Sailing to Sarantium

4.0 out of 5 stars

This first installment of the Sarantine Mosaic is wondrous, wonderful, and features some of the most beautiful passages that I've read yet from Guy Gavriel Kay.

The spirituality of the world and the exquisite mosaics that Kay describes are sights to behold. I'm fully invested in Crispin, his mosaic masterwork, the political web he's fallen into, and the underlying mystical “half-world” that is nipping at his heels. The pacing of the overall story is uneven, but this is a great first half of a larger mosaic. 

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

A slow start but I wound up really enjoying this. This series and author were recommended to me as an Eastern alternative to dominant Western-focused fantasy. This series is something along the lines of GoT or The First Law in plotting and quality but it does not retread the same Swords and Sorcery/Medieval Court story beats that are ubiquitous in the fantasy genre.

The Sarantine Mosaic is a historical fantasy set in a world that closely resembles the Byzantine Empire at the beginning of the Justinian dynasty. We follow a mosaicist named Crispin, who is summoned to Sarantium by the emperor to create a mosaic for the new sanctuary. The story unfolds against a backdrop of imperial politics, religious conflicts, and the vibrant life of the city. Contrary to the book's title the first half of the story concerns itself with Crispin's overland journey from Rhodia to Saratium, with not a boat in sight.

One of the real joys of this story is just how well G.G.K interweaves real history; it is dependent on how well you know your Roman/Byzantine history, but there is a constant barrage of small easter eggs and minor details that sell the world as authentic. Bath culture, chariot partisans, factional conflicts, landmarks, court culture, almost every detail even down to the exclusive scent of perfume that the empress wears are tied to the real historical record. I think I could safely assign this as course reading for a history class and it wouldn't stray too far from what the history books say concerning Justinian's reign. Hopefully, everyone who reads this knows enough to realize that the sanctuary Crispin is working on is actually the Hagia Sophia because that was such a cool reveal. Massive points for putting history in historical fantasy.

Considering the novel from a writing perspective it also gets full marks from me, this book is gorgeous to read. GGK is lyrical and poetic, and his prose is a delight to unpack; his style is one with tons of emotional depth and accuracy. As I noted previously this story has a slow start, one of the problems I had at the outset of the story was what I felt to be unnecessary shifts in perspective that were delaying the start of Crispin's story. I will acknowledge that it pays off in the end, but there were moments at the start where I had to put the book down since I was getting a little bored. That issue gets cleared up almost as soon as Crispin sets out for Sarantium, and honestly having a little grounding in the mythos and rules of this world serves to elevate the thrill to found in his journey.

This is a perfect premise for this author and it is such an appropriately titled series. The main conflict in this story is a political one that is complex and interconnected, a puzzle, a.... mosaic. It's more involved than that obviously, the prose is a key part in helping all of the different themes and beats layer over each other providing depth that wouldn't otherwise be there.

If you're a sword and sorcery STAN then this might be a boring read for you because it's not high octane and the magic is nebulous. This is a slower and more methodical read than I think many fantasy fans will be used to. That doesn't make it bad by any stretch, but be aware that this story is outside of the norm, this book has more in common with War and Peace than it does LOTR.

This book is incredible, and the only negative I have is that it's not a complete story really. It does have more of a natural stopping point than I expected, but there's a lot of followup that can be done in Lord of Emperors. Everyone says LoE is much better and to that I say: I am not ready. This is probably my favorite of Kay's prose so far, but I liked Lions more for being a complete standalone. Regardless, this book was exactly what I was craving and if I wasn't in the middle of several other books, I would start Lord of Emperors this second.

9.5/10