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Overview

The Sarantine Mosaic is a historical fantasy duology by Guy Gavriel Kay, comprising Sailing to Sarantium (1998) and Lord of Emperors (2000). The titles of the novels are an allusion to poet W.B. Yeats.

The empire of Sarantium is beset to east and west but Valerius II wishes to take back the western lands which gave birth to the empire he now rules. The master mosaicist, Caius Crispus, is called upon to play a role. 



The story's setting is based on the 6th century Mediterranean world, and the looming conflict between the Byzantine Empire and the Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy. The novels The Lions of Al-Rassan and The Last Light of the Sun also take place in that unnamed world, although in different settings. In the series we are also briefly acquainted with the character Ashar ibn Ashar, who is the creator of the Asharite religion seen in The Lions of Al-Rassan.



In Sailing to Sarantium, mosaicist Caius Crispus ("Crispin") is summoned to the great metropolis of Sarantium to create a mosaic for Emperor Valerius II, (modelled on Byzantine emperor Justinian I). The narration follows his travels to the city, and his compelled entrance into the politics of Sarantium.



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Amazon.co.uk review

Guy Gavriel Kay's fantasy career began with "The Fionavar Tapestry", a popular trilogy mixing Arthurian and Tolkienian themes. He's since developed an original vein of alternative-historical fiction: richly suspenseful stories whose period settings have different country names and added magic. The Lions of Al-Rassan reinvented medieval Spain; Sailing to Sarantium lovingly reflects the intrigue and splendour of the Byzantine Empire and echoes W.B. Yeats's famous Byzantium poems. Magic exists: at least one old god is horribly real, and those artificial singing birds celebrated by Yeats take their life from an unexpected creepy source. Sarantium City is intensely imagined, with dynastic upheavals, riot and rebellion, a smashing chariot race, and knives glinting in every alley. There's sharp intelligence here, too. The hero, an outlander mosaic expert summoned to decorate Sarantium's newest and greatest dome, faces his worst test at the Emperor's court--where mechanical trickery lurks, conversation is double-edged and exile awaits the loser in a debate on mosaic techniques. There's also a Sherlockian challenge to deduce how the top charioteer pulled off a magical- seeming coup. Kay has laid fine groundwork for this new series "The Sarantine Mosaic", with more to follow. --David Langford



Amazon user reviews:





Amazon's synopsis wrongly states that "Sailing to Sarantium" continues the world Kay created in "Tigana". In fact it expands and enriches the world of "The Lions of Al-Rassan", especially the Jaddite religion which is moving towards schism similar to the medieval Catholic-Orthodox schism.



This is a well-told story with vivid and engaging characters, but the sense of place and of the real world around them is not as strong as in some of Kay's other works, such as the unforgettable "The Lions of Al-Rassan". The details of life are there, especially the technicalities of the mosaicist's craft and the charioteer's challenge, but the splendours and wonders of Byzantium's golden age can only be glimpsed amidst the petty intrigues of the court.



Well worth reading, but hardly the tour de force of "Tigana" or "The Lions of Al-Rassan". 





'Sailing to Sarantium' is the first ('Lord of Emperors' the second) of the Sarantine Mosaic 'duology' (?!). Together they provide you with a wonderful impression of life in a great city (modelled on Byzantium) and the people who live their lives there. We learn about the plans and desires of an Empress (though anyone who can figure out her husband and his plans should immediately apply to Mensa!) and a page later the hopes, fears and insecurities of a kitchen boy. The 'hero', the prime character, is a mosaicist - Caius Crispin. He has the opportunity of a lifetime and through his journey, relations to others, but primarily through his work, we get to know a wonderfully realised character.



There are intricate plans and plots by nearly everyone at court; there is thrilling, fast-passed action at the hippodrome where the chariots (which dominate every aspect of life in Sarantium) race; and there is the philosophical bent of the author who really does seem to be trying tell us something about human nature - though it feels like a discussion between author and reader.

One thing to note is the women! In Sarantium the women, as Crispin finds out, have just as much (or as little) control as the men do.

All of GGK's books are good, my particular favourites being 'The Lions of Al-Rassan' and 'A Song for Arbonne' - but the two novels comprising the Saratine Mosaic truly surpass his other works. 

I'd read some GGK before 'Sailing to Sarantium' (the 'Favonia Tapestry' and 'Tigana' to be exact) so I had a fair idea what to expect. I had however, also read in some reviews that the rest of GGK's work was not up to the standard of the those books, and this lead me to delay my reading of his other work. Having read 'Sailing' and the second part 'Lord of Emperors' I regret that delay...

'The Sarantine Mosaic' pair are, I think, my favourite of his books. This first is a little slow to get going - while reading the (rather lengthy) epilogue I wondered if the novel was to be written in a textbook style without a central character. However, once we meet Crispin, the protagonist, the story progresses much more smoothly.

As with all GGK's books (apart from the Favonia Tapestry) the novel is set in a world derived from real history, in this case that of the Byzantium Empire. Crispin, a mosicist of great skill makes a journey across a fictional recreation of the ancient Empire from its fallen seat to the centre of it's power, the city of Saranitum. He makes this journey carrying an invitation sent to his aging partner Martinian signed by the hand of the Chancellor of the Emperor himself. Crispin navigates a relutant path through the machinations of figures of overwhelming power both on the road and once he reaches the city itself. All the while battling his own anger and darkened soul following the loss of his wife and daughters to plague.

Perhaps one small criticism might be that there are a few, intriguingly masked, but unresolved nods to historical events which someone without a good knowledge of ancient history is left out of. This can be a little confusing in the part fiction, part fact setting of the novel. It's possible that these points may be picked up in the two books I've yet to read - 'A Song for Arbonne' and 'The Lions of Al-Rassan' and this minor niggle wasn't enough to impact the five-star rating that the book deserves.

Crispin's journey makes for a gripping and beautifully sculpted story, as does his arrival at the great city of Saranitum. A word of warning though, this is in some ways a book split in two rather than a two-part work. Therefore I advise you to have the second half -'Lord of Emperors'- on hand for when you finish this, I doubt you will want to wait too long to see who's waiting for Crispin at the bottom of his scaffold... 





I would have liked to have given this work higher praise, and based solely upon the prologue and second section of the work could have. However, part one of the narrative remains for me very uneven, in large part burdened by a journey that appears to accomplish little, other than bringing together several companions of the adventure and muddying the tale with religious and magical elements that at the book's conclusion remain attenuated and for the most part unexplained as to their relationship within the larger context of the story. Granted, these unresolved and only partially substantiated elements may find resolution in the second volume, but to date they remain incompletely integrated into the narrative, and only tenuous and apparently dangling story threads, and in the manner they have been introduced and followed here, I question that any further development will entirely be successful in fully incorporating them into the later volume. I hope I am proven wrong. However, for the moment this work seems to lack the tight plotting that was a strength in Tigana, Song for Arbonne, and The Lions of Al-Rassan, and seems in part a return to the often extraneous and wandering plot development present in The Fionavar Trilogy.

Nonetheless, in comparison to many works of fantasy currently available, this book remains far better than most, and the prologue is almost worth the price of admission in and of itself. I will await the release of the second and concluding volume--though I will wait until it's out in paperback--in the hope that its pages will do much to repair and restore the stumble that appears to occur in the early portion of the story. Despite my hesitation to fully applaud this effort, Kay remains among the handful of authors representing the best in fantasy fiction.