a bookish creature

Previously OrangeShipper | she/her | British | Blonde competent emotionally challenged historical/fantasy men are my jam | I enjoy: literature, history, music, board games, fantasy, faith, writing

[pricklysplendours]

I can never help feeling that Checkmate reads like Dorothy decided to fanfiction her own series. It's just SO overwrought, Dramatic in the most High Drama way, full of FEELINGS and yearning, as well as rammed full of callbacks and nods to the series prior.

It's problematic, it's ridiculous, it's outlandish and over-the-top, but so GOOD, in the way that fanfiction can be because it has the freedom to be like that. It's like she knew what a phenomenal character and series she had created, then decided to go ham and write the biggest wish-fulfilment ending.

It's not a perfect novel but it's such a wild and incredible ride - I've just finished it again and feel bereft all over again.

[pricklysplendours]

- Checkmate, Dorothy Dunnett

[pricklysplendours]

Oh, what I wouldn't give to read a whole book of Francis Crawford's misspent youth...!

[no-where-new-hero]

to me the true standout of dorothy dunnett’s work is not in her gorgeous prose or meticulous research or evocative settings or even her insane character dynamics, but in the fact that she created a hero who everyone loves and hates and pretty much all her fans love and hate him in the exact same degree. like that is pitch perfect character design to me. and on TOP of all the rest? who else was doing it like her

[batrachised]

there are two types of good books:

This book is so good I must know what happens immediately. I will fly through the chapters. I will stay up until the wee hours. I NEED TO KEEP READING.

This book is so good I need to relish in every word. I am going to sip away at it like it's a fine wine. I'll read a chapter, let it slosh around in my brain, let the afterflavor permeate, and then come back later to read another one. I am greedy in my slowness.

[pricklysplendours]

Oh Christ, the bairns.

Pawn in Frankincense, Dorothy Dunnett

[pricklysplendours]

‘We are gathered here today,’ said Lymond quietly, his beautiful hands lying interlaced and still on the table, ‘for the purpose of destroying Sir Graham Reid Malett.’

- The Disorderly Knights, Dorothy Dunnett

[14mg]

quick what’s ur opinion on tea. everyone who sees this is obligated to answer in some way

[pricklysplendours]

My kids just watched Star Wars Episode V for the first time.

Older daughter sat bolt upright, "Whaaaaa...??!!" absolutely floored. ICONIC.

[sobadbad]

Ilia MALININ Figure Skating Team Event | Milano Cortina 2026

[rylandsgrace]

I feel seen

[anxietyproblem]

[y-that-crazy-five-foot-two-chick]

[ketenkusu]

This is what hozier meant when he says he falls a little bit in love everyday with someone new

[actualmythicalcreature]

I once watched a girl in the produce aisle pick up a bushel of bananas that were precariously perched on the edge and move them farther back and under her breath she said “there you go sweeties - that will be more comfortable” before shuffling off and… I think about her often.

[therainshallmakeadoor-deactivat]

« Silent lovers » is such a sweet way to put it.

[dangerously-human]

I was driving on the highway and passed a dude absolutely JAMMING alone in his car, doing those little half dance moves you do when you’re stuck sitting down in a small space, bellowing unheard lyrics at the top of his lungs, and my instant reaction was to think “I love you.” And then to pray he had a good day, or whatever, because those fleeting moments of connection are so incredible.

[aspocko]

depression for me: staying in bed, vague tweeting about the wreckage that is my emotional state, ordering lots of take out.

depression for a Dunnett protagonist: wears all black, covered head to toe in jewels, VIVIDLY expensive, travels to a foreign country, haughty and cold and severe as all hell, taking no shit and taking no prisoners. maybe an eagle.

[redstonedust]

i think being proud of where you come from is one of those things that becomes fun the more specific you get. like "proud to be english" bad rancid vibes. makes you sound like the kind of person who rants about immigrants. "proud to be from yorkshire" better vibes. i cannot deny the yorkshire cultural heritage. "proud to be from pocklington" absolutely fucking hilarious please never let anybody kill your pocklington pride.

[pricklysplendours]

I finally got to reading Dorothy Dunnett's Dolly/Johnson series after Christmas. I've enjoyed them, nothing like the historicals but good fun with classic Dunnett escapades and fun, complicated characters.

I'm onto the last one... This is the last Dunnett novel I've got, right? I've done Lymond, Niccolo, King Hereafter, and this is my last Dolly novel, so... that's it? No more new Dunnett novels? I feel things about this 😭

[mellowlow]

I hate (I love) Dunnett so much what do you mean she made me read the most excruciatingly & viscerally angsty love confession one could ever conceive and then I turned the page and I read this

[jennydolfen]

Vin and Elend. And nothing bad ever happened.

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