Caprice and Rondo, Gemini

[lightreads]

Gemini by Dorothy Dunnett

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ah. You know that moment when you read the last page of a book, and you gently close it (or, uh, switch off your electronic reading device of choice) and you breathe out a long breath and you just have to sit there for five or ten minutes smiling and not thinking much, but just quietly hanging on to the last threads of it? Yeah.



So that's the Dunnett, then. These last two books aren't perfect -- Gemini, in particular, spends a lot of to-ing and fro-ing on petty politics that I just didn't care about – but man. This broke my heart in the very best way. Particularly as the last two books are all about building what I found lacking in this series previously, as compared to Lymond. Nicholas makes a home at last, and a family, and permanence, and country, and a holding center. And then at the very last, ah. Francis Crawford, there you are.



Yes.




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Comments

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Would you recommend this series to someone who didn't like Game of Kings? Thing is, I had the feeling I was supposed to immediately fall in love with the dark mysterious Lymond, where in point of fact I found him obnoxious and melodramatic -- so I tended to skip everything to do with him, which of course leaves out an extremely large part of the book. I did like the remaining bits, though, so I'd be willing to try again :)

[lightreads.livejournal.com]

I would recommend these, yes. They have a very different feel, because Nicholas is a very different person -- unprivileged, poor, largely uneducated. At least at first. They have similarities as people -- musicality, a deep sense of hilarity -- but the entire feel of the books is different.

You're not supposed to love Lymond right away, btw. It took me, geez, over 400 pages. And actually, I'm still not sure if I like him, if you know what I mean. You have to get past that cheap-feeling outsider POV she keeps with him for a long time.