Guy Gavriel Kay Under Heaven - Reading

ÿþGuy Gavriel Kay - Under Heaven

Overview

Under Heaven is Guy Gavriel Kay's eleventh novel, and marks a return to his favoured alternate-history setting and genre after the World Fantasy Award-winning Ysabel, which was a departure from his normal work. The setting this time is 8th Century China during the Tang Dynasty, during the lead-up to the colossal An Shi Rebellion (the most devastating war in human history until World War II, if the casualty figures are to be believed), although as normal the setting is lightly fictionalised, with characters and events hewing close to the originals but not quite replicating them.

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Review

Praise for Guy Gavriel Kay:

A fine, intelligent series. Probably the best of its kind British Fantasy Society

A remarkable achievement. The essence of high fantasy Locus

Kay has delivered such a magnificent conclusion I can t praise it enough. THE FIONAVAR TAPESTRY will be read and reread for many years to come Fantasy Review

Product Description

An epic historical adventure set in a pseudo 8th century China, from the author of the 2008 World Fantasy winner, Ysabel. Under Heaven is a novel of heroes, assassins, concubines and emperors set against a majestic and unforgiving landscape.

For two years Shen Tai has mourned his father, living like a hermit beyond the borders of the Kitan Empire, by a mountain lake where terrible battles have long been fought between the Kitai and the neighbouring Tagurans, including one for which his father - a great general - was honoured. But Tai's father never forgot the brutal slaughter involved. The bones of 100,000 soldiers still lie unburied by the lake and their wailing ghosts at night strike terror in the living, leaving the lake and meadow abandoned in its ring of mountains.

To honour and redress his father's sorrow, Tai has journeyed west to the lake and has laboured, alone, to bury the dead of both empires. His supplies are replenished by his own people from the nearest fort, and also - since peace has been bought with the bartering of an imperial princess - by the Tagurans, for his solitary honouring of their dead.

The Tagurans soldiers one day bring an unexpected letter. It is from the bartered Kitan Princess Cheng-wan, and it contains a poisoned chalice: she has gifted Tai with two hundred and fifty Sardian horses, to reward him for his courage. The Sardians are legendary steeds from the far west, famed, highly-prized, long-coveted by the Kitans.

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Kitai, during the Ninth Dynasty. The Emperor has given the nation many years of peace and prosperity. Far to the west, in a valley where the last great battle between Kitai and Tagur was fought, a dutiful son pays homage to his dead father by burying the bones of the fallen. His honourable task is noted by the Tagurans who give him a princely gift: two hundred and fifty Sardian horses. You give a man one Sardian horse to honour him greatly, four or five to elevate him above all others. Two hundred and fifty is an overwhelming gift, a gift that instantly elevates Shen Tai into a player in Kitan politics.

These are perilous times. The First Minister and the empire's greatest general are feuding, the Emperor is distracted by his most favoured concubine and there is tribal dissent among the Bogu people beyond the Long Wall. Shen Tai and his family are thrust into the midst of great events, and find they and their horses may determine the balance of power, and of life and death, for many.

Kay's China - Kitai - is a place of scheming nobles, courtly poise and etiquette and labyrinth conspiracies, all of which are depicted impressively. As normal, Kay is less interested in war and battles than in the human characters of the story, from Shen Tai and his ambitious brother Shen Liu to First Minister Wen Zhou, the poet Sima Zian and the women of the story (the Beloved Companion Wen Jian, Tai's sister Shen Li-Mei and the Kanlin warrior Wei Song), whose roles are crucial. Kay's grasp of character is as assured as ever, and he brings these people to life to the extent where the reader finds it impossible not to care about what happens to them next. Kay's grasp of emotion is as also finely-judged as ever, with moments of genuinely raw emotional power which never overreach into mawkishness.

The pacing is also well-handled, and the plot unfolds in a gripping manner. Kay shows greater confidence here as a writer than he has in some time, and his weaving of events, conspiracies and characters into a greater whole is impressive. This is easily his most assured and well-executed book since The Lions of Al-Rassan, if not ever.

Under Heaven (*****) is a superb book from one of our best writers working at the top of his game, and will likely be judged one of the strongest books of this year, in fantasy or otherwise. It is available now in the UK and USA.

Set in 8th C China (or a place very similar) this book entranced me from the first page and held me captive right up to the very end. The quality of writing is excellent without any straining for effect or padding.

The plot, although dealing with straightforward issues, is involved and ever-changing, much as life itself, and the progress of the storyline feels very natural in its pace. Given acceptance of possibilities of which one has no personal experience, there are no deus ex machina devices to upset the very natural flow of the developing story. The editing is as sharp as I have seen in a long time and every word written is needed. The pacing from simple start to complex conclusion is beautifully handled and I never felt any dawdling or rushing in the book.

The characters are vital and vibrant, even the walk-on extras, and drew me into their different problems and viewpoints. The dialogue reflects the different personae and never seems stilted. Even read aloud, it works. The main characters, the soldiers and guards, the members of the Court are all painted decisively without too heavy a hand. Indeed there is a delicacy in the writing that I really enjoyed.

'Under Heaven' is, I think, part of the Chinese saying that all crows are black under Heaven, meaning much what we mean with, 'By night all cats are grey.' The succinctness of the title is reflected throughout the book. I have not read Mr Kay's work before but I am a convert now. If you enjoy historical novels and the examination of the politics of power, don't miss this one.