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Guy Gavriel Kay


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Under Heaven
Tigana

Lions of Al-Rassan
Song for Arbonne

Last Light of the Sun

Lions was maybe heading for the top spot until the last third, which I found rather poor (though it would have done well to unseat Under Heaven anyway). I haven't read Sarantine Mosaic yet, nor Ysabell, and I tried Fionovar but didn't like it.

River of Stars was a bit disappointing after the near-perfection of Under Heaven, but it's still good.

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I am interested in comments as well. I only read the Fionavar and Tigana (in the mid/late 90ties, almost 20 years ago). I preferred the latter. I do not remember so many details about the former, but I disliked both the college kids enter another world trope as well as the "re-enacting" of the Lancelot-Guinevere-Artus-Triangle and the mystical stuff like the self-sacrifice. It is very well written (better than a lot of contemporary stuff) and atmospheric, though.


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I've only read three Kay books, ranked like so from best to worst:



1. Tigana


2. The Lions of Al-Rassan


3. The Summer Tree



This ranking doesn't tell the whole story on its own.



I really enjoyed Tigana, and I'm prepared to say I thought it was a good book. I know plenty of other people hate it, but it struck a chord for me. This is the only book on the list I am pleased to have listed here.



The Lions of Al-Rassan is a ferociously readable terrible book. The further I get from it the more it annoys me. Everything is too pat in the worst, most David Eddings sort of way. Everyone is too witty, the two main characters are too perfect, everything is too neat and tidy and predictable.



The Summer Tree is a piece of shit. Plain and simple. Absolute derivative garbage. I couldn't get through it because I hated it too much.



I haven't read any Kay since Al-Rassan. I am not entirely convinced that my life is the poorer for it.


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1 - Tigana - it always seems to be a divisive book and I know some people hate it but I liked it a lot. One of the things I found I found interesting about it was that it questioned whether the heroes attempt to regain their lost homeland justified all the things they did or not, although I think one flaw is that maybe sometimes it doesn't explore the question as well as it could have done and I think that might be part of the reason for some of the negative reactions it can get.


2 - The Sarantine Mosaic - the start of the first book was a bit slow but I really liked it once it got going. I liked the setting and the characters (although the way every woman in the books seems attracted to the protagonist got a bit absurd). The chariot racing was a lot of fun as well.


3 - A Song For Arbonne - perhaps doesn't quite reach the heights of some of Kay's other books but also less flawed than many of the others


4 - Under Heaven - the first two-thirds are among Kay's best work, unfortunately the last section gets a bit unfocused


5 - The Lions of Al-Rassan - Kay's penchant for explaining in great detail how awesome his characters and how emotionally powerful the events that occur are reaches its peak, if you can tolerate that then it's a great book.


---------


6 - River of Stars - the opposite of Under Heaven in that it starts off a bit dull but has a strong second half


7 - The Fionavar Tapestry - some bits of this are among Kay's best, other bits I didn't really like. I wasn't keen on the 'Canadian students called on to save a fantasy realm' plot device.


8 - Ysabel - a fun read but a bit lacking in depth compared to his other books. Kay seems more comfortable describing medieval warriors than contemporary teenagers


9 - Last Light of the Sun - I liked the setting and the characters well enough but the plot wasn't particularly compelling.



I am interested in comments as well. I only read the Fionavar and Tigana (in the mid/late 90ties, almost 20 years ago). I preferred the latter. I do not remember so many details about the former, but I disliked both the college kids enter another world trope as well as the "re-enacting" of the Lancelot-Guinevere-Artus-Triangle

and the mystical stuff like the self-sacrifice. It is very well written (better than a lot of contemporary stuff) and atmospheric, though.



Fionavar isn't really representative of his later books (with the exception of Ysabel), his other works don't have the modern world/epic fantasy crossover and the fantasy elements tend to be much less prominent.


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1. The Sarantine Mosaic


2. Tigana


3. Under Heaven


4. River of Stars


5. A Song for Arbonne



Sarantine Mosaic has top billing because it was the first of Kay's books I've read. If I was a little bit more objective, it might be farther down the list. Also, I've often felt the oddball out in not loving Lions of Al-Rassan, but looking here it does seem like a few others had problems with it too.



