{"id":9293,"date":"2017-09-17T20:18:46","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T00:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=9293"},"modified":"2018-04-26T10:34:52","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T14:34:52","slug":"under-heaven-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9293","title":{"rendered":"Under Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>With bronze as a mirror one can correct one\u2019s
\nappearance; with history as a mirror, one can
\nunderstand the rise and fall of a state; with good
\nmen as a mirror, one can distinguish right from wrong.
\n\u2014LI SHIMIN, TANG EMPEROR TAIZONG<\/p>\n

Guy Gavriel Kay’s writing is always epic, and not in that overused way, but in telling stories that span across a world almost, but not quite, ours. Although they occur in places that never existed, they are based (with a great deal of research) on times and places in history.<\/p>\n

The start of this story has always stuck with me. <\/p>\n

Shen Tai has spent two years of his mourning period for his father burying the dead of Kuala Nor.<\/p>\n

But for General Shen Gao, the memory of the fighting here had been, until he\u2019d died two years ago, a source of pride and sorrow intermingled, marking him forever after. <\/p>\n

Too many men had lost their lives for a lake on the border of nowhere, one that would not, in the event, be held by either empire.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Shan is quickly supported by soldiers from both sides, who bring him supplies and help him so survive.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d tried to stop this, but hadn\u2019t come close to persuading anyone, and eventually he\u2019d understood: it wasn\u2019t about kindness to the madman, or even entirely about besting each other. The less time he spent on food, firewood, maintaining the cabin, the more he could devote to his task, which no one had ever done before, and which seemed\u2014 once they\u2019d accepted why he was here\u2014 to matter to the Tagurans as much as to his own people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can see why that might stick with one. <\/p>\n

But it’s not just about Tai. It’s also about his brother, who has become advisor to the Prime Minister, and the courtesan Tai once cared for who the prime minister has taken into his house, and the Minister of War, and Tai’s younger sister.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho chooses their fate?\u201d It is the third one, the tallest. \u201cWho asks to be born into the times that are theirs?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWell, who accepts the world only as it comes to them?\u201d she says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So many stories, each complex and each relating back to the others in complicated ways.<\/p>\n

As always, this is a story to be read slowly, to be pondered. I love his writing, but I do have to be in the mood for it. It’s not a distraction the way many of the books I love are, but the building of a world so very like our own that we are familiar with it.<\/p>\n

And so many parts of the story are heartbreaking, just as in real life.<\/p>\n

The poet was a quiet, comforting presence. It felt illicit, somehow, to take comfort in anything tonight.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Were two years any time at all? <\/p>\n

For human beings they were. Two years could change the world. For stones, for trees growing leaves in spring, dropping them in autumn, two years were inconsequential. A stone in a pond makes ripples, the ripples are gone, nothing remains.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I said, this is not a book to be gupled down as a distraction. It is something to be read and savored. For me, these books are something I have to be in the mood for, but once I am, they are always incredibly rewarding.
\nRating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Ace<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 Kay’s writing is always epic, […]<\/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":false,"_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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,27,31,2,33,41],"tags":[135],"class_list":["post-9293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-10","category-alternate-history","category-asian","category-fantasy","category-historical","category-reread","tag-guy-gavriel-kay"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-2pT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2416,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2416","url_meta":{"origin":9293,"position":0},"title":"Under Heaven","author":"Michelle","date":"June 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"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":9293,"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":9293,"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":9293,"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":52,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/52","url_meta":{"origin":9293,"position":4},"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":[]},{"id":6199,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6199","url_meta":{"origin":9293,"position":5},"title":"Shades of Milk and Honey","author":"Michelle","date":"November 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Shades of Milk and Honey (2010) Mary Robinette Kowal Set in Alternate Regency England ~1814. The first time I read this, it was immediately following a Guy Gavriel Kay book, and so this story suffered in comparison. Nothing against Mary Robinette Kowal, it's just that Guy Gavriel Kay is that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"milkhoney","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/MilkHoney.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\/9293","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=9293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}