with translation. Which makes the first 100 pages of this book a bear.
Bear with it, though, because once you're in, you're in for six books and the most wild, romantic, painful, exciting ride of your literary life. I have never felt an emotional punch the like of hers.
This book is the introduction to Francis Crawford of Lymond - scoundrel, rogue, and wit. He typifies everything that is bubbling in the Renaissance - a restless spirit, trying to find a new way through the world. Outlawed from the word go, we're never sure what side he's on, which is as it should be. He is his own man. A man any of us would loathe, and yet follow into Hell.
There's a similar character in The Master of Verona, based on both historical fact and Lymond - Cangrande della Scala. Once you've finished the Lymond Chronicles, check that out, too.
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