Dan
Updated a reading goal:
Read 100 books by December 31, 2025
Progress so far: 25 / 100 25%
A new Guy Gavriel Kay novel is always a treat, something to savour for the lyrical prose, the wise eye, and the compassionate characterisation. This one returns us to the world of Sarantium, albeit around a thousand years on from those books, around the time of the Hundred Years War, or it’s equivalent in the Kayverse (I just made that term up and I hate it already).
It’s a briefer book than some of his best, and I missed the opportunity to wallow in the world and the characters. The shorter length means you don’t get under the skin of anyone apart from the lead in quite the same way as you do his longer works, but it also fits the fancy that this is a recounting of something that actually happened long ago. It’s like the best history lecture you ever went to, and Kay is still probably our greatest living fantasy writer.
A new Guy Gavriel Kay novel is always a treat, something to savour for the lyrical prose, the wise eye, and the compassionate characterisation. This one returns us to the world of Sarantium, albeit around a thousand years on from those books, around the time of the Hundred Years War, or it’s equivalent in the Kayverse (I just made that term up and I hate it already).
It’s a briefer book than some of his best, and I missed the opportunity to wallow in the world and the characters. The shorter length means you don’t get under the skin of anyone apart from the lead in quite the same way as you do his longer works, but it also fits the fancy that this is a recounting of something that actually happened long ago. It’s like the best history lecture you ever went to, and Kay is still probably our greatest living fantasy writer.
These books are a fantasy companion to Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series, in that they relatively lowkey (although the stakes do get raised in this one) and the villains are largely kept offstage in favour of spending time with likeable characters who are -shock - nice to each other. These characters are mostly all wounded one way or another and the books have a melancholy air, but they don’t dwell on this darkness. Instead they focus on the importance of consolation and the bonds of friendship (even if Thara is terrible at recognising these latter). Ultimately they speak to what we can be instead of what we so often are, which is needed more than ever these days.
These books are a fantasy companion to Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series, in that they relatively lowkey (although the stakes do get raised in this one) and the villains are largely kept offstage in favour of spending time with likeable characters who are -shock - nice to each other. These characters are mostly all wounded one way or another and the books have a melancholy air, but they don’t dwell on this darkness. Instead they focus on the importance of consolation and the bonds of friendship (even if Thara is terrible at recognising these latter). Ultimately they speak to what we can be instead of what we so often are, which is needed more than ever these days.
