Book rec
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for my friend. We should know more tomorrow about what the future holds, and I will update then.
I'm reading again these days, which is nice. It's been a while since I dove into a good book, and this one is so good I have to recommend it to everyone.
The book is The Game of Kings, by Dorothy Dunnett. It's historical fiction set in Scotland in 1547, and it is the first in a series called The Lymond Chronicles. I recently read a fan review for the book and it sounded rather familiar, so I suspect somebody here recommended it to me once. If so, whoever you are, I thank you! This book is spectacular.
For one thing it's chock full of historical references, literary allusions, foreign languages, philosophy and religion, and music and art. I've been doing most of my reading at work on my lunch hour, which sadly means I have no Internet access -- which is probably a good thing, come to think of it, because otherwise I would constantly be hopping online to check out another literary allusion, or translate the lyrics of a French song.
But the best thing about this book is the hero. Or anti-hero, really. Alias fans, does this description sound at all familiar? "His hair soft as a nestling's, his eyes graceless with malice...cornflower-blue eyes...the gilded hair, the long hands...serenely smiling, he returned the stare under relaxed lids." I tell you, Lymond is Sark. It's awesome.
The first time we meet the hero, he's sneaking into Edinburgh, double-crossing a smuggler. The second time, he's gone to his ancestral home, where he robs his mother and her friends of their money and jewels. When he leaves, he locks them in and sets the castle on fire.
How can you not love a protagonist like that? *g*
So yeah. Definitely recommend this one. I'm barely a quarter of the way through the first book and already I intend to buy the entire series.
I'm reading again these days, which is nice. It's been a while since I dove into a good book, and this one is so good I have to recommend it to everyone.
The book is The Game of Kings, by Dorothy Dunnett. It's historical fiction set in Scotland in 1547, and it is the first in a series called The Lymond Chronicles. I recently read a fan review for the book and it sounded rather familiar, so I suspect somebody here recommended it to me once. If so, whoever you are, I thank you! This book is spectacular.
For one thing it's chock full of historical references, literary allusions, foreign languages, philosophy and religion, and music and art. I've been doing most of my reading at work on my lunch hour, which sadly means I have no Internet access -- which is probably a good thing, come to think of it, because otherwise I would constantly be hopping online to check out another literary allusion, or translate the lyrics of a French song.
But the best thing about this book is the hero. Or anti-hero, really. Alias fans, does this description sound at all familiar? "His hair soft as a nestling's, his eyes graceless with malice...cornflower-blue eyes...the gilded hair, the long hands...serenely smiling, he returned the stare under relaxed lids." I tell you, Lymond is Sark. It's awesome.
The first time we meet the hero, he's sneaking into Edinburgh, double-crossing a smuggler. The second time, he's gone to his ancestral home, where he robs his mother and her friends of their money and jewels. When he leaves, he locks them in and sets the castle on fire.
How can you not love a protagonist like that? *g*
So yeah. Definitely recommend this one. I'm barely a quarter of the way through the first book and already I intend to buy the entire series.