{"id":2416,"date":"2011-06-19T11:49:32","date_gmt":"2011-06-19T16:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=2416"},"modified":"2024-01-22T19:33:05","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T00:33:05","slug":"under-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2416","title":{"rendered":"Under Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under Heaven<\/a><\/em> (2010) Guy Gavriel Kay<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>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.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, I have to say that Under Heaven<\/em> may be my favorite Guy Gavriel Kay book yet.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

And sadly, that synopsis or introduction does nothing to explain the beauty and complexity and majesty of the story.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.
\nRating: 10\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,27,31,2,291,26],"tags":[737,135],"class_list":["post-2416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-10-10","category-alternate-history","category-asian","category-fantasy","category-paper","category-romance","tag-ghosts","tag-guy-gavriel-kay"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-CY","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9293,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9293","url_meta":{"origin":2416,"position":0},"title":"Under Heaven","author":"Michelle","date":"September 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Under Heaven (2010) Guy Gavriel Kay With bronze as a mirror one can correct one\u2019s 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. \u2014LI SHIMIN, TANG EMPEROR TAIZONG Guy Gavriel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Under-Heaven.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6272,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6272","url_meta":{"origin":2416,"position":1},"title":"Sailing to Sarantium","author":"Michelle","date":"December 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Sailing-to-Sarantium.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":81,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/81","url_meta":{"origin":2416,"position":2},"title":"Tigana","author":"Michelle","date":"June 14, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alternate History"","block_context":{"text":"Alternate History","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy\/alternate-history"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/06\/Tigana.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":27,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/27","url_meta":{"origin":2416,"position":3},"title":"The Sarantine Mosaic","author":"Michelle","date":"June 11, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"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.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alternate History"","block_context":{"text":"Alternate History","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy\/alternate-history"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/31","url_meta":{"origin":2416,"position":4},"title":"The Lions of Al-Rassan","author":"Michelle","date":"June 23, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alternate History"","block_context":{"text":"Alternate History","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy\/alternate-history"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/52","url_meta":{"origin":2416,"position":5},"title":"The Last Light of the Sun","author":"Michelle","date":"January 14, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alternate History"","block_context":{"text":"Alternate History","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy\/alternate-history"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/01\/last-light-of-the-sun.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}