The final book in the Lymond Chronicles and a spectacular finish!

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	• Checkmate Dorothy Dunnett Warner Books, 1984 average customer review:based on 34 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Checkmate is a worthy ending

Dorothy Dunnett is absolutely the finest writer of historical fiction that ever lived. I have been a fan for 30 years -- her books are so complex and interesting that I find I can re-read them many times over and still learn something new each time. 'Checkmate' is the final book in Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles and the only negative thing about the book is that sad feeling you gets when you reaching the last page and realize the six book journey of her hero, Lymond, is over!

My only word of caution is: don't start with Checkmate. The characters and situations are so complex that readers really must start with 'Game of Kings' and read the series in order.

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I hard book to review (and a hard book not to fall in love with)

Checkmate, the conclusion to The Lymond Chronicles, is best, most beloved book I've ever read. Each time I reread the series I feel like I'm gaining more perspective and understanding of these wonderous people. But when I recommend it to friends, I have a terrible time explaining what it is really about.

The writing is stunning (although sometimes you have to work a bit for understanding.). The details of history are engrossing. The plot twists and twines and leads to strange lands (literally and figuratively). But most of all there is Francis Crawford of Lymond and Sevigny.

Lymond is unique. In his strengths and weaknesses he is unlike any other literary character I can think of. This series is his story, but primarily told by the people who love, hate, respect, and fear him. My first time through I did all four. The conclusion, which I did not anticipate, pulls him together as a character and a person. The journey to get there is a wonderous thing.

And while Lymond is the center of the whirlwind, Phillipa (especially), Jerrot, Archie, Richard, and the rest of the cast each add dimension and beauty to an already enthralling tale.

I can't recommend this book enough.

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The final book in the Lymond Chronicles and a spectacular finish!

Checkmate opens as Lymond and his band of mercenaries leave England behind and travel to France to serve the French King in his battles with King Phillip. As Lymond is still set upon returning to Russia King Henri offers Lymond the annulment from Philippa that he desperately wants if he serves France for one year - if he doesn't Henri will do all in his power to block the annulment forever. Philippa comes to France to serve as lady in waiting to the young Mary Queen of Scotts, and continues her investigation into who actually parented Lymond and Marthe, as Lymond starts his own separate inquiry into his parentage.

The story unfolds amidst the pageantry of the French Court as it prepares for the wedding of Queen Mary to the Dauphin of France, and Philippa and Lymond struggle to deny the love they have come to feel for each other. Lymond and Philippa's adventures take them from the domicile of the deceased Dame de Doubtance, to a wild chase through the back streets of a French town (loved it!), until Philippa's quest to obtain the proof of Lymond's birth before it's sold to the evil Margaret Lennox and culminates in a disastrous encounter for Philippa that tears Philippa and Lymond apart and almost destroys any chance they have for happiness together.

As with the first five books in the series, Francis Crawford is a fascinating hero, and is as suave, debonair, flawed and fascinating as only a 16th Century version of James Bond could be. This was a rock-solid finish to a fabulous series, and it was wonderful to see the return of Jerrott and Marthe, along with more of Lymond's mother Sybilla and his brother Richard. I most especially enjoyed the mature and grown up Philippa who stole every scene and was a perfect foil for Lymond. My only complaints are the return of the French and Latin without translations as was found in the first book, and thumbs down to the publisher for not including a cast of characters as they did in the first four, this was a complex tale with many characters coming and going and that would have been greatly appreciated. Five Stars.

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'It is not one thing you seek, but two..'

This is the sixth and final novel in Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles. Like each of the novels in the series, the action is fast, absorbing and beautifully written. Lymond himself is dealing with the issues of nations and of monarchs while at the same time grappling with family secrets and finding that his own limits of endurance are being reached.

Set against the backdrop of the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to the Dauphin of France, the religious turbulence between Catholics and Protestants and the fragile alliances between European powers in the 16th century, this novel is a fitting conclusion to an epic and magnificent series.

'We have reached the open sea, with some charts; and the firmament'.

Highly recommended.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

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Superb

Dorothy Dunnett's brilliant characters people a dazzling world that really existed, furnishing the Lymond Chronicles with a richness, immediacy and depth I've found in few other novels. They will stay with me, Lymond, Sybilla, Phillipa, Jerrott, Archie, Danny, the Dame de Doubtance, Khairedin -- all of them.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

For the first time Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles are available in the United States in quality paperback editions.

Sixth in the legendary Lymond Chronicles, Checkmate takes place in 1557, where Francis Crawford of Lymond is once again in France, leading an army against England. But even as the Scots adventurer succeeds brilliantly on the battlefield, his haunted past becomes a subject of intense interest to forces on both sides.

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checkmate

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