A Game of Kings
Dorothy Dunnett
543 pages
published in 1961

Dorothy Dunnett had been favourably mentioned on rec.arts.sf.written and rec.arts.sf.fandom a few times, with her Lymond series of historical novels recieving extra praise. When I saw this book in the library, the first in that series, and took it home to read.

Lymond, the protagonist of the series, is a dangerous and bitter man, who commited a hideous crime five years ago which forced him to flee his home country, Scotland. The younger brother of a high Scottish nobleman, Lord Culter, he is now earning a living as a mercenary and rogue, though he may not be quite the blackhearted villain he appears to be. Higly educated, intelligent and witty, he is feared and despised by many, but also admired by at least some women. He is the archetypical tragic hero.

A Game of Kings is set in the mid 16th century, at the time when Mary, queen of Scots was still an infant, against the backdrop of the English-Scottish borderwars of that time. The English were pressing Scotland hard in order to capture Mary and force her into marriage to the English boy-king, Edward. The Scots had other ideas, of course.

Into this mixture Lymond steps to redeem himself, by looking for the three men which may have the information to clear him of his misdeeds. Throughout the book, Lymond stays a shadowy figure, the reader not being privvy to his thoughts, seeing him only through the eyes of others, none of which have a clear picture of him.

The book is divided in four parts and, as the title indicates, structured as a game of chess. I'll let others judge how successful this was, as I'm unfamiliar with the game. The first three parts deal with Lymond's attempts to get the three men he needs, the last part, aptly called endgame is when all the intrigues and conflicts come to a head.

Because of the author's decision to keep things vague and only let the reader slowly in on the details of Lymond's shameful past, the story starts off confused and takes some time to get going. Interesting is the character development of Lymond: starting off as an enigma, an almost superhuman figure, by the end of the book he's revealed to be oh so human. The historical background is handled well, as far as I can tell.

All in all a nice little read and I'm looking forward to read the rest of this series.