Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Drib
In all my vast travels from the bedroom to the bathroom and back again, I have yet to read a book by Guy Gavriel Kay.
Which one should I read first?
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I'll second the recommendation for
The Lions of Al-Rassan (based on El Cid), which IMHO is the best of his works.
A Song for Arbonne (based on the medieval Provençal/French courts of love),
The Last Light of the Sun (based on Viking-invaded Anglo-Saxon England), and
Tigana (a sort of proto-Renaissance-y Italy and more of an "original" fantasy than his loosely-based-on-a-true-history later works) are also standalone and I personally prefer them in this order (I have this inordinate fondness for cultures which produce dragon boats), though in terms of actual quality I'd put
Tigana in the middle (it's a bit rambly and meandering, so I think ASfA is slightly better-written, though the story isn't quite as compellingly dramatic) and freely admit that TLLotS is one of his lower-tier works.
Sailing to Sarantium/
Lord of Emperors comprises the Sarantine Mosaic duology loosely based on Byzantium under the Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora. I'd rank this as the 2nd best of his work overall. I haven't yet read
Under Heaven & sequels based on Tang dynasty China which are similarly multi-book epic in scope since I've been waiting for them to get off the Fast Reads/1-Week Loan with $1 Per Day Overdue Fine shelf at the library where they've been circulating for the past year or so.
I personally didn't particularly care for
The Fionavar Tapestry, but it's decent reading if you like real world/fantasy world crossovers where people from our modern planet are kidnapped to save the alternate world (I actually really do like this kind of plot, but TFT left me meh for some reason I can't put my finger on; maybe too much Arthuriana derivative?).
And I really, really disliked
Ysabel.
NB: For Canadian shoppers (or people willing to pretend to be Canadian shoppers), there's a 3-book omnibus edition available from Penguin Canada here:
Guy Gavriel Kay: Three Novels (A Song for Arbonne, The Lions of Al-Rassan, and The Last Light of the Sun), currently priced at $30, but it dropped to $4.99 during a recent Kobo sale which was when I picked it up.
The Sarantine Mosaic (Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors) is $17.99 (individually priced at $11.99 each at the moment, so you do save a bit), and I'm hoping for another future sale
since I already own them in hardcover, as I do for many of Kay's books.
The Fionavar Tapestry is $19.99, and it's another one that I'd pick up at a $4.99 sale, but I personally wouldn't pay more than that to own it.
ETA: For anyone who wants to try their French-language skills, the francophone translations for Kay's works from publisher Alire are actually very reasonably priced at Kobo.