Gemini (The House of Niccolo, 8)

Nicholas in particular is a splendidly rounded creation. And by placing him at the center of her sprawling narrative, Dunnett helps us to navigate the many convolutions of the plot. Her female characters, too, are distinctive. However, it is the sheer breadth of Dunnett's ambitions that takes the breath away, along with her exhilarating set pieces:

The sword point bit into his cloak and grated across the cuirass underneath, bringing the swordsman close for a moment, his face blank with surprise. Nicholas kicked him under the chin, so that he blundered back and hit someone else, while Nicholas dragged out his own sword. The horse wasn't his, but it was a powerful beast and alarmed enough to be ready to rear. Nicholas wrapped the reins around one wrist and hauled, using the bit to drag the horse threshing onto its haunches, and then allowing it to plunge forward again.

Nicholas returns to Scotland as the agent of his wife, Gelis, but finds himself working to shore up an unstable Stuart monarchy, threatened from without by England and from within by cadet members of the royal family.

As with all Dunnett books, "Gemini" is packed with marvelous set pieces, lush descriptions, lucid explications of the politics of the day, heart-wrenching deaths, and moments of joyous triumph. Questions raised in earlier books are answered - mostly - we readers need a few things left to argue about, don't we?

Judith Wilt has provided an excellent introduction that synopsizes the seven earlier books ably, but reading them in order is still preferable.


Satisfying Conclusion   July 29, 2000
Reader from Fairport (Fairport, NY USA)
22 out of 27 found this review helpful

Gemini, the final book in Dorothy Dunnett's Niccolo series, is a satisfying conclusion to this series and a good link to her earlier series of novels about Francis Crawford.

Gemini is not always light reading. There is a considerable amount of fifteenth century history contained in it and a very large number of characters, most of whom are historical.

But the story is exciting, sometimes very funny, and always deeply moving. Her principal characters are complex creations. History and fiction are so well blended that it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

Dunnett deserves to be much better known in the United States. Her books should be best sellers. Dunnett's work is superior to much of the so-called serious fiction of today.


more of a whimper than a bang   September 8, 2000
20 out of 24 found this review helpful

I have loved both the Lymond and the Niccolo series, but must say that I think the Niccolo series began unravelling slowly from the 5th volume on. The 7th felt downright incoherent, with N. shooting off to various corners of the 15th cent. world for no very good reasons. People actually stay put in this volume, which fits well with Niccolo's own change of emphasis from adventurer merchant to family man and friend. This change of emphasis unfortunately also led to a book that maintained neither pace nor excitement, and was way too long for the amount of action. If there had been character development left to work out, Dunnett might have held my interest. But Niccolo achieved his maturity by the end of #7, and we all know before opening Gemini that Gelis is a really good guy as well. Henry is the exception, and in the several scenes between him and his unknown father Dunnett did have me eagerly reading. Can the brat be redeemed?

The timespan of this book is twice that of any of the others, which would be fine except that so little in fact happens. Niccolo spends some time being real nice to his friends and trying to tame Henry, but his only real project other than this personal business is chasing after an obnoxious young Scottish prince to try to keep him from causing Scotland trouble. Is this a job for a grown man? Much less our hero of boundless energy and unlimited capacities. There are a couple of token mentions of economic plans in the works, something to do with "coal" and "salmon", and his buddies all gape with astonished admiration at the fabulous scope of his ideas, but Dunnett does nothing with this, although in theory his reason for returning to Scotland was to make reparations for the economic damage he'd done.

If Niccolo does very little, Fat Father Jordan *really* does very little. His conversation is as delightful as ever, but where are this vindictive and clever man's plots and strategems? Surely we had a grand confrontation owing between these two, after 7 volumes? Instead, Niccolo's grand confrontation ends up being, really, with the unlikeliest villian of all!

I got the feeling that Dunnett was more interested in presenting the reader with a detailed tapestry of the Scottish rich and powerful of the period than with giving her story a satisfying finale.


Plot Fatigue   August 30, 2000
17 out of 26 found this review helpful

Disappointment doesn't cover it. This final volume of the "House of Nicolo" series is a satire, not a summation, of the seven previous volumes (or if you will, the six volumes of the "Lyman" series AND the eight volumes of Nicolo!). Ultimately, nothing is cleared up. All the red herrings Dame Dunnett un-trailed lead no where and we're to assume Nicco's stoicism (doesn't matter whether his mother was his mother, or his father was the impotent Simon or the monster homophobe Jordan, or someone else? Hey, what ever happened to resolution?), or stand dumbstruck at his decision to live a normal life. Huh?

The Dame can write, but she can't edit. At almost 700 pages, the story rambles at a dropsy pace. These are tableaus of the 15th century's least interesting political intrigues, albeit Scotish intrigues--a sub-genre beloved by Scotish Dames--in front of which Dame Dunnett poses her familiar cast, here with a sword, there with a whistle, drinking, singing, joking, ha, ha! Action pops up every three chapters like an unwanted uncle, but adventure there is none.

Finishing this book was a maddening effort. After enjoying the series, mostly the earlier volumes, I pushed myself to get this one done hoping that the denoument would validate the effort. Uh-uh! It felt to me that Dunnett had tired of this effort some three volumes ago, and this one, unlike the last of the Lyman books, just dribbled to a close.

So long to go, so quick to fade.


Concentration necessary   November 9, 2000
Judith Bradley (Bethesda)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

One reason for the delay in reviews from this reader is that I have been engrossed in the latest - and last - of the House of Niccolo novels. To do this absolutely unparalled historical series justice, one must be in a quiet place --read a bit --go away to ruminate on what has been read --and then return for another helping. Exhausting and exhaustive. Dame Dunnett is a walking encyclopedia of every aspect of 15th century life. Our hero (whose name changes throughout the course of the series, and whose unknown parentage is the force that drives him to be what he is) has been everywhere throughout the world in the course of these seven novels, and we have been there with him - from Bruges to France to Germany to Byzantium to Africa to Iceland to Scotland --and places in between. He is the darling - or the scourge - of almost all of the royal houses of Europe. It is necessary every once in awhile to refer back to earlier novels to keep all of the characters and incidences straight, and Dame Dunnett's way with commas doesn't make for easy reading, either. But many readers - myself among them - will be entranced with with the numerous memorable characters along the way. The history, although confusing, is fine - but we read on to discover what will finally happen to Nicholas and those who love him. Hard reading, but worth it. One only hopes that she doesn't really mean to end the series here - there are still questions unanswered, and people whose fate we want to discover. I know that the Lymond Chronicles are supposed to carry us on with the adventures of Nicholas's descendants, but I first need a long rest!