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smaximiek 's review for:
Under Heaven
by Guy Gavriel Kay
Rich, detailed and complex, Kay weaves a story that starts in a simple and moving place: one man seeks to honor his father by burying the dead of a battle that his father helped lead. For two years, he lives in almost complete solitude, kept company a night by the sounds of the ghosts on the lands around him; and supported in the harsh lands by occasionally visits from representatives from governments from both sides of the battle.
The soldiers have been reduced to bone; so he buries them all to quiet their voices.
He is gifted at the end of his labors by a gift he does not want - 250 of the finest horses known to his people; horses that are valuable beyond anyone's desires. They are bred only by the the very enemy that he has been burying; and to even try to get them home again means his death. To own them means being thrust back into the politics of the imperial court that he left two years ago as a scholar in training, and everything has changed in two years; and his country is on a brink of changes he can't even imagine.
Kay immerses the reader in a Chinese-influenced environment, rich in detail, and threaded through with fantasy and magical elements, while never loosing sight of the complex political and court environments in which the characters move. All over over, he creates a fascinating and detailed read.
The soldiers have been reduced to bone; so he buries them all to quiet their voices.
He is gifted at the end of his labors by a gift he does not want - 250 of the finest horses known to his people; horses that are valuable beyond anyone's desires. They are bred only by the the very enemy that he has been burying; and to even try to get them home again means his death. To own them means being thrust back into the politics of the imperial court that he left two years ago as a scholar in training, and everything has changed in two years; and his country is on a brink of changes he can't even imagine.
Kay immerses the reader in a Chinese-influenced environment, rich in detail, and threaded through with fantasy and magical elements, while never loosing sight of the complex political and court environments in which the characters move. All over over, he creates a fascinating and detailed read.