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kateslowreads 's review for:
Under Heaven
by Guy Gavriel Kay
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. :)