The Game of Kings (1961)

Not to be read when you don't want to think, in my experience. You have to keep juggling all the information -- names, places, dates -- and keep your eyes on Lymond's schemes, or you'll miss a step. That makes it a tiring read, in a way, at least when you're just beginning, but I came to enjoy trying to keep up with it. It's certainly not the "mindless fluff" brand of historical fiction.

It's hard to like the central character, though, for much of the book, because he gives so little of himself away and you don't understand where he's been and what he's done. By the end of the book, he's easier to sympathise with -- though more so with his brother, who I got to like a lot -- but still somewhat impenetrable. The character list is huge, but I think my favourite characters ended up being Christian and Richard. Sympathies for the rest vacillated a lot.

Sometimes, at least to a modern reader -- the book being about fifty years old now -- it's overwritten and a little pompous because of it.

It's hard to rate this book, actually, because when I was in the right mood, I sped through it. Other days, I couldn't make any headway at all. ( )

So yes–I liked Game of Kings a lot. The melodrama! The intrigue! The history! Also smooth talking blonds–has Sarah Rees Brennan read this book? Also characters who are more than they seem. Lymond is almost like this really weird mix of Howl and Verity. But I’m not sure if I can keep up the emotional stamina for the rest of the series. We’ll see. ( )

The Lymond series, which starts with this book, can be challenging or even difficult to read at times. Persevere because it is worth it! The characters are complex, the plots intricate but so absorbing once you get involved ( )

An engrossing read with a twisty, complex plot. Dunnett has created some fascinating and engaging characters, some based on real-life figures, but the use of Scottish dialect and many literary and cultural references make this is a title that takes time to digest. I'd like to read the other five in the series, but unfortunately at this point in time I cannot devote the neccesary amount of time. They'll just have to wait. ( )

I'm neither the first nor the last to fall in love with this compelling series and its hero when I was a student. Set in the sixteenth century starting in Scotland and moving to France, Russia, Turkey and elsewhere, the sweep of the historical setting is magnificent and convincing. The violent - both deliberate and accidental, and including illnesses - is sometimes stomach-churning but belongs to the period, and the author certainly does not flinch at the nastier things in life. There is poetry, too, though, and every kind of humour. She bravely turns us against her hero, Francis Crawford of Lymond, in the course of the series, only to turn us back to him again, and the ending is more than satisfactory. The language is rich and the scholarship an education in itself, but the complex plot is fascinating and well-paced throughout. ( )