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Guy Gavriel Kay


Werthead
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  • 1 month later...

New blurb:

In his critically acclaimed novel Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay told a vivid and powerful story inspired by China’s Tang Dynasty. Now, the international bestselling and multiple award-winning author revisits that invented setting four centuries later with an epic of prideful emperors, battling courtiers, bandits and soldiers, nomadic invasions, and a woman battling in her own way, to find a new place for women in the world – a world inspired this time by the glittering, decadent Song Dynasty.

Ren Daiyan was still just a boy when he took the lives of seven men while guarding an imperial magistrate of Kitai. That moment on a lonely road changed his life—in entirely unexpected ways, sending him into the forests of Kitai among the outlaws. From there he emerges years later—and his life changes again, dramatically, as he circles towards the court and emperor, while war approaches Kitai from the north.

Lin Shan is the daughter of a scholar, his beloved only child. Educated by him in ways young women never are, gifted as a songwriter and calligrapher, she finds herself living a life suspended between two worlds. Her intelligence captivates an emperor—and alienates women at the court. But when her father’s life is endangered by the savage politics of the day, Shan must act in ways no woman ever has.

In an empire divided by bitter factions circling an exquisitely cultured emperor who loves his gardens and his art far more than the burdens of governing, dramatic events on the northern steppe alter the balance of power in the world, leading to events no one could have foretold, under the river of stars.

http://www.amazon.co...42388078&sr=1-8

Edited by Jussi
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  • 4 months later...

Any and all input is appreciated. But damn, I swear Tigana must be a polarizing book because it tends to be in everyone's top two or among their list of criminally overrated.

I always assumed that Tigana was polarizing mainly because Brandin of Ygrath is polarizing. Tigana is a great story, but it is my least favorite of the Kay novels that I have read, specifically because I hated Brandin and how Kay presented him.

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No, Brandin is a proto-fascistic asshat. But then so is everyone else in that book.

(Just getting in here to illustrate the polarity, yo.)

To be fair, that's kind of the beast of romantic nationalism. (which Tigana absolutely reeks of)

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I wonder if HarperVoyager UK have dropped Kay. There have been no news about UK edition of River of Stars, and the book is missing from the publisher's database.

Amazon UK has the publisher as ROC, so I guess Penguin is publishing it in all the english-speaking countries itself.

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I thought that Ysabel one was the weakest; but haven't read the latest (don't particularly care about China)

You're missing out. It's fantastic. Will be looking forward to River of Stars.

Currently reading Lions of Al-Rassan. I have decided that Kay is the Quentin Tarantino of fantasy. Larger than life characters that sometimes verge on caricature but generally fall just the right side of the line, no shyness about violence and, most importantly, tons of dialogue-based scenes of shifting tensions and power plays.

It's great.

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I thought that Ysabel one was the weakest; but haven't read the latest (don't particularly care about China)

What does this even mean? I hope you mean, "I'm not motivated or moved by the idea of a fantastical setting influenced and shaped by Chinese history and myth." But, even so, it's a shame you're missing out on a wonderful novel.

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What does this even mean? I hope you mean, "I'm not motivated or moved by the idea of a fantastical setting influenced and shaped by Chinese history and myth." But, even so, it's a shame you're missing out on a wonderful novel.

I have to concur. I'm a long time Kay fan and Under Heaven is probably my favourite work of his yet. I can't wait for River of Stars.

Edited by halO bendeR
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http://www.brightwea...-news-bulletin/

HarperCollins UK will publish River of Stars on July 18. But – and this will please and interest some people here, I know – they will lead with the e-book edition on April 2 … the same date River comes out in Canada and the States. With the increasingly interconnected book buying world, it just make sense for a publisher to have their electronic edition out when others do.

The July timing in the UK is interesting, and I am onside with it. They are planning a new cover, and a shift of imprints, from my current Voyager to one where authors like Tracy Chevalier are published. Part of a strategy to position the book for literary/historical/mainstream readers, in addition to the core of fantasy readers.
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With the increasingly interconnected book buying world, it just make sense for a publisher to have their electronic edition out when others do.

With the heaving nerd-rage over Robert Jordan's widow deciding to delay the ebook of Memory of Light for a few months, this is an interesting quote.

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Kay had a good chuckle when I mentioned that someone had compared him to Tarantino.

With the heaving nerd-rage over Robert Jordan's widow deciding to delay the ebook of Memory of Light for a few months, this is an interesting quote.

This is referring to the fact that the American eBook will be released alongside the hardcover in the spring. Pirated copies of the eBook will also appear at this time, easily accessed by UK readers who might buy the book otherwise, but don't want to wait until July. It's different from the aMoL eBook since that was a worldwide release.

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