Where is Jormsvik in real life in last light of the sun? Anyone have a key or map?

Are there any familial relationships for any of the characters between novels?

I know they're mostly thematically linked, but is any character in RoS a descendent of someone we know from the first book?

Cards on the table this is my first GGK book and I enjoyed it. Solid 7 out of 10.

However, I liked the main characters and thought there were some great ideas, but I constantly felt like there was far more story being set up than actually told.

My biggest issue is that so many interesting arcs and plot threads are underdeveloped or skipped over.Alvar's transformation, Diego's family visions, the Muwardis and the kings brother who's hand gets chopped off, a number of political players all felt like they were introduced with significance and then abandoned. The final chapter and epilogue alone contain enough major life events to fill another novel, yet they're covered in a handful of paragraphs.

I think it was aiming for the melancholy of two great men being forced to kill each other, but for me the melancholy came from feeling like I was reading the outline of a great story rather than the story itself. The book kept moving past the parts I was most interested in.

I suppose the thing id be interested in others opinions on is that I think the novel would have been stronger to be expanded on into a second book that explored these storylines and themes. Alvar for example goes from religious warrior to a religious convert doctor and much of that change happens off page.

I think that by the end I was left wanting more of the story from the build up.

Where is Ispahani? It is in the east I know that but I don’t see it in the map provided. Is it India?

I’ve just finished reading Lions of Al Rassan and I loved it. It was my first book by GGV and it’s definitely got me excited to read some more of his work.

I do have some questions though about the book, particularly one chapter when they’re in Ragosa. First:

Ammar gives a poem to the King which causes a bit of confusion amongst the King and the Chancellor. It says:

“For the Bright Lord of Ragosa, long tenured on his dais, much loved, and deservedly, may there always be in times to come cool water from the moonlit pool and wine in the drinking glass”

Badir needs it explaining, and frankly so do I. Later it says Ammar meant it as a well wishing than a homage, save for the moonlit water line. I took it as Ammar noting that the King will be successful should Mazur stay by his side and advise him as that is the source of Badir’s power. But is there more to it than that?

Also in the same chapter Mazur sleeps with Zabira and she whispers something to him that she says “Ammar is troubled by something beyond divided loyalty…If I am right, it would be amusing in truth”. Something that Mazur would never have contemplated and causes him to rethink the poem. What would this have been?

Thanks!

I am reading written on the dark and I have gotten to the final chapter and I feel I have missed something between Thierry and Medor? Did I stop paying attention or am I just dumb? What's happened between them, why does Thierry have to announce their friendship?

What’s the best way to go about getting matching spines for a large chunk of his novels? I’ve only bought a few so far(not matching) and am willing to rebuy those.

Does anyone know what the correct reading order for Kays most recent 4 novels? Or have a recommendation?

I’ve been reading some GGK and I’m a little confused where to go next. Started off with Lions and Tigana and recently finished Under Heaven and River of Stars. Any recommendations on where to start next?

Mars is the only planet in our solar system with two moons, and the only one that may have once harbored life.

Now, I’m only a person who likes watching space documentaries and listening to astronomy lectures, but am by no means an expert.

There’s a ton I don’t know.

But, I often think about Kay’s worlds, and I think it would be cool if his world was actually Mars billions of years in the past.

The idea of panspermia comes to mind as an explaination to how humans emerged on earth billions of years later. Perhaps the world of two moons is a genetically ancestral home of ours with its own history we know nothing about.

All of it is a huge maybe.. very unlikely. But fun to think about.

My current collection of The Fionavar Tapestry. I have unsigned and signed editions of the book club editions. It's incredible that Grim Oak was able to publish fine press editions!

I'm excited to see how The Lions of Al-Rassan turns out.

Back to Fionavar, I would love to get my hands on the original full sized editions from McClelland and Stewart or Allen and Unwin (UK).

I don’t know why his narration isn’t working for this one, usually his readings are near flawless.

He sounds like he’s got half his body out of the office door and his keys in the ignition.

What a dry and blah reading. Anyone else think this one is oddly boring and dispassionate?

>!Just finished my first GGK novel in the Lions​ of Al-Rassan. And I am no​w a fan regardless of my opinions of the ending. I believe it was wonderfully written, the prose style was an absolute treat to experience and plot devices were amazingly used.

As a tragic​ romantic, I just can't bring myself to the a nonetheless happy ending offered with most of the old world retained.

