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Guy Gavriel Kay


Werthead
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I'm afraid the book is geared toward teens. Not only is the protagonist a teen, but the presentation and his narrative thought is, I think, meant to appeal to teens at the expense of adults, where some other authors successfully pitch books to more general appeal.

Ysabel did feel a little bit like a Young Adult novel at times for the reasons you describe, it's unlike Kay's other books in that respect - Last Light of the Sun is the only other one with a teenage protagonist. This, along with the modern-day Earth setting, means that it isn't very representative of Kay's other books. I thought Ysabel was an entertaining book, but I thought Tigana, Lions of Al-Rassan, A Song for Arbonne and the Sarantine Mosaic were all much better books.

BTW, does anyone know when Kay's next book might be appearing? It's been a couple of years since Ysabel's release.

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BTW, does anyone know when Kay's next book might be appearing? It's been a couple of years since Ysabel's release.

He has been working on a new book due for release in 2010 and, as is traditional with him, he isn't discussing it until it's done.

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Ysabel has been optioned as a movie.

Although, as I said above, I didn't think Ysabel was Kay's best work, I think it is possibly the best choice to be filmed as a movie. Apart from the obvious advantages of having it being set in modern-day Provence rather than a medieval fantasy world, it's also a more straightforward (and shorter) story than Kay's other books and I think it would be relatively easy to translate into a screenplay. I think the likes of Tigana or The Sarantine Mosaic are too complex to make into a 2-hour movie without losing a lot of the plot, although they might make a good mini-series.

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  • 2 years later...

Sarantine duology is one of a few Kay books I haven't read yet, but I heard it's one of the best if not the best. On my private Kay list Tigana leads, before Last Light of the Sun, Song for Arbonne, Lions of Al-Rassan and Ysabel.

But I wouldn't say Kay's style is close to Martin, actually.

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  • 1 month later...

Reading Fionovar Tapestry right now. Was a bit hard to get into initially, but Summer Tree really does rise to the occasion as the book goes on.

Curious, I know he has a lot of historical fantasy - does Under Heaven or Lions have any actual magic in it? Doesn't seem like it at first glance.

thanks,

Sci

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While Tiagana had great prose, I couldn't get into it, I'd love to read another book that grounds you in the world better. The main reason I didn't like it is because I really had no understanding of the world or the cultures beyond the fact that underage's couldn't drink and that there were two tyrants when suddenly perspectives change and all motivation to continue vanished.

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Reading Fionovar Tapestry right now. Was a bit hard to get into initially, but Summer Tree really does rise to the occasion as the book goes on.

Curious, I know he has a lot of historical fantasy - does Under Heaven or Lions have any actual magic in it? Doesn't seem like it at first glance.

thanks,

Sci

Yes Under Heaven has 'magic' in it. I would describe it more as supernatural events happening however.

IMO the magic or supernatural events aren't really all that crucial to the plot in any of the books I've read so far. You could take them out and have almost the exact same story.

This is one thing about GGK that confuses me, it's kinda like why other having weird shit happen at all if it doesn't really affect anything? This is not true of all events but seems more the case than not. YMMV.

An example of what I mean is in The Sarantine Duolgies:

in the main city of Sarantium there are random fires flaring up in the night that everybody sees but no one knows what cause them or seems to care about it and we don't ever find out what the fuck they are.

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Sis, one of the themes that runs through the books in the shared world of Lions, Sarantine and Last Light is the inevitable fading of mysticism in the face of the march of history. The fires of what they call the half-world in Sarantine are the same sort of thing as Crispin encounters on the way to Sarantium, these primitive pagan spirits that the Jaddites would like to snuff out. The theme is a lot more explicit in Last Light, where the faerie world can only endure because it's at the far end of the Jaddite sphere of influence; not only does the monotheism battle this pagan stuff, but technology sounds its death knell as well.

It doesn't have a lot of point in and of itself, just that it was once there and in the future it's not.

With respect to Sarantine...

You also see this in a bigger way with Heladikos, the son of Jad, whom what's-his-face the new Emperor at the end basically decrees out of existence. Heladikos is an important and essential figure to worship for most of the characters, it's hard to fathom life without him. One decision is made, and there is nary a word spoken of Heladikos in Lions or in Last Light. I think it only pays off over multiple books, which is odd, but it's how Kay works.

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I have both Lions and Last Light would it make a difference which I read first?

I don't think it matters which you read first in terms of plot comprehension. There's not any connection between the two stories at all, other than that they are in the same world. I like them both, though I think I like Lions a bit more.

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Curious, I know he has a lot of historical fantasy - does Under Heaven or Lions have any actual magic in it? Doesn't seem like it at first glance.

I think Lions has the least magic of any of Kay's books - one character has visions, but that's about it. Under Heaven has a bit more, mainly some shamans who act as antagonists in one of the subplots.

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