Well into volume three is a long way, yes. I was willing to push into book five with Gene Wolfe, but that was mostly out of blind faith that he must know what he was doing. He did, fortunately.
I have not read the Eschbach and will get right on that as it sounds fascinating. It looks as though my library has it, too, which is convenient.
The major structural thing I've noticed with the Lymond books is that things keep slipping out of place because she has no idea whatsoever how to pace the central romance. It kind of amazes me that those hold together as well as they do, because that issue affects so, so many of the other things, and it's only because so much is going on that most of the other things can work in other directions. Like, the major death at the end of book one, that's because of not wanting to have a specific kind of rivalry plot but in that case it should have happened-- and would have worked better-- two and a half books later. Then there's a glorious bit in the latter half of The Ringed Castle where the romance actually slips into its correct place, and balances with all the rest, and everything is wonderful, and then she blows it again in Checkmate, but that time really drastically blows it and even though it basically works out all right I am not resigned. So I don't know if it will help specifically with the Ks, but ninety-five percent of the time when I notice a structural problem in Lymond I ask myself 'is she faffing about because she has no idea what to do with/about Philippa right now' and the answer is yes. Dunnett does a lot of Philippa-related fumbling. Which includes at least some of the cheating on who people are, because it takes up space she therefore does not have to use in handling her romance.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-10-04 10:37 pm (UTC)I have not read the Eschbach and will get right on that as it sounds fascinating. It looks as though my library has it, too, which is convenient.
The major structural thing I've noticed with the Lymond books is that things keep slipping out of place because she has no idea whatsoever how to pace the central romance. It kind of amazes me that those hold together as well as they do, because that issue affects so, so many of the other things, and it's only because so much is going on that most of the other things can work in other directions. Like, the major death at the end of book one, that's because of not wanting to have a specific kind of rivalry plot but in that case it should have happened-- and would have worked better-- two and a half books later. Then there's a glorious bit in the latter half of The Ringed Castle where the romance actually slips into its correct place, and balances with all the rest, and everything is wonderful, and then she blows it again in Checkmate, but that time really drastically blows it and even though it basically works out all right I am not resigned. So I don't know if it will help specifically with the Ks, but ninety-five percent of the time when I notice a structural problem in Lymond I ask myself 'is she faffing about because she has no idea what to do with/about Philippa right now' and the answer is yes. Dunnett does a lot of Philippa-related fumbling. Which includes at least some of the cheating on who people are, because it takes up space she therefore does not have to use in handling her romance.