I've read every Kay book except for Fionovar. I do have the books, I just haven't felt the need to read them yet.


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1. The Fionavar Tapestry - Yes, it is less polished than his later works. Yes, the prose is more "purple". But less polish means more raw emotion in this case and I rather like purple prose.


2. The Lions of Al-Rassan


3. A Song for Arbonne


4. The Sarantine Mosaic


5. Ysabel - I love great YA and this is great YA, with myths & legends and a Fionavar Tapestry connection.



I was debating whether Tigana should be in there or not. I like some parts of it very much, but never quite warmed to most of the characters. It would definitely rank as 6, with Under Heaven as 7 and then probably Last Light of the Sun before River of Stars. The last two are the Kay books that have left me the most "cold" emotionally. Brilliant writing, but not the emotional response I was looking for.


Edited by Linda
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The Lions of Al-Rassan is a ferociously readable terrible book. The further I get from it the more it annoys me. Everything is too pat in the worst, most David Eddings sort of way. Everyone is too witty, the two main characters are too perfect

Sorry for the tangent, but who do you consider the two? I'm asking because I thought of there being three, and I'm curious about which one doesn't stick out in other people's minds.

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Sarantine Mosaic


Under Heaven


River of Stars


(really big gap)


Lions of Al-Rassan



If Lions had been my first GGK book, instead of my third after Sarantine, there's no way I would have read a second one. I still regret that I slogged through 100 pages in instead of quitting earlier.


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Very curious to hear more boarders weigh in on this. I've only read Lions and Tigana and like but don't love both and yet feel like it's an author that could do better. Early returns not good on this account!

I'm looking to see who weighed in on this so that for anyone who said Lions was good, I know never ever ever to take any recommendations from them.

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I've only read six GGK's so far (and that's counting Fionavar Tapestry as 3).



My ranking of what I've read would be



1. Tigana


2. A Song for Arbonne


3. The Lions of Al-Rassan


4-6 Fionavar Tapestry.



As I understand it Fionavar is very different from his later books. I believe he actually worked for the Tolkien estate when he was young, and Fionavar is quite specifically his own response to Tolkien and was sort of getting that out of his system when he was a young man. I think it's actually meant to be "derivative." I didn't care for the Arthurian part of it myself -- but on the other hand I think it's better than a lot of other books by authors who are doing just a pure Tolkien rip-off.



It used to be on this board that Tigana was a book people either loved or hated. I loved it and found its ending made me think about the morality of the characters in a new way. There have been others on this board in the past who simply hated some of the characters and find it their least favorite of GGK's works.


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I believe he actually worked for the Tolkien estate when he was young,.

He helped edit the Silmarillion (he gets a shoutout in the acknowledgements). I actually give him a lot of credit for going the way he did with his career after Fionavar, since he could easily have made pots of money churning out Tolkien-lite fantasy quests and using that connection to sell them.

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I'm looking to see who weighed in on this so that for anyone who said Lions was good, I know never ever ever to take any recommendations from them.

Yeah, I read the Fionavar Tapestry way back in High School)I liked it back then, God knows what I would think of it now), then read Lions and stopped. Always meant to give another novel a shot, I have Last Light of the Sun sitting here on the pile, because VIKINGS!

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1. Last Light of the Sun- it's a "sparer" style than Kay's other books, and I think that works well with the setting. Plus it's smaller in scope than most of Kay's books, and the most melancholy.


2. The Sarantine Mosiac novels. I loved the juxtaposition between the sophisticated court and the more pagan aspects of the fringes of the empire


3. Under Heaven This was an absolutely gorgeously written novel


4. A Song For Arbonne


5.Tigana There are problems with this novel, but IMO it has the most memorable characters of all of Kay's works



Those are the first five. Of the next four, I'd say that they are all worth reading but Ysabel. I wouldn't reread Lions, but I'm glad that I gave it a shot.


6. A River Of Stars


7. Fionavar Tapestry. These are very simple books, they have a YA feel to them


8. Lions- I just didn't enjoy this book. Neither the characters nor the plot ever grabbed me.


Ysabel- I didn't finish this one. I can't believe that Kay even wrote it.


Melanie

Edited by Mellybelle
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