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Guy Gavriel Kay


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Was thinking about getting a few books tonight and Kay seems like as good as any to try out. What is his best work and a good place to start with him?

Tigana is the only thing I've read by him, but it's generally regarded as one of his best. It's a fantasy stand-alone and I had a great time with it.
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Was thinking about getting a few books tonight and Kay seems like as good as any to try out. What is his best work and a good place to start with him?

Read only Tigana and is is wonderful. One of the best fantasy books I've ever read and certainly the best standalone one.

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Lions of Al-Rassan, from what I have read (I'm 80% through atm) is a brilliant book. It's very very low on fantasy elements (As far as I can tell there is only really visions from the son of a main character) but the characters are all well developed, the plot is pretty fast-paced, there's no real bloat, and the writing is great. Highly recommend it so far, I've had trouble putting it down if I'm honest
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Lions of Al-Rassan, from what I have read (I'm 80% through atm) is a brilliant book. It's very very low on fantasy elements (As far as I can tell there is only really visions from the son of a main character) but the characters are all well developed, the plot is pretty fast-paced, there's no real bloat, and the writing is great. Highly recommend it so far, I've had trouble putting it down if I'm honest

That is the post I was looking for. Definitely going to read it in the future.

Kay's writing is really good. Tigana had as perfect writing as it can be.

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Lions of Al-Rassan, Tigana, and Under Heaven are probably his three best works and are all standalone (well, Under Heaven has a sort-of-sequel but it's very distant, not necessary, and a bit shit), so a beginner should pick one of those.


Under Heaven is his best for me. Lions of Al-Rassan might have beaten it but unfortunately I did feel it flubbed the ending. Although my view isn't in the majority.

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Lions of Al-Rassan, Tigana, and Under Heaven are probably his three best works and are all standalone (well, Under Heaven has a sort-of-sequel but it's very distant, not necessary, and a bit shit), so a beginner should pick one of those.
Under Heaven is his best for me. Lions of Al-Rassan might have beaten it but unfortunately I did feel it flubbed the ending. Although my view isn't in the majority.

I finished it today and I kind of agree with you. The ending was a bit of a drop in quality from the rest of the book. I still thought it was a great book, but wasn't wild on the ending.
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It's always the most remarkable thing when people discuss their favourite Kay novels, we've had quite a few of such discussions over the last 15 years here with different participants. Everybody has a different favourite. There's no consensus whatsoever. Really speaks to the consistent great writing that Kay produces.

 

Though having said that, one can acknowledge that Ysabel, Last Light of the Sun and River of Stars rarely, if ever, come up as the no.1.

The praise for Song for Arbonne has faded as well, and while I personally loved the Fionavar Tapestry and still see that as one of the best epic fantasy trilogies ever, it's not a series that ranks the highest amongst fans in general.

 

Hopefully Children of Earth and Sky will rank among the very best.

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It's always the most remarkable thing when people discuss their favourite Kay novels, we've had quite a few of such discussions over the last 15 years here with different participants. Everybody has a different favourite. There's no consensus whatsoever. Really speaks to the consistent great writing that Kay produces.

 

Though having said that, one can acknowledge that Ysabel, Last Light of the Sun and River of Stars rarely, if ever, come up as the no.1.

The praise for Song for Arbonne has faded as well, and while I personally loved the Fionavar Tapestry and still see that as one of the best epic fantasy trilogies ever, it's not a series that ranks the highest amongst fans in general.

I've noticed the same that there's little consensus. I've also seen a lot of people who love some of his books and really didn't like some of the others and again there's no consistency about which are the loved and which are the hated books.

 

Looking on Goodreads, the highest average rating is for [i]Lions of Al-Rassan[/i] which is marginally ahead of [i]Lord of Emperors[/i]. [i]Ysabel[/i] and [i]Last Light of the Sun[/i] are a considerable distance behind his other novels in terms of popularity.

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I was a bit surprised by that. I think it is a common reaction that Lions of Al-Rassan is probably his best, unless you read Tigana first, in which case that seems to win out. Under Heaven's critical position has also picked up a lot recently. On release I wondered if it had been overrated because his previous few books had been perceived as being subpar (Last Light and Ysabel), but it's definitely got legs. I'd also rate River of Stars at the same level as UH or maybe just a notch behind.

 

I may be wrong, but I believe that LoAR is also his most successful book. Certainly it was the first one to be optioned as a film.

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I would really love it if GGK used this upcoming novel to set up a later one concerning a "new world" in his universe. It seems this upcoming novel has a pseudo-Venice and if Sarantium is the setting again then a pseudo-Constantinople. With a possible fall of Sarantium to a khalif it could close trade routes to the east forcing western nations to look west for new routes a la Columbus.

 

I really enjoyed A Song for Arbonne. However, I'm also really interested in the troubadours and the Court of Love, which may have influenced my enjoyment of it. I'm sure that may be the case for other readers of GGK who have interests in other areas like Italy, Andalusia, Byzantium, etc.

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I was a bit surprised by that. I think it is a common reaction that Lions of Al-Rassan is probably his best, unless you read Tigana first, in which case that seems to win out. Under Heaven's critical position has also picked up a lot recently. On release I wondered if it had been overrated because his previous few books had been perceived as being subpar (Last Light and Ysabel), but it's definitely got legs. I'd also rate River of Stars at the same level as UH or maybe just a notch behind.
 
I may be wrong, but I believe that LoAR is also his most successful book. Certainly it was the first one to be optioned as a film.

As I was reading I was thinking that it lends itself pretty well to a film/TV adaptation. Is this still going to happen does anyone know? A google search shows the last update as 2007
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As I was reading I was thinking that it lends itself pretty well to a film/TV adaptation. Is this still going to happen does anyone know? A google search shows the last update as 2007

I haven't heard anything about it in years so I think it's probably got stuck in Development Hell. I agree it could make a good film/miniseries.

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As I was reading I was thinking that it lends itself pretty well to a film/TV adaptation. Is this still going to happen does anyone know? A google search shows the last update as 2007

 

It sold quite a bit less than the previous books, so I was reliably informed by those who would know.

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The issue I heard with the LoAR film was that they (Edward Zwick and the producers) kept going back and forth between adapting the book as-is and simply making a proper, new El Cid film (i.e. going back to the inspiration) as they thought the audience would get confused.

 

Post-GoT, I'm surprised it hasn't been revisited.

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It sold quite a bit less than the previous books, so I was reliably informed by those who would know.

That seems a bit surprising, although looking at Goodreads over twice as many people have read [i]Tigana[/i] as Lions, so it's definitely a long way behind that in terms of readership (not that I have any idea how well the number of readers on Goodreads would correlate to overall sale figures). It does have the third-highest number of readers out of his work being slightly behind [i]The Summer Tree[/i].

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