The Game of Kings

This is incredibly dense prose. That's something I have to throw out there, because it made me feel excruciatingly stupid for the first fifty pages or so. However, it's totally worth it. This is the first in the Lymond Chronicles, said to be some of the best historical fiction ever, and I did like it a lot! The titular character is seriously awesome, dangerous, brilliant, and oddly patriotic, and the political plotlines were twisty and interesting. I think the problem is that I know absolutely nothing about Scotland in the 1500s (my reaction around the twentieth page: “Oh, there was a war in Scotland?” Yes, Ariel, my brilliant one, there was.) I got to the end based on the sheer strength of Lymond's character and those around him, but I think I'm going to brush up on my history before I tackle the next in the series.