The Unicorn Hunt: The House of Niccolo 5

The sixth book in the series and the tension and suspense doesn't let up. After a shortish sojourn in Scotland where Nicholas de Fleury, as he now styles himself, has a fight, almost to the death, with his cruel and profligate father Simon de St. Pol, in the nightmarish environs of the Salt Pans; still in Scotland, he later suffers a stab wound that is inches from fatal, delivered by Nicholas' own son Henry, at a jousting tournament. The ironies of not being recognised as a St. Pol, are compensated for by a bout of building and the buying up of land. But when Nicholas' Priest, Godscalc, makes him promise as he lies dying not to go back to Scotland, Nicholas makes a decision which leads him to the Tyrol, where he lodges with a Scottish princess who married a minor royal Duke and to a profoundly disturbing discovery that gives him an edge in his search for his newly born son, Jordan, who is being withheld from him by his wife, Gelis.Gelis holds certain beliefs about how her sister died, after giving birth to Henry. These are quite erroneous as it happens, but because of this she harbours grave misgivings of his suitability as a father. Confusion over patrimony is also quite a feature of this book, but all becomes clear towards the end. The African gold has still not been recovered, but now Nicholas becomes embroiled in the Bank's plans for expansion via money-lending. For much of this episode, Nicholas does not know whether his wife Gelis is alive or dead. Another enemy, David de Salmeton, has plans to be rid of Nicholas for good, but is foiled by the exploits of the sixteen year-old niece, Katelijne, of Anselm Adorne, the Magistrate of the Hotel Jerusalem in Bruges. I feel Katelijne is perhaps going to be a catalyst for Nicholas' restless and complex love-life. But not yet. Much of the journeying embraces parts of Europe and Africa where Nicholas has trading interests, including a trip to Egypt and another to Cyprus, and a reunion there with the beautiful but dangerous Zacco, the illegitimate heir to the throne of Cyprus. Then everything comes to a head at the Carnival of Venice, as Nicholas searches for his son. As always with this series a good half of the people are historically authentic and they spring from the pages with remarkable veracity. Of course, their exploits may not match up with history - they are nevertheless given authentic lives and personalities. I just can't wait to see how it all turns out. Two more books to go, but I will be bereft when the series ends. In the historical fiction stakes Dunnett is the business. Nobody does it better.

Tolles Buch! Super spannend, habe es nicht aus der Hand legen können. Tolle Saga, fesselnd, toll toll toll, immer wieder

What can I say? Dorothy Dunnett was an amazing writer - her characters are complex yet utterly believable and (almost) wholly sympathetic (the good ones, at least), her plots are intricately planned and keep turning unexpected corners, and her style of writing leads you through all this without losing a single thread of idea, character or narrative. I love these books because they require you to think in order to understand what's going on and all the subtleties of the situation and all the references to previous occasions or to character traits.These books are also what got me interested in geography - a huge number of locations are described within, and the writing makes you want to visit them all, to visualise the book's events happening where you are standing.Worth reading if you have any interest in historical fiction, or love complex plots and many many characters (there's a character list at the front - the one in Book 8 is 16 sides long), but DO START WITH THE FIRST BOOK - they won't make nearly as much sense otherwise.If you find Niccolo Rising or any of the other Niccolo books difficult to read (and I did at first), try reading the Lymond Chronicles first - the plots are almost as complicated, but the characterizations, while no less believable or complex, are sometimes less ambiguous. The Lymond books generally move faster, plotwise, and are easier going and a bit more romantic (in the idealistic sense of the word, not the love sense).Please, please, do at least try and read these books, don't dismiss them, they're really excellently written in every way. There's a good reason why Dorothy Dunnett had a diehard following of fans during her lifetime, fans from all different backgrounds and locations.

I’m ploughing through the Nicole series. It can be hard work at times there are so many characters, but I need to keep going to the end. Dorothy Dunnett does write well and I do have to look up some of the words to get the exact meaning. The series has kept me going during lockdown.

I read the preceeding volumes of the Nicolo series more or less all at once, as I didn't discover the series until Scales of Gold came out; I'd loved the Lymond saga and was thrilled to discover that Dunnett had begun another series.But although Lymond was also a troubled character capable of outrageous and cruel behavoir, I found both Nicolo and Gelis harder to understand and take to. Then I was so outraged and disgusted by the ending of Scales that I abandoned the series until I think the 7th volume came out, when I decided to give it another try, trusting that Dunnett would come through.But I still didn't take greatly to the series. In addition to my problems with the main characters, I most dislike the introduction of the "divining", because otherwise (outside of the typical swashbuckling novel ability of a hero to survive incredible injury and illnesses despite the state of 15-16th century medicine) Dunnett's historically detailed and accurate novels are realistic, and the introduction of "divining" - pure fantasy claptrap - was jarring compared to the sight touch of the occult in Lymond (The Dame). The "foresight/vision" ability was more tolerable, since it was less vital to the plots and tied the two series together. But I still wish Dunnett had found some other more realistic device.That said, I just recently read the entire Lymond and Nicolo sagas again, slowly, carefully, not trying to devour them a book a day like a page turner as I was wont to do when younger, and my faith in Dunnett's artistry in creating memorable complex human characters and intricate plots firmly based in history and geography was confirmed. (Just one small example is her description of the flash flood of a small river tributary in Scotland in the final Nicolo volume Gemini; working in hydrology and fluvial geomorphology for many year I can attest that she got it amazingly accurate.)So my more mature assessment of both series, as well as the beautiful "King Hereafter", is that they are a marvelous achievement, a feast to savour again and again, rewarding a careful reading with many days of enjoyment.