Talk:Lymond Chronicles

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I have a few ideas about improving/expanding this entry, and am wondering if there are others with strong feelings about the page? Miriam123 19:23, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

I'd say go for it. I'm going to merge in the content from Game of Kings into an overall fictional and historical character lists for the series as well as a location list. This can then be built on for the other novels - good idea? Madmedea 14:06, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

I think anything you could add would be an improvement. If you know any active Lymond Chronicles communities (mailing lists, forums, etc) on the web, perhaps you could ask them to contribute. I'm sure they would be happy to spread the word. Cathryn 11:08, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

I think there's an active Yahoo newsgroup called Marzipan...could certainly solicit input from them. My guess is that detailed plot summaries would be a bit problematic, given the complexity of the stories and the loads and loads of spoilers. But I like the idea of resources, like character lists and location lists. Along those lines, I've been thinking about how to format a timeline. In addition to the inevitable issue of spoilers, there's the issue of citations (too many = boring, too few = potentially frustrating). Color-coding would allow you to identify source (each book = a different color font), but might also be overkill. Thoughts? Miriam123 05:16, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I've taken a crack at a full rewrite of both the intro and Game of Kings (GoK), picking up some of the prior ideas and language.

I've tried to highlight structural and thematic elements. Readers of this article ought to come away with a sense of DD's contribution to literature and how she fits within the "historical fiction" genre.

I think a fairly full description of the key facets of Lymond's character belongs in the intro, so we don't have to keep repeating in each novel what is consistent throughout, and so the arc of the character across the novels, and the type of conflicts his journey represents, are laid out clearly.

I also think the LC should be treated as a single work given its dramatic and thematic unity. It was written that way, and I think we should recommend readers read it that way. The better Wikipedia articles that cover a series of books will always advise whether, to experience the series properly, it must be read in order. For LC, it's imperative. Some of the people I've come across who started with Pawn in Frankincense have never recovered! It's fine to note that GoK and Queen's Play (QP) can be read as stand-alone, although even then, I wouldn't recommend it for QP. The ability to understand what makes Lymond tick in QP -- e.g., the contrast between his "normal" and Thady Boy personas, and why he's haunted by his responsibility for destroying others -- really requires GoK as background.

Each novel obviously has its own structure, style and merits, which can be dealt with along with story and characters in the separate descriptions below.

As for the description of GoK, I focused first on getting a framework laid out in a manner that would work whether a plot synopsis is also eventually included. I'll take a crack later at the items I indicated were missing (the comments in bold-face).

Ekatya04 20:24, 18 January 2007 (UTC)Ekatya04

Added rulers, dynasties etc to give historical elements more personality in first para of overview -- and added wikilinks.

For readability and navigation, created an opening section break for "Overview and Francis Crawford of Lymond."

I don't think we need a separate article for Francis Crawford of Lymond.

Ekatya04 02:37, 19 January 2007 (UTC) Ekatya04

Since Game of Kings was merged into this article, I'm assuming that The Game of Kings should be as well, being that it's nothing more than a character and setting list. I suggest keeping them all together until the main article gets too big, then splitting them off on their own. Also, shouldn't all the to-do stuff and incomplete headers be placed on this discussion page, rather than cluttering up the article? Comments? Suggestions? Humorous anecdotes? -- DSGruss 18:00, 28 March 2007 (UTC)