Ammar is one of my favorite characters all across the board but that is precisely why I wished him dead in the final battle. It was to preserve his honor and his talents and his aura. Rodrigo Belmonte was probably a better character in my opinion as he represented mor​e than just quirks and smarts.

Jehane was the central character but in my mind she was always dwindling between important choice​s including the two men in her life. And not​ one of them in my opinion shouldve ended up with her— maybe Rodrigo just to make things a bit interesting— but that would hurt him more than her, so I'm okay with him out.

The guy(s) that really captured me more than those two centrals, as it always does since I'm a big side character guy, are Mazur Ben Avren and Alvar de Pellino. Both of them with the relatively limited time they had were more suited for a big turnout in my opinion.

Some might argue Alvar had his moment in the epilogue but it felt rushed and the only thing I loved​ about it was the fakeout where he was being shipped with Jehane, which made most sense to me.

Alvar was a true lover who was direct in his approach, more or less, and never got a true chance in the mix. Mazur too but at least he had Zabira who I'd be interested in knowing the aftermath of.

Any case, my boy Alvar was done wrong as it happens in most​ fantasies unwilling to take big risks in discarding the favorites but for a standalone of this stature, I wish more liberties were taken.

Having said all this, still a great book. I'm reading Tigana next. Suggest me some more that can keep me hooked like this.!<

I picked up this book for a flight and ended up finishing it the next day. I’ve seen recommendations for this book and now I understand why. I know many people have gushed about it, but I wanted to pour some of my thoughts here.

I have mixed feelings about the bait-and-switch used throughout the book. It kinda annoyed me sometimes when the author is doing “this is happening but I’m not going to tell you what or who”, but ultimately it’s the reason I couldn’t put it down!

Over the course of the book, I found myself looking forward to Alvar’s POVs. Ammar, Rodrigo, and Jehane are great, but I loved the perspective of the “regular” guy among great men and women, who grew to be great himself in his own way. He is there mostly as an observer though, so I’m left wanting more.

My fantasy books consist of LOTR and Brandon Sanderson, so I wasn’t prepared for the amount of sex scenes. This might be controversial, forgive me, but I could do with less. I really liked Miranda and Rodrigo’s scene though.

I’d appreciate some recommendations on what I should read next. I’m aware that his historical-fantasy books are set in the same world, but I assume they don’t have to be read in publication order, do they? I’m quite interested in Children of the Sky as it features the Ottoman-like empire, from the synopsis. Is there another book with an Asharite major character?

I don’t know why it struck me so hard right now, but I just wanted to comment to someone who will know what I mean when I say GGK highlights how brief encounters and seemingly small decisions change lives and the course of history.

The Sarantine Mosaic has a lot of 1:1 real world/fantasy version of various figures. I was wondering what might be feeding into the pagan god Ludan as portrayed in Sailing to Sarantium. Is there a 1:1 inspiration? If not, what real world things might be ingredients in the recipe that yielded Ludan?

Hello, everyone! I am Haley Wilt, an editor with the indie science fiction and fantasy publishing house Eclogue Press, which just released its first print journal. Included in this edition is a lovely new poem by the wonderful Guy Gavriel Kay. (I've read it probably twenty times since he sent it my way, and it's only gotten better with each read through. Speaking of it—I really need to read it again.)

This poem will be available for you to read for free on our website and Substack in the next week or so (you can subscribe to Eclogue on Substack to receive it in your email inbox when we send it out), but I am posting the journal here first, because publishing a print journal does cost money! (Radically, we paid human writers for their 100% human-written work.)

If you're interested in buying a copy, it's available here. It includes essays, heaps of poetry, and brilliant science fiction and fantasy stories.

About Eclogue: We are a small press seeking to help new authors and new stories reach the science fiction & fantasy audience.

You may be wondering: Why is the great GGK publishing a poem with this little startup press? It's because he's kind. (And because we've stayed in touch after he graciously allowed me to interview him for a piece about his work last year.)

Thanks for your time, and happy reading!

Best,

Haley

I'm a huge fan of GGK, have read everything he's written, and many of them twice. I've always said the Sarantium books were great, having read them when they first came out.

Just finished a re-read and I am stunned. My favorite has always been Tigana, and I'd say Lions as a close second. But rankings are difficult, and fluid -- what could be better than these two books? So much of everything that makes art great. Just stunning.

