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Originally Posted by Strether
I couldn't warm up to the Lymond Chronicles at all but loved The House of Niccolo series; have all of those. Neither series is available on Kindle, alas. They're big books and it would nice to have them neatly contained on your e-reader.
Jim
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Lymond Chronicles first book, The Game of Kings is hard to like for a long time. The writing style is brilliant but not for everyone. Her prose is advanced but she doesn't talk down to anyone and her research is impeccable (I didn't really know that until I read it 20 places later).
Difficult to like the main character. You like most of the people he's personally at odds with more. Then you start to see a few redeeming qualities which is a conundrum because he usually doesn't act in a very civil manner. You understand enough of his motivations to see why he's such a scoundrel, but why he's sometimes nice will remain a paradox through most of the book - even though after you finish you're going - oh yeah, why didn't I see that earlier? The guy doesn't even deny killing someone that he didn't because he doesn't care what anyone thinks. That's what you think. There are things you don't find out until the last chapter of the book, literally the last pages. Which makes it a masterpiece to me. You're told the stuff all along, she doesn't reveal some new made up piece of a puzzle right at the end, like some mystery writer that cheats and withholds vital info, it's her writing, her expression of his personality and the depth of his character that's revealed at the end.
Strengths - Here are the things that make me think it's a work of art. I didn't have any idea how much I could learn about the time period. I was amazed at how much I learned. (I have often read about and studied in school this European time period). I love learning things from a book.
I remember looking up 3 or 4 words (oh, that just never happens to me heh), looking up poetry to see where it came from (what a great selection and I hardly ever read any poetry I haven't been made to) and even translated a couple passages from French because I didn't want to misunderstand something. Second, she keeps you interested throughout and then knocks your socks off in a somewhat classic though not at all cliched ending. Completely unexpected depths of emotion in what I thought was a moderately dry though wonderfully written novel until then. Until understanding..
and.. The main character is not a white hat or a black hat, he's like every one of us - somewhere in between, but he's not a one dimensional grey hat (a cliche often over used in modern writings).
Weaknesses - You have to read about 75 pages before you really decide if you want to read it, and even then you're following the adventures of a mostly unsympathetic character, not for everyone. Usually not for me either, I picked it up several times to read before I got hooked. There are a number of quotes in archaic languages that kinda put off the reader I think. They pretty much disappear by the end of the 2nd book in the series but The Game of Kings if full of them.
I loved the House of Niccolo series too, just as much really but I found it easier to like at first because the main character's personality was clearer from the start. She reserved her surprises for other areas of the character.