(no subject)

I've been trying to read The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett. I've tried before, but this time I've figured out why I always get distracted 50 pages in. Lymond does things not for any particular reason, but for effect. This wouldn't be a problem--he's a character, after all, and they tend to go their own way--but I suspect the author has the same problem. Things happen only because she has thought of a witty line for Lymond to spout at the end of the episode, making the whole book less a story than a series of vignettes, a pretty frame for the character she can't stop admiring. (Not that there is anything wrong with having a thing for your character, but when you realize you do, you must immediately become horrible to him lest the reader figure it out.)

It does seem to be gathering its strength to advance the plot in a meaningful way, though, so I'll give it a little longer.