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 felt similarly after reading Disorderly Knights for the first time before I had finished the series, so maybe my opinion of that will change once I've finished Gemini. In any event, the main annoyance of this book, to me, is that Nicholas is constantly referring in the text to his Grand Plan, without revealing to the reader what that is. Now, I have no objection to grand plans -- Game of Kings had one, and its "Aha!" moment at the end was a wonderful payoff. But it was under the surface -- here, Nicholas seems to be beating you over the head every few chapters with "Remember that I have a glorious complicated plan! And I'm STILL not going to tell you what it is!" ...It was frustrating. The scenes in Iceland were stellar, with the amazing descriptive power that Dunnett has earned my and many other people's praise for. Nicholas and Gelis advance their relationship, we understand more of their characters, and the minor ones are nicely fleshed out. In fact, I was all set to give this 5 stars...and then the last climax of the book hit, and I had to downrank. (view spoiler)[I found it inconceivable that both N&G have an end goal to live together happily ever after, but that they express this through incredibly hurtful plans to ruin each other's lives. It's nonsensical that Gelis "prove" her cunning worthy of being loved by destroying her husband's business. And that Nicholas, in return, not only *accepts* that as a valid way to win his affection, but pettily one-ups her by bankrupting an entire country. I mean, I know that much of the series conflict is driven by Nicholas' inability to separate his personal issues from those of his bank, but seriously...this was eyeroll-provoking on a major scale. (hide spoiler)]
In my eyes this series just gets better and better. I must admit that I wasn't too taken with the enigma that was Niccolo when I first started this series but he has become a compelling character. He's a bit "softer" in this book, not so cold and unfeeling. There are some plot twists that I didn't envisage happening and they keep the tension and interest of the series ratched up as a whole. I love the settings, (a lot of the action takes place in Iceland). The characters are wonderfully depicted and the attention to historical detail is superb. A series to be savoured.
What do You think about To Lie With Lions (1999)?
Oblique, allusive, the master of showing and not telling, Dunnett is a formidable writer. Only occasionally do I understand the machinations of each character, though I love the action and the characterizations. I did feel the machinery creaking in this one, though, particularly during the adventure in Iceland, filled with erupting volcanoes, walls of fire and marauding bears but serving to advance the plot only a little. The ending is astonishing. How will Niccolo recover from betraying everyone he cares about?
—Caro
I don't care for Dunnett's Nicollo series as much as her Lymond series. Nicholas is rather an oaf given to dangerous games, but at last in this fifth book of the series (I keep on reading because Dunnett's use of the English language is thrilling) I'm beginning to see his charms. Dunnett is treating him more softly. I'm more than half way finished (Dec 2, 2011) and this I believe is the least violent of Dunnett's Lymond and Nicollo books -- a plus for me. Her plotting leaves some implausibilities, but one tends to forgive Dunnett any faults for her genius with language and description, and her astonishing wit in threading her plots though strange places. We are now in Iceland, having come from Timbuktu in the previous volume: The Unicorn Hunt (and some dozen other remote locales as well.)Here is 15th century soccer played on the ramparts and roofs of Edinburgh's castle. Not as brilliant as Lymond's rooftop chase in Queen's Play, but then I feel that the first Lymond books: The Game of Kings and Queen's Play, are worth the 5 and 6 readings I've given them so far, and the thought of rereading them yet again feels like the promise of homecoming.
—Katherine
While the climax lacked the sheer emotional punch of a certain book in the Lymond series, To Lie with Lions's conclusion is still one calculated to make your jaw drop at the sheer scale of Dunnett's plotting. Nicholas might well be on a course to surpass Lymond in magnificent bastardlyness (yes, that's now a word). Gelis and Nicholas' relationship is a startling war of attrition that's as gripping to read about as it is exhausting for them to experience, and I'm very glad that I have Caprice and Rondo to hand—I really want to see how Dunnett is going to let this cliffhanger play out.
—Siria
