House of Niccolo 5

Niccolo 5

If you are keeping track, it is now mid 15th century and the world, especially Europe, is standing on the doorstep of modernism. Our hero Nicholas has a new name. He is now Niccolo de Fleury. If you remember from Scales of Gold he married Gelis (the woman who had a love-hate relationship with him). She might have had a child with his archenemy, Simon de St. Pol. Gelis, instead of seeking revenge for Nicholas supposedly killing her sister, is now angry with him for having a child with her. You would think Nicholas would be used to this kind of incrimination from vengeful individuals, especially the women in his life! He believes that Gelis really had his child and like a fabled unicorn, he’s on the hunt to find this child. But, does it even exist?
Despite all this Nicholas tries to be all business. Instead of gold like in the last book, he is also on the hunt for silver in Tyrol. Upon hearing rumors of treasure in Alexandria Nicholas is off again on a feverish fast paced adventure. This time, he is not the fun-loving nice guy of past books. He has an edge to him that borders on asshole. He also has special powers to divine precious metals (?!). Many readers didn’t care for this new personality or the plot, as it is utterly strange and complex. Myself, I am getting tired of him being imprisoned and tortured in every book. The betrayals don’t phase him at all. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2678683.html

Fifth in the series of eight novels about Dunnett's fifteenth-century hero Claes van der Poele, now rebranded Nicolas de Fleury, on a canvas that takes us from a long first section in Scotland at the court of the young James III, to Cyprus, Alexandria and the monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai. I must confess that I felt Dunnett was not fully in control of her material here. The core of the narrative is the feuding between Claes on the one hand and his estranged wife Gelis and his secret father Simon de St. Pol on the other. I was not convinced by Gelis's means or motivation; her end game is not at all obvious, and she seems to have almost supernatural means of keeping Claes apart from his son and his treasure (and at one point his liberty in a gruesome torture scene). Claes meantime has acquired his own supernatural powers of divining the location of sought objects and people by pendulum - though this only works as effectively as the plot needs it to. The attention to local historical and geographical detail is still very worthwhile and engaging, but I hope the next book (which I have ordered, naturally) is more coherent. ( )

After the cliffhanger ending of Scales of Gold, the story picks up again; Gelis has disappeared, apparently pregnant with Simon's (Nicholas's arch enemy and father) child. Nicholas spends time in Scotland, nurturing plans for the future, and plans to disadvantage, taking care also to sleep with every woman Simon has had recently. A parrot provides a clue to the missing gold from the Africa trip, and the rivalry with the Vatachino, linked to the Adorne family also grows. We are introduced to Katelijne Sersanders, who attaches herself to the Adorne pildrimage to Sinai, and Nicholas also goes (via the Tyrol, where he discovers he can divine) to Egypt.
Finally, Nicholas and Gelis meet again, on top of Mount Sinai, where it is confirmed that she did have a child. Finally, everyone arrives back in Venice, in Carnival season, and the scene is set for Nicholas to finally meet the child; and promptly disappears into the night.
There is a sense of plots starting to come together in this book, although there are still a hell of a lot of red herrings being trailed. ( )