MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Please give a writer harder to put down than Dan Brown

wayspooled · 09-14-2009, 08:33 AM

Have you tried Dorothy Dunnett? I read King Hereafter, her novel about Macbeth, some years ago and found parts of it stupendously good (every scene in which Macbeth's wife Gruach appears - not sure I'm spelling that the same way Dunnett did), and other parts almost too complex to follow. This complexity seems to be a hallmark of Dunnett's style.

When I read Niccolo Rising, the first in Dunnett's House of Niccolo series, I understood both why her fans are so hooked on her series novels, and why some people just can't get into them. The characters were bafflingly numerous, the plot incredibly complex, and Dunnett makes little or no attempt to simplify the history of the period by omitting references to events elsewhere that have a bearing, however small, on her setting, the fifteenth century cloth manufacturing town of Bruges, , the commercial rivals Venice and Genoa. Everything just gets woven into the many-stranded plot. For the first half of the novel, I struggled. If it hadn't had so many recommendations from friends I might not have persisted. Then, around chapter 19 or 20, I got hooked - and I mean really hooked. From there on, I missed sleep because I had such a hard time putting the book down. And I just kept going through all 8 of the books in the series. Immediately went on to her Lymond series which I found equally intelligent, complex and good. Here's a review of that in better words than I am capable.
http://rhapsodyinbooks.wordpress.com...rothy-dunnett/

09-14-2009, 08:33 AM	#231
wayspooled Crab In The Dark Posts: 486 Karma: 2328180 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Virginia Device: Tablet PC until a 10" comes out that I like	Have you tried Dorothy Dunnett? I read King Hereafter, her novel about Macbeth, some years ago and found parts of it stupendously good (every scene in which Macbeth's wife Gruach appears - not sure I'm spelling that the same way Dunnett did), and other parts almost too complex to follow. This complexity seems to be a hallmark of Dunnett's style. When I read Niccolo Rising, the first in Dunnett's House of Niccolo series, I understood both why her fans are so hooked on her series novels, and why some people just can't get into them. The characters were bafflingly numerous, the plot incredibly complex, and Dunnett makes little or no attempt to simplify the history of the period by omitting references to events elsewhere that have a bearing, however small, on her setting, the fifteenth century cloth manufacturing town of Bruges, , the commercial rivals Venice and Genoa. Everything just gets woven into the many-stranded plot. For the first half of the novel, I struggled. If it hadn't had so many recommendations from friends I might not have persisted. Then, around chapter 19 or 20, I got hooked - and I mean really hooked. From there on, I missed sleep because I had such a hard time putting the book down. And I just kept going through all 8 of the books in the series. Immediately went on to her Lymond series which I found equally intelligent, complex and good. Here's a review of that in better words than I am capable. http://rhapsodyinbooks.wordpress.com...rothy-dunnett/ Last edited by wayspooled; 09-14-2009 at 11:15 AM.