Originally published on my blog here in February 1999.The seventh Niccolo book starts as his various businesses are trying to recover from the revelation of his activities in Scotland and their probably effect on the country's economy, he himself being exiled from Western Europe on pain of having...
WHAT a family. Good God. Dorothy Dunnett is really quite the master of genetic complication. What is it that Philippa says in The Ringed Castle ... "I didn't know another permutation in breeding was possible."? Oh Philippa. With Dorothy Dunnett it is always possible.This is without question the b...
This book was a vast improvement on its predecessor, and I'm not just saying that because it featured my hero Louis XI more prominently :). Unicorn Hunt was kind of a meandering travelogue that didn't really seem to accomplish much in terms of advancing the plot or the characterization...though I...
This review will be long because D. Dunnett had drawn me to her outlandish stories until she had outdone it and stuffed her story with something I couldn't digest. I don't think I can force myself to finish the series, In fact I am not even sure if I can read her Lymond chronicles because maybe t...
This is the fourth book in the House of Niccolo. Having left Cyprus, Nicholas embarks on an expedition to Africa, his two aims being trade and exploration. In the late 15th century, this journey is arduous and risky. Nicholas and his companions (on odd mix of people from his present and his past,...
This is the story of Claes AKA Nicholas AKA Niccolo van der Poele and his meteoric, often painful rise from a dyer’s apprentice to one of the premier businessmen in sixteenth-century Europe. Nicholas is brilliant, hilarious, and possessed of the sort of intellect and drive that are simultaneously...
Niccolo/Nicholas, a brilliant young man rapidly rising on the European business stage, is invited to establish a trading station at Trebizond, the last remnant of the Byzantine empire. His rival is Pagano Doria, deliberate mischief-maker, who has seduced and carried off Niccolo's very young stepd...
People who are devoted Dorothy Dunnett readers generally fall into two camps: the Lymond Lovers (her first series) and the Niccolo folk. I'm in the second camp. I like Lymond, but I love the House of Niccolo series.The thing is, I can't pick up any of the Niccolo books without wanting to read the...