River of Stars (2013) Guy Gavriel Kay I had forgotten just how melancholy the end of this book was. That doesn’t make the book any less good, but it did leave me craving something happy when I finished it. As with all Guy Gavriel Kay books, there are a variety of characters you follow over […]
Under Heaven (2010) Guy Gavriel Kay With bronze as a mirror one can correct one’s appearance; with history as a mirror, one can understand the rise and fall of a state; with good men as a mirror, one can distinguish right from wrong. —LI SHIMIN, TANG EMPEROR TAIZONG Guy Gavriel Kay’s writing is always epic, […]
Lord of Emperors (2000) Guy Gavriel Kay The sequel to Sailing to Sarantium. The second half of this story opens in Bassania, with the King of Kings suffering an arrow to the shoulder. Had any other patient been shown to them in this state, the physicians would all have spoken the words of formal withdrawal: […]
Sailing to Sarantium (1998) Guy Gavriel Kay Guy Gavriel Kay is an incredible writer. He doesn’t wrote epic fantasy in the sense of swords and sorcerey–in fact there is often no magic in his stories. He instead researches a subject an a time period and grounds his story in those elements, while writing of a […]
The Lions of Al-Rassan (1995) Guy Gavriel Kay This is fantasy, but it parallels the history of the Jews, Muslims, and Christians in the Middle ages. But the parallels aren’t complete, as women aren’t nearly as subjugated as they would have been in Europe at the time. Jehane is a Kindath physician, and in high […]
River of Stars (2013) Guy Gavriel Kay First, this cover is gorgeous. The picture links to a large version of the cover and NOT the book at Amazon. The link to Amazon is the title text (if you’d like to help me earn bits of a penny.) Like all his work, this is an immense, […]
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 […]
Tigana (1990) Guy Gavriel Kay Why is it that every time I finish one of Guy Gavriel Kay’s books, I ask myself, “How could I have forgotten how good his books are?” Even reading this book for a second time, I was still surprised at how good it was. This book was frustrating at first. […]
The Last Light of the Sun (2004) Guy Gavriel Kay Good luck finding this book. I came across it only because I was searching Amazon for another of his books, and realized that he had a new book out. Of course I’ve found a lot of books on Amazon recently that I saw nowhere in […]
The Lions of Al-Rassan (1995) Guy Gavriel Kay This is a very good, albeit very depressing book. Set in the same world as Sailing to Sarantium, this book describes the battles between the followers of Jad versus the Asharites. If Sailing to Sarantium reminded me of Rome, this book reminded me of Spain. Of the […]
The Sarantine Mosaic: Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors Guy Gavriel Kay On a note unrelated to the story, I do have to say that I greatly prefer the Canadian cover art to the American. That’s the problem with thorough websites. You get to find out what you’re missing. I’ve had these books for […]