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micaelamariem's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
It took me a while to get to this one, as it's size is intimidating and it's a fantasy I've never heard of until it showed up in a mystery book box, but I finally did it!
The author, Guy Gavriel Kay, is a Canadian fantasy author. His history is impressive, having helped with the construction of The Silmarillion by Tolkien, becoming the Principal Writer and Associate Producer for the CBC radio series, “The Scales of Justice”, and having published novels since 1984, his debut being The Summer Tree.
This novel, Children of Earth and Sky,published by the New American Library, is such a complex fantasy it's hard to sum up in a few words. It follows a multitude of characters, including Danica, a young woman off to find vengeance for her family's demise; Pero, an artist hired to travel across the empire to paint a portrait of the Khalif; Lenora, a young woman posing as a doctor's wife but in truth a spy; Marin, a merchant ambivalent about his role in life; and a young boy being trained in the Khalif's elite infantry for a war that is soon to come. These character's lives and roles become intertwined in ways that shape them and the world around them.
The story technically spans years, but the bulk of it really spans a few months over six hundred pages. Because of the long span, the pacing can be slow--except for the battle times when the action goes a lot faster. As such, it took me a while to get into it because of the slow rising action. That, and because of the huge cast of characters that jump between perspectives in the middle of a chapter, it was at first very confusing to me. My biggest critique of the book would be that the POV would only change in a new chapter--though I get that sometimes that wasn't always possible. Especially--and I did think this was clever--as we see two characters remembering the same event differently, hearing words that are said differently. That, I thought, spoke greatly to human memory and perspective.
I did end up falling in love with each of the characters in the large cast. Despite a sexist and misguided environment, the characters showed us they could be determined to change how things are. The women strived to show that women could be fierce and sensual and make their own choices. The men showed us they could be emotional, sentimental, and even fearful. They changed parts of the world and even changed themselves, somewhat hardened by the world, somewhat matured. But some things remained the same, showing a more realistic view. I also loved how their paths came together, making a temporary found family, even though they weren't sure they'd ever see each other again as their paths parted.
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The worldbuilding in this book was insanely heavy. There wasn't much, if any, magic, but there was a detailed map and various countries with political intrigue, spies, assassins, different religions and attitudes, and it showed the author put a lot of thought into his work, even when I'm too dumb (not true--I just didn't want to put the effort in) to always understand where the characters were at and what that meant politically.
Overall, I surprisingly liked this story. Though I'm a fantasy girlie, I don't usually like that with such heavy worldbuilding that it makes you think. But I liked this because it also made me feel. There were chapters that absolutely shattered my heart, and that is what I look for in a book. There are definitely some things that bothered me, one thing being the switching perspective in the middle of the chapter, the other being some of the sexist attitudes and presence of slavery within the book. Now, I'm not saying the main characters condoned these actions, and I think most of the time they were fighting against at least the sexism. But I'm ready to read fantasy novels without the sexism, slavery, and sexual assault scenes (not explicit, but one thing that really bothered me was that people in position of power would sleep with "boys" which is not only potential sexual assault, but also potential pedophilia, and potentially an affront to the gay community, no? We could have done without that, let the leaders have same sex lovers of the same or near the same age? Idk). Again, these were present in the book, not necessarily presented as a good thing, but it was still a little disconcerting. So I guess this is your trigger warning for that.
I think with this novel the author presented a theme that we are all connected by love, loss, and suffering, and thus can have empathy with each other. I could be way off but that's the theme I took, and made me like the book more, despite the previous paragraph.
Again, overall I did like the book. I would recommend it to my hard fantasy readers out there. I was debating, but I think this book deserves four stars out of five.
Happy reading out there!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Sexism, Violence, Abandonment, Vomit, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Blood, Alcohol, Bullying, Classism, Racism, Colonisation, Sexual content, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Slavery, Torture, and War
Moderate: Abortion
Minor: Homophobia, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Animal death
srm's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-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? It's complicated
4.25
Another beautiful and fascinating fantasy Renaissance book from Kay. After DNFing A Brightness Long Ago, I think I'm definitely going to have to give it another try after enjoying this and All the Seas of the World so much.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Colonisation, Suicide, War, Death, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Alcohol, Pregnancy, Blood, and Child death
massivepizzacrust's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Although it took me a while to get into this one, I found the overall experience very rewarding. Guy Gavriel Kay has a way of crafting plot that makes the future seem at once unpredictable and inevitable. I loved the way the perspectives met and crossed, and the little moments where something was described from multiple points of view. I felt a little cheated that we never got the on-screen sibling reunion that I thought we were building towards but I thought all other story lines had very satisfying ends.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War, Death, Xenophobia, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Abortion and Confinement
aseaoftomes's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This was such an interesting book and I had a really great time reading it.
This book is a Renaissance based fantasy dealing with places like Italy, the Ottoman Empire and the Balkans (primarily Croatia - Dubrovnik) and it's a story of revenge, trade, pirates and art. It's kind of hard to explain this book in a way.
The writing was pretty good - it had a good pace and the descriptions were good and it all flowed really well.
The plot was interesting. I loved all of the different aspects of the world and each storyline we followed and ultimately how it all tied together.
Te world building was rich and vivid. I've been to several of the places mentioned in the book (not necessarily the exact cities, but the countries) so I was able to picture everything really well. I love pirate stories and the folklore and history surrounding this one was so well done. And I thought the cultures were each captured really well.
Finally, the characters. We follow several different characters from each place and I found I enjoyed all of them and their arcs. I definitely had moments of liking some more than others at different points in the book.
Overall, a solid and fun read and I'm definitely going to pick up more by this author in the future.
This book is a Renaissance based fantasy dealing with places like Italy, the Ottoman Empire and the Balkans (primarily Croatia - Dubrovnik) and it's a story of revenge, trade, pirates and art. It's kind of hard to explain this book in a way.
The writing was pretty good - it had a good pace and the descriptions were good and it all flowed really well.
The plot was interesting. I loved all of the different aspects of the world and each storyline we followed and ultimately how it all tied together.
Te world building was rich and vivid. I've been to several of the places mentioned in the book (not necessarily the exact cities, but the countries) so I was able to picture everything really well. I love pirate stories and the folklore and history surrounding this one was so well done. And I thought the cultures were each captured really well.
Finally, the characters. We follow several different characters from each place and I found I enjoyed all of them and their arcs. I definitely had moments of liking some more than others at different points in the book.
Overall, a solid and fun read and I'm definitely going to pick up more by this author in the future.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Death, and Sexual content
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