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Jul. 12th, 2010 11:59 amI am now three-quarters of the way through my epic reread of Dorothy Dunnett's Niccolo books!
Capsule summary of The Unicorn Hunt:
Niccolo's newborn baby son is:
a.) either his kid . . . or his WORST ENEMY's kid.
b.) either born terribly ill and unlikely to survive . . . or totally healthy.
c.) on Cyprus. Or in Venice. Or in Bruges. Or being shipped around the Renaissance world like a box of gift chocolates.
d.) or DEAD.
e.) or not!
Capsule summary of To Lie With Lions:
NICCOLO AND [SPOILER MRS. NICCOLO]: We are embarking on an all-out war in an attempt to destroy each other economically, politically and emotionally. One of us will win!
FRIENDS OF THE NICCOLOS: . . . and then?
NICCOLO AND [SPOILER MRS. NICCOLO]: We will settle down to happy family life! :D
FRIENDS OF THE NICCOLOS: I can see some flaws in this plan.
I am becoming more in awe, by the way, of Dorothy Dunnett's skill at performing astounding amounts of historical research for the purpose of finding the most symbolically angsty place for a confrontation. For example: learning all about the use of blood in Renaissance salt purification, just so she can have Niccolo engineer a murderous confrontation with his possibly!father in a deserted salt house, in a blizzard, over an enormous pit of boiling hot bull's blood. And that is not even the climax of the book! Some other truly exceptional set pieces over these past two books include:
- the drainage systems of Cairo during the rise of the Nile, in which Niccolo is tied up and left to drown
- the top of Mt. Sinai, where Niccolo and his wife consider the possibility of joint suicide (which: if you are going to offer this option, the top of Mt. Sinai is a hell of a place to do it)
- Venice at carnival-time, which I would not even mention because everyone does Venice at carnival-time, except this one also includes cross-dressing, kidnapping, and a chase across several gondolas
- a castle completely composed of trapdoors, secret springs, and funhouse mirrors for the purposes of practical jokes, in which an epic reunion takes place
- the three-foot-wide, thirty-foot-tall great wall of Edinburgh, where the protagonist and several members of the Scottish royalty play a game of football
- Iceland, where a volcano explodes
My personal favorite for sheer dramatic creativity may be the time that a three-year-old is almost murdered in a TREACHEROUS GAME OF RENAISSANCE GOLF. (A scheming eleven-year-old lures him off into the woods, then, instead of hitting the ball into the hole, attempts to swing it into the kid's head. Impressive if only for the sheer aim one would need to pull this off!)
However, nothing will ever top the EPIC DRAMA of Lymond's Tragic Game of Human Chess.
Capsule summary of The Unicorn Hunt:
Niccolo's newborn baby son is:
a.) either his kid . . . or his WORST ENEMY's kid.
b.) either born terribly ill and unlikely to survive . . . or totally healthy.
c.) on Cyprus. Or in Venice. Or in Bruges. Or being shipped around the Renaissance world like a box of gift chocolates.
d.) or DEAD.
e.) or not!
Capsule summary of To Lie With Lions:
NICCOLO AND [SPOILER MRS. NICCOLO]: We are embarking on an all-out war in an attempt to destroy each other economically, politically and emotionally. One of us will win!
FRIENDS OF THE NICCOLOS: . . . and then?
NICCOLO AND [SPOILER MRS. NICCOLO]: We will settle down to happy family life! :D
FRIENDS OF THE NICCOLOS: I can see some flaws in this plan.
I am becoming more in awe, by the way, of Dorothy Dunnett's skill at performing astounding amounts of historical research for the purpose of finding the most symbolically angsty place for a confrontation. For example: learning all about the use of blood in Renaissance salt purification, just so she can have Niccolo engineer a murderous confrontation with his possibly!father in a deserted salt house, in a blizzard, over an enormous pit of boiling hot bull's blood. And that is not even the climax of the book! Some other truly exceptional set pieces over these past two books include:
- the drainage systems of Cairo during the rise of the Nile, in which Niccolo is tied up and left to drown
- the top of Mt. Sinai, where Niccolo and his wife consider the possibility of joint suicide (which: if you are going to offer this option, the top of Mt. Sinai is a hell of a place to do it)
- Venice at carnival-time, which I would not even mention because everyone does Venice at carnival-time, except this one also includes cross-dressing, kidnapping, and a chase across several gondolas
- a castle completely composed of trapdoors, secret springs, and funhouse mirrors for the purposes of practical jokes, in which an epic reunion takes place
- the three-foot-wide, thirty-foot-tall great wall of Edinburgh, where the protagonist and several members of the Scottish royalty play a game of football
- Iceland, where a volcano explodes
My personal favorite for sheer dramatic creativity may be the time that a three-year-old is almost murdered in a TREACHEROUS GAME OF RENAISSANCE GOLF. (A scheming eleven-year-old lures him off into the woods, then, instead of hitting the ball into the hole, attempts to swing it into the kid's head. Impressive if only for the sheer aim one would need to pull this off!)
However, nothing will ever top the EPIC DRAMA of Lymond's Tragic Game of Human Chess.
