Guy Gavriel Kay

[Ran]

On the third night, it's a new moon... but the moon rises full, anyways, and red, the color of "war and fire". I think it's supposed to be the same moon, however, just magically made to appear when it shouldn't.

[Alexia]

So I picked up Under Heaven this week and sat down to read it...and couldn't put it down until I finished it. Wow...that was such a beautiful book. I got really wrapped into the storyline and characters, especially Li-Mei who filled the role of "minor character that fascinates me" this book (there is always one!). I think this one just edged out LLOTS to become my favorite Kay book - it was amazing. I have to say that I very much like Kay's use of historical settings to inspire his fantasy thus far.

One minor detail I really liked that is fresh in my mind...

...is how Saira sends that letter back to Tai and the man who takes it for her ends up being waylaid and murdered by bandits when he's actually returned to his own country and the letter never gets there.

Sadly, Fionavar is still on my bookcase gazing sadly at me. I will try to read it eventually, but really, Uther Pendragon and Guinevere!!!

[Calibandar]

Give it a try. I actually really loved how he incorporated all of these mythological characters.

[automne]

So I picked up Under Heaven this week and sat down to read it...and couldn't put it down until I finished it. Wow...that was such a beautiful book.

GGK is a magician, is he not? how can he write with such a haunting beauty?

Sadly, Fionavar is still on my bookcase gazing sadly at me. I will try to read it eventually, but really, Uther Pendragon and Guinevere!!!

Be warned. IMO it has very little in common with his later books. I didn't like it but a lot of boarders seem to have enjoyed it.

[Nukelavee]

Fionvar takes a while to really catch you - it really shows how his style has evolved. Personally, I found the "realworld" characters jarring for most of the books, even if they were from Toronto, lol.

The Arthur/Guinevere plot line, actually, by the end...WOW. Seriously, the final act of THAT play, WOW. Plus, Lancelot is, like, wow. And, Arthur's dog. WOW.

It's kinda slow to read, but when it hits it's stride at the end, it's worth it.

[Mjolnir]

Yeah, Fyonavar's very unlike Kay's later work. Or ... no, that's not true I don't think. I'd say maybe some of his interests are the same -- how we relate to myth and culturally-ingrained legends / stories, how they shape us, delving into the hearts of people forced to make the big epoch-shaking decisions -- are very much present here as they are later. [His fascination with the ebb and flow of history and how the small stones affect the larger landslide, very much a thematic star in The Last Light of the Sun and Under Heaven, is something I don't recall coming up here, however, though I haven't read them in years.] But the presentation's much different. I'm glad I read Fyonavar and might well do so again one day, but it's got a lot of problems and some of them are not small. I'd agree that The Darkest Road is the best; I actually quite enjoyed all the payoff in that book. Parts of The Summer Tree, and large scections of The Wandering Fire, I found quite painful, however.

[nickg]

I'm actually starting Fionavar tonight. Bought the trilogy at borders, mainly because I liked the covers and I have wanted to read them for a while. I have seen some negative criticism, but I'm just really in the mood for some high fantasy.

[Lyndsica]

I love Kay. I agree with many of the problems people have, but they do not have any effect on my love for the books. The weird thing is, I didn't like Lions, Arbonne, or Tigana on the first read. For whatever reason, I re-read Lions and I LOVED it. I think it's because the first time through I didn't care about the characters for the beginning third or so of the book. I did the same with Tigana and Arbonne afterward and fell in love with them as well.

I still do not love Last Light of the Sun.

I liked Ysabel more the second time around, on audiobook.

Fionavar will always have a special place on my bookshelf. I know it is overdone, but I love it just the same.

The Sarantine Mosaic books - I love those as well. I wish they would come out on audio.

[Mjolnir]

I'm reading Under Heaven for the second time now, this time on audio while doing other undemanding things. As fine an experience as it was the first time. I think that, as much as some of his interests and techniques have remained the same, Kay really has grown and changed as a writer. More, he's able to make subtle but noticeable shifts in his style depending on the setting and vibe he's working with. Under Heaven, for instance, is a very emotional narrative as is generally the case with Kay, but it's very controlled, very calculated. Short, high-impact sentences abound. Like stones dropped into water: you see and feel the ripples they make only after they're gone.

The narrator -- Simon Vance -- does very well with this measured style. It's very dignified reading, even when the subject matter is, um, passionate. Only thing I'm not sold on is his decision, as a British narrator, to give most of the characters light but noticeable Chinese-speaking-English accents. Not at all sure I feel good about this. A great audio book experience otherwise, though.

[Former Lord of Winterfell]

Loved Fionavar and Sarantine Mosaic.

Tigana, well, Ran and I have gone round and round on that one. I can't get around seeing Dianora as a collaborationist whore, and Ran thinks I'm too harsh. Heh.

