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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
This was a super interesting book though it took me a couple tries to finish it. The book is clearly working from a east Asian like setting which I'm not super familiar with, which I attribute the two attempts on my part to finish this book. Overall the book was excellent. I recommend it.
adventurous
emotional
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The first Guy Gavriel Kay book that I read and it was amazing. Set in a version of China where the supernatural is real, Shen Tai is gifted 250 of the best horses for burying the dead in a remote place and helping to put the ghosts to rest. This is a fortune beyond his wildest dreams and he know needs to figure out how to stay alive long enough to claim this gift.
This book is very politic heavy and though it deals a lot with power succession, that is only the background plot. It is resolved but more off scene and as an after thought. What it does deal with however is the shifting relationships of Shen Tai as he tries to navigate this world that he is thrust into.
I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more of Kay's books.
My rating system
1 - Did not enjoy
2 - Not irredeemable but has too many flaws to say I enjoyed
3 - Enjoyed it
4 - Great book but didn't love it
5 - Amazing book
This book is very politic heavy and though it deals a lot with power succession, that is only the background plot. It is resolved but more off scene and as an after thought. What it does deal with however is the shifting relationships of Shen Tai as he tries to navigate this world that he is thrust into.
I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more of Kay's books.
My rating system
1 - Did not enjoy
2 - Not irredeemable but has too many flaws to say I enjoyed
3 - Enjoyed it
4 - Great book but didn't love it
5 - Amazing book
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
I loved this novel. Beautifully written, wonderfully paced, vividly imagined, thoroughly enjoyable. I actually slowed down reading the last hundred pages because I simply didn't want my time with this book to end. Now that it's over, I feel like I've lost contact with a new, but surprisingly good friend, and I'm already looking forward to re-reading it soon.
No. A world of no. A world of ohfuckno. Really, Guy Gavriel Kay?! You thought this was a good idea? Ohfuckno. No. Women as concubines, whores, tokens and symbols? The first woman to appear live in your narrative is an assassin? An assassin to be raped after she's killed?! No. Fuck right off. NO.
I really liked this book, my first by Guy Gavriel Kay. I took my time in reading it because it seemed like a book that deserved to be savored. The detail was great, as were the character developments. The ending was very bittersweet, but complete and satisfying.
Picked this at the library randomly because it had a cool cover and I've been wanting to read another fantasy inspired by Chinese history. Interesting premise, fun to explain to people. As the great poet, Lil Nas X, once said, "I got the horses in the back."
adventurous
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really love this author's work. I love how detailed and intricate his novels are while at the same time taking place on this grand scope. In this setting particularly, an adaptation of the An Shi Rebellion during the Tang Dynasty in China, the events taking place seem to shape the history of the whole world.
The story begins with a young man named Shen Tai, who has retreated to a famous battle site in the mountains at the border of his country. Thousands of lives were lost there in battle, both from the neighbouring Taguran Empire and his country of Kitan, and Tai's father, who was a general at the time, always spoke of the mountain pass with deep regret and sorrow. Tai chooses to spend the requisite two years of mourning following his father's death at the mountain pass, burying all the skeletons that were left out in the open and laying to rest their ghosts. As acknowledgement for the duty he performs, a princess of the Tagarun Empire gives him two-hundred and fifty of the much coveted Sardian horses. The gift is so generous as too almost be a death sentence, because his own country is in on the brink of civil war and each faction would kill to have the horses on their side.
I loved the characters in this book, and how their beliefs and actions shaped the course of events in Kitan so dramatically. I did appreciate the contrast between how a story is told or experienced, and how history is written down, but I felt the author was a bit too obvious in his telling this to the reader. It bugged me a bit, because it was explained more than once, and it didn't need to be explained at all. The reader could have picked up on this message without the author coming out and saying it directly. However, I liked the pacing of the novel, and how the plot carefully picked up the events from different times and places and made them all relevant to each other in the end.
The way that a fictional world was created from actual historical events was artfully done, and I liked the research and care that went into shaping the story. The era in Chinese history that it was based on had a number of poets running around, and Sima Zian, who I'm sure represents someone in particular but I haven't found out who, was delightful. He kind of reminded me of Jack Sparrow, if Jack Sparrow were also a poet. :)
The story begins with a young man named Shen Tai, who has retreated to a famous battle site in the mountains at the border of his country. Thousands of lives were lost there in battle, both from the neighbouring Taguran Empire and his country of Kitan, and Tai's father, who was a general at the time, always spoke of the mountain pass with deep regret and sorrow. Tai chooses to spend the requisite two years of mourning following his father's death at the mountain pass, burying all the skeletons that were left out in the open and laying to rest their ghosts. As acknowledgement for the duty he performs, a princess of the Tagarun Empire gives him two-hundred and fifty of the much coveted Sardian horses. The gift is so generous as too almost be a death sentence, because his own country is in on the brink of civil war and each faction would kill to have the horses on their side.
I loved the characters in this book, and how their beliefs and actions shaped the course of events in Kitan so dramatically. I did appreciate the contrast between how a story is told or experienced, and how history is written down, but I felt the author was a bit too obvious in his telling this to the reader. It bugged me a bit, because it was explained more than once, and it didn't need to be explained at all. The reader could have picked up on this message without the author coming out and saying it directly. However, I liked the pacing of the novel, and how the plot carefully picked up the events from different times and places and made them all relevant to each other in the end.
The way that a fictional world was created from actual historical events was artfully done, and I liked the research and care that went into shaping the story. The era in Chinese history that it was based on had a number of poets running around, and Sima Zian, who I'm sure represents someone in particular but I haven't found out who, was delightful. He kind of reminded me of Jack Sparrow, if Jack Sparrow were also a poet. :)