Here we go again. Hello, Lymond. So, you are going to France? I smell intrigues, entertainment, and a great deal of heartbreak.

It is lovely and refreshing how different this novel is from The Game of Kings. The prose style is as intricate and intellectually surprising as in the first book, but lighter in architecture. The sheer compelling readability of Queen’s Play brought me joy, and my five stars reflect this; it is also an attempt to forgive the faults that are unquestionably there.

The beginning has the feel of a picaresque novel, with comic relief galore (I was having a blast). But the experienced reader of Lymond will know that there are darker undercurrents just waiting to burst forth.

We are swimming in a sea of intrigues, where nothing is what it seems. Lymond’s disguise was preposterous, unbelievable, and provocative. But it worked in this book’s universe. I was going to rant about a couple of incongruities, but then Dunnett explained those away (a shame: I had prepared a good rant). Anyway, the French Court deserves to be given the finger, and Lymond does it brilliantly.

“Then, the goal reached, he hardened his long fingers in their entrails of icing and sugar and began to twist.”

“Lymond’s behaviour, as always, went to the limits of polite usage and then hurtled off into space.” :D

My adrenaline levels were off the chart throughout. The royal hunt! Assassination attempts! The rooftop steeplechase (I loved it)! Innovative uses of circus elephants! And so on and so forth…

The darker things are becoming quite a crowd, as the plot thickens. People are used and puppeteered. People are circling each other, influencing, bruising, and changing each other in subtle and tragic ways.

Oonagh’s storyline is one of the book’s biggest faults. She is something of a Milady cliché, only without the charm and with less sense. Why is O’LiamRoe so smitten, I keep wondering? (Here is a wonderful person with a great story arc, I wish him every good thing in the world!) To be fair, she is also bound to a horrible abusive “relationship” that she justifies with her great cause. (Stockholm syndrome detected.) It is annoying in the extreme how Dunnett uses that misogynic plot device that assumes that in order to be freed/to start mending her ways a woman just needs some good time in the sack. Gaaaah.

Another fault is racial/ethnic stereotyping that rubbed me the wrong way. Piedar Dooly is a stupid asshole, but he could have been that without being “trapped in his passionate Irish soul.” Come on!

Yet, ultimately, this book is about realizing that you are responsible for other people, always. You are responsible for everyone you influence, no matter how little or how greatly.

“The issue is that Francis Crawford set out to capture the mind of this man, and having used it, dismissed it as one of his whores.”

I loved O’LiamRoe so much when he lectured Lymond:

“And that is what leadership means. It means fortifying the fainthearted and giving them the two sides of your tongue while you are at it. It means suffering weak love and schooling it till it matures. It means giving up your privacies, your follies and your leisure. It means you can love nothing and no one too much, or you are no longer a leader, you are the led.”

I feel somewhat deprived after finishing this. I know, I know, there are four more books. Still, I find it difficult to let go. ( )

The Lymond Chronicles 2 ( )

María de Guisa, reina regente de Escocia, prepara su viaje a Francia para reunirse con su hija, la pequeña María Estuardo, reina de Escocia y prometida del Delfín, que lleva ya nos años viviendo en la Corte francesa. Rodeada de intrigas, la reina regente necesita un espía que no esté controlado ni por escoceses ni por franceses que la mantenga informada y proteja a su hija, y pide a Francis Crawford de Lymond, en su día proscrito y perseguido a todo lo largo y ancho de Escocia, que se haga cargo de la misión.

A Francis Crawford de Lymond, en su día proscrito y perseguido a todo lo largo y ancho de Escocia, María de Guisa, reina regente de ese país, le encarga que viaje a Francia de incógnito con el fin de proteger a su hija, María Estuardo, de un posible intento de asesinato.
Después de introducirse en la corte francesa, ganarse el favor de la familia real, incluidos el rey Enrique II y la reina Catalina de Medicis, y conseguir desbaratar media docena de atentados contra la vida de la pequeña María, Lymond es traicionado y tiene que huir precipitadamente a Inglaterra. Allí, averigua nuevos detalles sobre la conspiración para acabar con la vida de la pelirroja reina escocesa, y sabe que la única solución para conseguir salvarla es volver a Francia, a pesar de que allí el Rey ha puesto precio a su cabeza...

Lymond poses as an Irish olave to protect young Mary at the French court