[nickg]

The Summer Tree is great. Just finished it yesterday. I put off reading it for quite a while, probably due to all the negative comments I have seen. Really, really enjoyed it. Will finish it in a week or two

[Ormond]

Loved Fionavar and Sarantine Mosaic.

Tigana, well, Ran and I have gone round and round on that one. I can't get around seeing Dianora as a collaborationist whore, and Ran thinks I'm too harsh. Heh.

Ran isn't the only one.

But of course there's also the question of why you think it makes Tigana a bad book even if you have a low opinion of one of the characters.

[Former Lord of Winterfell]

Where/when did I say Tigana was a bad book?

I personally just didn't like the sympathetic portrayal of both Brandin and especially Dianora.

[Arthmail]

I've liked everything by Kay except Tigana. Terrible book, filled with far too many people masterbatingly (not sure if thats a word) in love with each other. Terrible characters, boring story. Under Heaven was a phenominal book however, so this one can be forgiven.

[Reposado]

agree completely with arthmail. I would probably rank Kay as second favorite fantasy author, but Tigana was by far my least favorite from him. Definitely seemed written in a diferent style than we usually get from Kay.

[Liadin]

Surprised to see so much hate for Tigana. I thought it was awesome, probably among my top 10 fantasy books. You do have to tolerate Kay lovingly describing characters' emotions of course, but that's par for the course in all the Kay I've read, and it didn't irritate me the way Lions irritated me. I put that one down partway through because of the way Kay kept going into raptures about the main characters and their minor interactions, though I might give it another try one of these days.

[Datepalm]

I personally just didn't like the sympathetic portrayal of both Brandin and especially Dianora.

I can't help but read her as an advanced case of Stockholm Syndrome. :dunno:

[Datepalm]

Meh. Annoying meh. I was trying to actually finish this book before I start complaining about it, but its so bloody boring. But also annoying. Tigana Rant:

The thing is, its not so much that its flowery romantic emotionalism etc, etc. I'm not a huge fan of grit for the sake of it and I like larger than life characters and history hanging on grand love affairs or whatever as much as the next...someone. The problem is this book bloody cheats, in underhanded ways that make reading it an irritating chore. Basically, everyones ethereal beauty and boundless charisma and endless sorrow and life changing friendships and so on are just gone on, and on, and on about...but its all faked. Its like that scene in Community where the Dean blackmails the Drama professor into barging into his Thanksgiving dinner and yelling at him for stealing his girlfriend. Just tell them you're gay already!

Brandin and Alessan in particular are just insufferable, really. They're these cardboard cutouts that everyone reacts to like they're just incredible, and I'm supposed to believe that they are. But they never actually do anything. Thats probably also why they're so similar. Kay just appears to be so wildely adoring of the idea of these sorrowfully artistic warrior men that he forgot to actually give them personalities. The worst scene of course is when Brandin declares to Dianora

That he loves her and everything will change, blah, blah. Except that dosen't actually happen. What actually happens is that we're told that he 'speaks of love' and her heart just breaks, its what she's always wanted, blah, blah. OK, she's trying to kill him so this just seems like romantic tripe, but all right, i'd go with it, I like emotional melodrama sometimes, except - its all very romantic and dramatic, but dosen't actually show what he says to, y'know, make her all sad about her plan to kill him and stuff. He just informs us it was awesome and convincing (nor does he ever show why she would fall in love with him in the first place. Well, ok, she's a twat too, so maybe it makes sense.) Its just all such a cop-out. If you're going to have someone, who you want me to think is intellegent, strongwilled, mature and admirable, fall head over heels for someone she's supposed to hate, you have to actually explain how that happened, not just tell me that it is so and that i'm supposed to be sympathetic, becuase as the matter stands, i'm just bloody not.

In short, my impression of this book so far is that it consists entirely of a group of melodramatic people with personalities so superlatively attractive they might have been put together by a focus group, wandering around and discussing how terribly impressed they are with each other. Thats it.

[Lannes]

I can't really rank them, but The Fionavar Tapestry Trilogy holds a special place in my heart- not the least of which because there are a couple of moments of brutal reality set in a fantasy setting that I've never forgotten and just blew me away when I first read them- kinda like that Martin guy did. :cool4:

[nickg]

I can't really rank them, but The Fionavar Tapestry Trilogy holds a special place in my heart- not the least of which because there are a couple of moments of brutal reality set in a fantasy setting that I've never forgotten and just blew me away when I first read them- kinda like that Martin guy did. :cool4:

I have only read The Summer Tree so far, but as long as the next two don't crash and burn, I would rank up near PoN, Malazan, AsoIaF and my other favorites. Completely different from those three, but its still very good. Moving on to the Wandering Fire after I finish Anno Dracula.

I know almost everyone will disagree, but Fionavar is possibly my favorite from Kay. Gonna hold back until I'm done though