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rbixby's review against another edition
5.0
Reading Kay is reading poetic prose. I told my wife his stories are beautiful, subtle, gifts. You aren't blown away by big, distinct, plots. You float along, engrossed in the words, the way they conjure very clear pictures in your mind. In the end, you are left in a peaceful place, contemplating what you just read, inevitably coming to the conclusion that what you just finished was beauty put into words.
mary_soon_lee's review against another edition
5.0
This is a wonderful fantasy novel, rooted in history but set in a world of Guy Gavriel Kay's imagining; a world with two moons, with heroism and honor, brutality and grief and love. It is beautifully, consciously told by a master storyteller. At times it brought me close to tears. The narrative switches between multiple points of view, and, a rarity, my attention was held by each of them. In addition to seeing rulers, military commanders, and senior advisors, we are also shown merchants, footsoldiers, farmers, brigands, sea captains, painters, spies, priestesses. Some of the characters are close to epic heroes (and heroines), being brave and highly skilled warriors. Yet there is a depth in the characters and a compassion toward them that makes them resonate. An excellent book.
chaoswizard's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
abatur's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
richardwells's review against another edition
3.0
This is like a prequel to All the Seas of the World, not as good, though fine on its own. It could have been a four star read were it not for an unforgivable sin that destroyed my suspension of disbelief. I issued a conditional forgiveness, but the stain lingered. The sin was so unnecessary, neither furthered the plot, nor improved characterization, and I can't for the life of me figure out why it was left in except as some kind of meta toying with the reader. Grrr. If you want to know the nature of the crime, message me. Otherwise it's a spoiler (I guess.)
Plot summary from some other reader.
It appears goodreads is messing with the website. Anyway, I haven't read this book 5 times as the site indicates.
Plot summary from some other reader.
It appears goodreads is messing with the website. Anyway, I haven't read this book 5 times as the site indicates.
elizas's review
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Suicide attempt
jackiekaemmerhenderson's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked the story but was not expecting the graphic adult content. I had not experienced detailed sensual scenes in the GGK books I had read before. Will need to research his titles better before reading another.
blairconrad's review against another edition
4.0
Very good. It seemed like GGK's prose style has changed a little since [b:River of Stars|15808474|River of Stars (Under Heaven #2)|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356089847s/15808474.jpg|21451403], or my memory of it has faded a little bit. While he still had a beautiful turn of phrase in many places, and characters that mused upon their place in an ongoing story, there were many fewer sentences that I would've been able to pick out as his after reading them in isolation.
The story held my attention, with quite a lot of action and many sympathetic and interesting characters. I really enjoyed the setting and the politics of the area. I was on the verge of giving the book a five star rating until the end that I was dreading came about.
Still, a must-read for GGK fans, and I'd recommend to almost anyone.
The story held my attention, with quite a lot of action and many sympathetic and interesting characters. I really enjoyed the setting and the politics of the area. I was on the verge of giving the book a five star rating until the end that I was dreading came about.
Spoiler
Long-time readers will know what I'm talking about: the inevitable happy ending where everyone is paired (or tripled) up.Still, a must-read for GGK fans, and I'd recommend to almost anyone.
aleffert's review against another edition
4.0
It is an impressive feat to write a sequel set a thousand years later and have a totally plausible extrapolated setting. Of course, Kay cheats - he essentially writes historical fiction, but he changes the names, moves things around, joins up characters, adds fictional protagonists, all in service of highlighting, magnifying, emphasizing, creating parallels and contrasts. In lesser hands this could be a real loss of depth—the made for tv movie of history—but Kay takes history and turns it to poetry.
This isn't really a sequel either. It picks up reverberations from the Sarantine Mosaic books, but the main characters are long since dead. Their concerns however, are eternal. We saw Byzantium at its height, now we see Constantinople after its conquest. Before we saw the Byzantine empire expand. Now we see the Ottomans head west. Much of it is from the perspective of the westerners - in thinly fictionalized Venice, Dubrovnik, and Vienna. In all of these places and times we wonder what it means to be true to ourselves.
Of course since it's a Kay book, there's a young person on a journey, and artists and soldiers play prominent roles. Inevitably, all the disparate plots converge at artful moments.
One of his projects as a novelist is clearly the pivotal moments of a life, those moments when we must make a choice and we choose greatness, to struggle, to take the hard path. He even has one character wonder how he could encounter, essentially, evidence of the divine, and *not* do something different with his life.
If you read too much Kay, his books do run together a bit. Everyone is brilliant and witty and dangerous and beautiful. The foreshadowing gets a little repetivie. This one isn't as beautifully tragic as The Lions of Al-Rassan or The Sarantine Mosaic books. But these are small criticisms that add up over a body of work. This is a good book.
This isn't really a sequel either. It picks up reverberations from the Sarantine Mosaic books, but the main characters are long since dead. Their concerns however, are eternal. We saw Byzantium at its height, now we see Constantinople after its conquest. Before we saw the Byzantine empire expand. Now we see the Ottomans head west. Much of it is from the perspective of the westerners - in thinly fictionalized Venice, Dubrovnik, and Vienna. In all of these places and times we wonder what it means to be true to ourselves.
Of course since it's a Kay book, there's a young person on a journey, and artists and soldiers play prominent roles. Inevitably, all the disparate plots converge at artful moments.
One of his projects as a novelist is clearly the pivotal moments of a life, those moments when we must make a choice and we choose greatness, to struggle, to take the hard path. He even has one character wonder how he could encounter, essentially, evidence of the divine, and *not* do something different with his life.
If you read too much Kay, his books do run together a bit. Everyone is brilliant and witty and dangerous and beautiful. The foreshadowing gets a little repetivie. This one isn't as beautifully tragic as The Lions of Al-Rassan or The Sarantine Mosaic books. But these are small criticisms that add up over a body of work. This is a good book.