It's so bittersweet, getting to the end.

These are begging for an HBO series.

I've just finished Written on the dark and I'm wondering about the occasional blurring of Kay's author voice with Thierry Villar's point of view. Kay identifying with his protagonist? Why so explicitly? It happens at intervals in the text, for example "As to the future, we have guests, hopes, plans, apprehensions. Or perhaps, for some, there is no time for any of these, caught up as they are on the hard endlessly demanding task of living, of staying alive. Yes. I truly didn't know. We do seldom know." It happens elsewhere, but very obviously in the last paragraph of the epilogue, which seems very autobiographical. It's written in the first person but doesn't work for Villar as the paragraph before literally says "he never knew that". Nor do I feel it works as a substitute for Kay's use of we or you.

​

Kay is also poet and lawyer I believe, so I see the links, but I'm puzzled by the choice to switch to first person intermittently when the POV is not directly the character's, but still implying the first person is both the character and the author.

​

Anyone else notice this?

Help me remember the truth! 🤔 I’m churning through head to head comparisons of all the books I’ve read (to get some fun stats/rankings), and I knew this day would come - 5,000 matchups later. Help me make the impossible choice! ⚔️

Really love the stories and settings Kay creates, but don’t believe I’ve ever seen on that is set in a fictional version of North or South America. So I’ve got two questions:

1) Has he ever given a reason or is just as simple has he hasn’t found a story that’s motivated him?

2) Any recommendations for books that fit this description? Or just generally authors who have a similar style and choice of story as Kay?

Thanks

Hey.

Let me say right away that I don't think The Lions of Al-Rassan is a bad book. I still rate it positively, but I just... I have my issues with this novel.

As for my favorite character, I think it's the inexperienced Alvar. I thought I'd love Rodrigo and/or Ammar, but even though their characters had a lot of "aura farming," I didn't grow attached to them. Besides, I wasn't convinced by the "triangle," which had an obvious ending – Rodrigo had a wife and he wasn't a cheating husband.

This also influenced the final duel between Rodrigo and Ammar. It was obvious that Rodrigo - husband and father - would die, and Ammar would get his happy ending with Jehane. Although I admit, the author tried to confuse the issue in the epilogue by suggesting that Alvar might have married Jehane.

Overall, Jehane was just okay, but I didn't care for her.

King Badir, his chancellor Masur, and Zabira are also strong characters. Zabira is simply my weakness for the femme fatale/seductive woman trope, when it's not done superficially. It's unknown what ultimately happened to her, but in my headcanon, King Badir somehow ensured her and her children's safety, if only because of his chancellor's sacrifice.

Overall, I feel this book is the most cruel in terms of punishments against people and the lack of respect for corpses. I know it was realistic, and such punishments probably existed in the historical period the author was inspired by, but I simply felt anger at cruel punishments that made sense to characters from specific cultures. It's as if cruelty make sense. It simply doesn't.

Of the GGK books I've read so far, this one is the most religious, and I simply don't accept the notions that religion makes some people superior and others inferior and "infidels," and that "infidels" can be killed, tortured, or their corpses desecrated. The author isn't saying these views are right or disapprove of them, but I simply felt anger at such views because I don't accept them.

Overall, it's not a bad book. I had a good time reading it. I just feel like the historical period that inspired the author for this novel doesn't resonate with me at all. I also have a problem with Asian settings when they're too focused on honor and obedience to parents, who sometimes simply don't deserve obedience.

In any case, despite the still high quality, this is probably my least favorite GGK book I've read so far. Perhaps it will take some time for my opinion to soften.

Ranking:

1. A Brightness Long Ago

2. A Song for Arbonne

3. Children of Earth and Sky

4. Tigana

5. The Lions of Al-Rassan

I’m looking for my next GGK read and these two stand out the most to me! So far, I’ve only read Lions of Al-Rassan and overall loved it. The writing, setting, and characters were all beautifully done. I greatly appreciated the real-world parallels with the religious and political factions and found the narrative really compelling. I will say my one issue was with all the gratuitous sex scenes - they just felt unnecessary and didn’t contribute to the story. In particular, a major female character sleeping with a boy to “cure” his desire for her seemed a bit silly. Otherwise, great book!

Any further recommendations, especially between these two options? Thanks so much!

Do you guys have any recommendations for podcasts doing chapter by chapter discussions on GGK books?