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[skygiants]

Okay, so Dorothy Dunnett and me, we have a History.

We met in a library when I was fifteen, and - as you do, when you are fifteen - I fell into a great and probably unhealthy passion, specifically with the Lymond Chronicles. Thoroughly researched labyrinthine Renaissance politics! Sparkling banter and elaborate twisty prose! Ridiculously brilliant and tortured super-geniuses whose bucketloads of angst were so truly epic that they could only be alluded to through literary quotations, often in other languages! Tragic games of human chess! This was basically like porn to my teenaged self.

. . . and okay, I will sheepishly admit, is still quite a bit like porn to me now, although these days I am significantly more able to take a step back and laugh at some of the more melodramatic bits. But my pure and true fifteen-year-old Dunnett-love is far too great to ever put it behind me, and every so often I need to go back and get my fix.

Last time around was midway through college, with a reread of the Lymond books; this time, I decided it was time to give the Niccolo books another shot, which I never quite imprinted on the way I did the Lymond books. They're a bit more difficult, I think, and a lot less straightforward action porn-y - instead of dramatic political scheming, the Niccolo books also involve a lot of economic and trade scheming, which I find harder to follow. On the other hand, Lymond as a character creates great inner discord in me, because my adult self is like "oh good LORD, superhuman superwitty super angsty golden god, HAVE A NORMAL CONVERSATION EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE" while my inner fifteen-year-old is happily doodling "Lymond x Philippa and Danny x Becca 4EVER! <33333!" all over her mental notebook, and then there are bitchfights in my soul and it is all very awkward. But I did not crush on Niccolo as a kid, and - as I have discovered from a reread of Niccolo Rising - we get inside Niccolo's head a lot more than we do Lymond's, and see him screwing up a lot more, which makes him a lot less frustrating to me. And Dorothy Dunnett's gorgeous prose and her dry, sly humor, and occasional madcap ostrich chases through Bruges, are still kind of like porn to me. As it happens. So.

- what, you want a plot summary? Okay, here it is: at first, our protagonist looks a lot like a manic bastard child of Carrot Ironfoundersson and the Tenth Doctor, dropped into fifteenth-century Bruges to cause havoc. Then you start to figure out that actually, Niccolo is the bastard child of Carrot Ironfoundersson and Kyouya Ohtori.

Does that terrify you? IT SHOULD.

Basically Niccolo Rising is a book about Renaissance economic pwnage and the growth of a merchant empire, which of necessity also involves mercenaries, the Medici, and assassinations, and, because it is Dorothy Dunnett, also involves near-incestuous family relations, various degrees of severe emotional damage, and a lot of legitimately hilarious hijinks and caustic mockery of people's silly hats. Also it is educational! I suspect I have learned more about Renaissance politics from Dorothy Dunnett than I ever did from a textbook. I am for the most part very much looking forward to a leisurely reread through the rest of the series, and I am excited for the eventual introduction of the bitter revenge-driven heroine and the hatesex! o/ (Although I am faintly dreading the one set in Africa. :\)

Comments

[skygiants]

She did! It's called King Hereafter and involves a theory about The Historical Macbeth that makes some historians pull out their hair, but is a pretty awesome book.

I love Jacky so much, not least because of the amount of times she screws up! And Jamie is so the Wellard of the books, which makes me want to pat his head a lot.

Yeah, Niccolo was harder for me when I was younger, and I think for me it's definitely rewarding the reread . . . partly because it's easier to appreciate the economic plotting, and partly because I appreciate the slightly less flashy Niccolo a lot more now, and partly just because because the books in general are a lot easier on a second read when you have a faint idea from the start what on Earth is going on and are not sitting there going "alum? ostriches? what? wait - what?"

[ceitfianna]

Then I will have to go read it since I love those kinds of books even if sometimes they make me go huh. Did you ever read The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood? Its quite fascinating while also being rather strange. Robert Graves also wrote a strange book called Homer's Daughter along the same lines where apparently Nausiica actually wrote The Odyssey.

I would so love to see Jacky and Jamie in the Bar since the snark and teasing and hormones just makes me giggle. She's just such a great character who goes between thinking she's so clever to going oh well, now I'm going to hang. It reminds me a lot of Will since he has those moments of I can do this and then oh god I'm just a peasant.

[skygiants]

I haven't read The Penelopiad, and I have been pondering whether I want to - I have ambivalent feelings about Margaret Atwood. I am intrigued by the Graves, though!

I won't lie, if I wasn't already playing HB-Jamie, I would totally have apped Jacky Faber a year or two ago. But, uh, as it is the last thing I need is another smug first-person teenaged scoundrel.

[ceitfianna]

I only read it because someone gave it to me since Atwood isn't an author I've ever searched out. I would say its a pretty fast and interesting read, its one of those books that I ended up talking about.

I adore Robert Graves since he is so good at getting inside the past. Heh, oh yes I can see that, both of them in your head would be a little nuts.

[skygiants]

I've read quite a bit of Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake, Cat's Eye, I think, is all of them - and I always end up half-moderately respectful and half-uncomfortable. Something about her worldview/writing-view does not quite click for me, though I cannot really articulate what.

Now I want to reread the Claudius books! But I don't get to do that until after the Niccolo books.