Under Heaven

Under Heaven (2010) Guy Gavriel Kay

A new Guy Gavriel Kay book is like a small discovered treasure, something to be saved until a time when it can be enjoyed and savored. Some books I love because they are romps, others because they are long slow strolls through another place and time.

With that in mind, I have to say that Under Heaven may be my favorite Guy Gavriel Kay book yet.

Shen Tai is the middle son of a great general. After his father’s death, during his mourning period, he retires to the haunted slopes of Kuala Nor, where countless died during years of battles between Kitai and Sardia and lay unburied, their ghosts wailing at night. Tai spends two years burying the bones of the dead of both sides, as his way of honoring both the dead and has father. The armies on both sides, seeing what he is doing, honor him with supplies–one at the full moon and the other at the new moon. But Tai is otherwise left in peace.

So it is a shock when two years have passed and suddenly an old friend appears with news–news that is to change Tai’s life just as much as the two years he has spend burying the dead did.

And sadly, that synopsis or introduction does nothing to explain the beauty and complexity and majesty of the story.

As with most of Guy Gavriel Kay’s books, it is set in an historic time and place, changed just a little to allow him to overlay his own world upon our past–a world that in this case contains subtle magics.

If you have not read Guy Gavriel Kay, it is hard to explain his books. All I can say is that they are things of beauty to be savored and enjoyed and treasured.
Rating: 10/10

• Browse the archives:
  
• Shades of Milk and Honey » »
• « « This Side of the Grave