The Game of Kings

I reviewed the first book in one of my favourite series ever. The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I started to read this series three times. Three times I got the book out of the library, and twice I took it back after reading a couple of chapters. I couldn't get into it, couldn't get interested.
Then I gave it one more go. And the world opened.
This is the first book Dunnett wrote, the first she had published, and the early chapters in particular have the hallmarks of that. It's too overwhelming, too busy, too complicated.
Plough through it. By the time you get a third of the way through - in my case, the scene at the inn with the piper and Will Scott - you're off and running.
The series is still clever, still complex and intriguing, but by then Dunnett has a handle on it. It's never again overwhelmed by words and quotations, and too much going on. There are rich, unforgettable characters who you really care about, intriguing puzzles and a rich and colourful picture of the first half of the sixteenth century.
Instead, it's a six volume adventure with some daring scenes, some tender ones, and some that will make you cry. And you don't know until the last chapter of the last book how the series is going to turn out.
Astonishing series, totally engrossing, well worth fighting through the first half of the first book. And then some. I have two copies of the series, one to lend and one to keep, because the ones I lend sometimes don't come back and I don't have the heart to ask for them.



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