Guy Gavriel Kay – Cannonball Read 17

I just couldn’t do it anymore.

The Wandering Fire (The Fionavar Tapestry, #2) by Guy Gavriel Kay

December 30, 2022 by narfna 8 Comments

I have done something now that I almost never do, and that is give up on a fantasy series. There is only one more book in The Fionavar Tapestry for me to read, and it’s not even that long compared to the books I’m used to tackling in this genre, but I just couldn’t do it anymore. The idea of reading that book filled me with dread and despair. When I was reading the first book in this series, even with how much the genre […]

This guy wanted to be Tolkien so very badly.

The Summer Tree (The Fionavar Tapestry, #1) by Guy Gavriel Kay

August 19, 2022 by narfna 8 Comments

I was but a wee little fetus when this book was published in 1984, so I should probably give it some leeway—it was 38 years ago, times have changed, this probably seemed great back in the day, the genre hadn’t evolved yet, blah blah blah—but I don’t want to, and I’m not going to. This book is the sort of stuff new writers churn out when they are getting their own voices under them, almost nothing but imitation of things the author loves with small […]

Fantasy with an impressively historical heart

Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay

Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay

February 23, 2022 by Aquillia 4 Comments

I’ve been working my way through Guy Gavriel Kay’s ouevre the past few years, and I’m shocked its taken me this long to get to the incredible duology that is Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors. I say duology but in truth they are two halves of a whole, which is dubbed the Sarantine Mosaic, and so I will review them together while avoiding spoilers as much as possible for both books. And I say shocked because I have a PhD in the political history […]

A bit of a disappointment from a favourite author #BookClub

A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay

September 13, 2020 by Aquillia Leave a Comment

Bingo square: Book Club I was super excited when my book club (internationals/ex-pats in my city who get together and read fantasy) agreed to read the newest Guy Gavriel Kay book. I’ve been absolutely loving GGK the past year or so (even if I haven’t written reviews of Tigana or A Song for Arbonne yet). Unfortunately, A Brightness Long Ago did not live up to my expectations. Set in Batiara, a world like Renaissance Italy, the story follows Danio Cerra as he saves a young female […]

It’s sad when you outgrow old favorites

A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay

February 28, 2020 by Bothari43 Leave a Comment

Younger Me adored Guy Gavriel Kay. Older Crabby Me has tried reading him, but found him melodramatic. But when I saw one of his I’d never heard of on the library shelf, I decided to give it a try. It takes place in the same world as Sailing to Sarantium, but that one was never one of my favorites (Tigana or Fionovar all the way!), so I don’t remember aaaaanything about it except mosaics and melodrama. So I can’t even tell you if this one […]

Either shorten it or split it

The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay

August 19, 2019 by lowercasesee 1 Comment

I read Guy Gavriel Kay’s Sailing to Sarantium and its sequel last year (or maybe the year before) and thoroughly enjoyed them. So much fantasy feels so very centered on western European culture and histories and Kay breaks the mold a little bit with some very Ottoman-inspired fantasy. The Lions of Al-Rassan, which I was very much looking forward to, was similar in that respect, I just wish it had been trimmed down, or possibly split across two books. This is a sprawling fantasy story covering multiple […]

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