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A review by sarahbringhurstfamilia
River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay
5.0
After reading and loving Under Heaven, I was a little afraid to read this one, for fear that it would not be as good. And it's true, it took me a little longer to get into it, if for no other reason than that the fifteen-year-old bandit was not as likeable of a protagonist to me as the cultured and courageous (if eccentric) Shen Tai of the earlier novel.
However, after a few chapters I was pulled into the story and soon utterly enamored. It is rare for a book to move me to tears, and yet both of these novels have done so. I love the broad historical sweep, the sense of the interplay between fate and chance and individual decisions. Kay writes as a bemused historian, a philosopher, and an intimate biographer. His versions of fantasy is simply to plunge us into a world where the invisible forces of the spirit world in which his historically inspired characters believe are as real to us as they are to them. The effect is subtle, but powerful.
One of his great strengths is the ability to paint even a minor character in a few vivid strokes that bring him or her completely to life. There were a few moments in which Kay seemed overly self-conscious as author and omniscient commentator, momentarily pulling the reader out of the story in disorientation.
Still, this is a wonderful, memorable book, and a worthy successor to Under Heaven.
However, after a few chapters I was pulled into the story and soon utterly enamored. It is rare for a book to move me to tears, and yet both of these novels have done so. I love the broad historical sweep, the sense of the interplay between fate and chance and individual decisions. Kay writes as a bemused historian, a philosopher, and an intimate biographer. His versions of fantasy is simply to plunge us into a world where the invisible forces of the spirit world in which his historically inspired characters believe are as real to us as they are to them. The effect is subtle, but powerful.
One of his great strengths is the ability to paint even a minor character in a few vivid strokes that bring him or her completely to life. There were a few moments in which Kay seemed overly self-conscious as author and omniscient commentator, momentarily pulling the reader out of the story in disorientation.
Still, this is a wonderful, memorable book, and a worthy successor to Under Heaven.