Reviews

Words cannot describe how much I love this books. The characters, the world, the language, everything is absolutely gorgeous. Gavriel Kay is phenomenal.

michaelkerzman's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.0

This book was probably the most impressive thing I’ve read in a while. I read somewhere that GGK helped edit the Silmarillion and I can definitely believe that. GGKs prose is almost unmatched. It’s incredibly beautiful, and the only nitpick I really have is that he often has these long run on sentences that you have to reread a few times to actually understand. The story is based on the albigensian crusade in Southern France in the thirteenth century. I thought it was a very beautiful and sad story, and I enjoy history so that was a huge plus for me. The characters here were all well written, if not a little bit too good at everything, and the villain a little too cartoonishly evil (again more of a nitpick). The pacing here was also pretty great. The book starts off strong and engaging, and just kind of maintains that until the end. The world here was very well written, and I found the cultural clash between Arbonne and Gorhaut to be really fascinating and morally nuanced.

If I could rate this based on how much pleasure I had reading it, it would be a 4.5/5, but to be honest I found that after I finished, I found the story to not be that memorable or thought provoking. It doesn’t take away the enjoyment I had while reading it, but I wish this story had a little more lasting power in my mind than it did. That being said, I can easily recommend this book to anyone who’s into very light fantasy or historical fiction, or in general anyone who can appreciate talented writing.

msiemens's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

hankiss's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

rouge_red's review against another edition

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adventurous tense slow-paced

4.25

Well paced, good writing and filled with interesting characters who are complicated. The prologue threw me a little because I finished it thinking this was going to be a really basic story (in terms of plot). What it turned out to be was very enjoyable in all the things I look for in my books. Maybe one fault is the world building, but what we know of the world- the politics and a bit of recent history- is enough to craft a story that deals with a lot of personal motivations pushed onto a grand scale with war. I don't have much bad to say because even the songs/poetry didn't (surprisingly) annoy me! I really got into this story the more I read. I appreciate all the flaws Blaise had, his utter badassness when announcing his claim to the throne of Gorhaut (haven't felt that thrilled at a mic drop in a book in a while) to the fact that he got followed by a regular ass person who then listened in on a deeply personal conversation. In essence, I loved how human he was. And he kept the rose yellow rose for love to himself. I also like that there wasn't a thing with him and Rosala in the end, that the author didn't feel the need to shoehorn in a romance where there clearly weren't romantic feelings. The repeat of the cycle of cheating, pregnancy, etc and how it worked out this time around was also a nice way to bring this story full circle.

All in all, I am very curious to see what else Guy Gavriel Kay has written. This one was a great success.

thisotherbookaccount's review against another edition

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My disappointments with Guy Gavriel Kay continues with A Song for Arbonne.

60% into the book, and nothing is happening. Nothing. This book is the definition of butter spread over too much bread. The central conflict is about how the evil north wants to conquer everybody else. However, at 60%, you see/hear/read about none of that. Everybody is sitting around and talking about old loves, old friends, old alliances, old friendships, old hatreds, etc. Nothing is driving the story and the characters forward. You are supposed to believe that there is a war brewing I the distance, but everything still feels hunky dory. What war? What is at stake? People are evil for the sake of being evil, and everybody is black and white, paper thin with zero to no motivations.

I have half the mind of removing all of Kay's books from my to-read list. If this is supposedly one of his best books, then his best is not good enough anymore.

littlelynn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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