Keyoke Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I've read one book by Guy Gavriel Kay, Under Heaven, and yet to read River of Stars. The above two books are also highly recommended from this author. Both pique my interest, which is better? THoughtS? Opinions? Food? Keyoke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 GGK is the author on which there is perhaps the least consensus on what's best and worst (apart from Ysabelle being the worst, though I've not read that), so I reckon you'll get a fair range of answers here.For what it's worth, I prefer Tigana- I love that book all the way through, whereas Lions is imo let down by the ending. It's absolutely brilliant before then, though. Tigana's obviously an early work, though in terms of Kay not having developed a lot of his later habits - while the peninsula is obviously based on Italy, it's not based on historical events the way most everything else he's written since then is (Ysabelle aside), and is by far the most overtly fantastical too. It doesn't harm its quality though - I think it's his second best book behind Under Heaven. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry of the Lawn Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Check out Datepalm's reviews first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3CityApache Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I agree, with Kay there is definitely no consensus. But from the two above mentioned books I prefer Tigana as well. It has just worked for me much better than Lions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninefingers Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Both are good. Hard to go wrong with Kay unless you're reading that abomination against humanity, The Fionavar Tapestry. I actually have a hard time believing he wrote it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scortius the charioteer Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 River of Stars, actually. but if it's just the 2, Tigana I loved upon first reading it, but I've come back to Lions again and again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Both are good. Hard to go wrong with Kay unless you're reading that abomination against humanity, The Fionavar Tapestry. I actually have a hard time believing he wrote it.Funny, those are the only books of his I like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scortius the charioteer Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Funny, those are the only books of his I like. I enjoy them too, even though I've kind of moved on. After reading stuff like Bakker or Erikson I find it's hard to go back to the type of stuff I used to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I liked them both but preferred Tigana out of the two. For many Kay books you do need a high tolerance for repeated descriptions of how awesomely talented the protagonists are, but Lions does take it to another level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unJon Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Sarantine Mosaic. Hands down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gertrude Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Kay is just good. If you like his style, it's hard to go wrong with any of them. I've even come to like Finnovar Tapestries. It's an outlier, and I wasn't a fan of the premise, but it's got all the heart-breaking pathos and heart-warming heroism as the rest. As to those books specifically - they are my top two and hard to chose between, but it's Lions all the way down. The Sarantine books are right after those. But they are all good. Usually the hurdle is people not liking his type of prose and tropes. If you already like him, then read them all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Lions of Al-Rassan. That is a phenomenal book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Lions of Al-Rassan. That is a phenomenal book. I just don't get that. Just the phony Spanish alone . . . it's a travesty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Tigana is great, but it was still an early novel for Kay and was a bit saccharine in places. His prose was also still developing. It's good, but a little rough in places. Lions of Al-Rassan is easily his best novel for me. However, Kay's such a great writer that you really can't go wrong with any of his works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gertrude Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 I just don't get that. Just the phony Spanish alone . . . it's a travesty. What other Kay books do you like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 What other Kay books do you like? I was thinking that, as it's either the phoney Spanish or the phoney French or the phoney Saxons or the phoney Byzantines or the phoney Chinese. It's Kay's thing, really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I just don't get that. Just the phony Spanish alone . . . it's a travesty. I thought the mediterranean feel of it greatly added to the atmosphere of the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I preferred Lions over Tigana, but both were good reads and reasonably similar in overall style but differ slightly in execution. I suggest you read them both at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 picked up lions and Under Heaven over xmas with some kindle deals. Wert's "guide" helped me figure out whether it was possible to dip in or not. I'm always hesitant of sprawling series that may or may not be interconnected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maester Llama Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 I have not read Lions, but I have not read it because I'm saving it, because I love Kay's writing. I agree that a lot of getting along with a Kay book is liking his overall style, the pathos and the aestheticization of everyone and everything. Tigana I almost threw away early in response to a particular scene -- I find Kay can usually be relied upon to produce such a scene for me around once or twice a book. I'm glad I didn't and I ended up really enjoying it, but I'd agree with others above that it's very clearly early Kay and is non-trivially flawed. It contains more sharp turns into what-the-fuckery than much of his later work. Emotionally-impactful book that hasn't aged super well in my memory. I'm very invested in The Fionavar Tapestry as a flawed great story; I find flawed great stories very interesting, even when they're disappointing. I'm not just using "flawed" as a padding or qualifying word to hedge a declaration that I think the books are awesome: They combine what I find to be moving and enjoyable takes on celtic fantasy themes with regular astonishing outbreaks of cheeseball writing, like truly this cheese is molten and leaks through the whole story such that it cannot be separated from it; they have huge unignorable problems from anything even approaching a feminist perspective and are I would say very anti-woman, though I don't think they set out to be [there's one plotline in particular that is very gross]. The problems are massive and genuinely weigh the story down, but, for me at least, they don't quite bring it to it's knees completely. Lot of good mixed with a lot of shit. Come to think of it, this is ... actually more or less how I feel about Tigana as well, minus only the word "celtic." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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