Reviews

I really don't know what to think of this one. This was my first Guy Gavriel Kay novel, so I'm not sure whether the style was just his own, or if it's a feature of this book in particular. Most of the time it was interesting, touching, and on occasion extraordinarily tense (in particular the opening chapters). At the same time, it had an enormous number of digressions, meanderings, and examinations of seemingly irrelevant things (this is the part that I suspect may be a feature of Kay's general style). At first it was difficult to determine how these interludes would play into the plot, but when I realized that they what they were they eventually became appreciated, if somewhat uninteresting, distractions.

The characters themselves were somewhat bland though I was invested in their journey, and by the halfway point I found it very easy to immerse myself into their world and care about their future. There was also an excellent cast of supporting characters who ebbed and flowed throughout the story that I grew quite attached to. The prose itself was excellent, although that's not something I'm very picky about.

Edit: Upon looking at some other reviews it appears that this book benefits greatly from reading some of the others set in this world. I may have to re-read it when I eventually get to those, to see if it changes my opinion.

atuttle's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful reflective relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

northwestbooksies's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

timinbc's review against another edition

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5.0

*Sometimes a book can change a life. A decision to read it, or not read it, might lead to a historical library shelf, or to the Dairy Queen.

As always, I put it down with a quiet "Wow."

The more I learn about Mediterranean history, the more interesting it gets. And a lot of what we read here sorta-more-or-less happened in our one-moon world.

* You learn a lot in a lifetime of reading. You read good books and bad, prose that flows and flourishes and prose that drags grimly along.

We get a vivid picture of what happened, and some how.

A quibble: Guy has always taken the kindly-uncle storyteller angle. This book seems to have far more than the usual salting of the stuff I prefixed here with * But it is perhaps made up for by the inclusion of a storyteller character, and the gentle suggestion at the end that the narrator just might be that same person.

And gosh, you need to be warned that the narrator sometimes steps back without warning and gives the stage to one of the characters in first person. But we always see quickly who it is.

Still, this book's main fault is that it's over and we have to wait for another.

What I take away, apart from the history and the richness of the writing, is that I just left ten or twelve new friends behind, people whose life arcs I really cared about. And Kay deftly accounted for all of them.

* Some left us quietly and happily, some on the end of a sword, for that is the nature of the world we have been given. But most got what they deserved.

And that last scene .... sniff.

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