Finished a slew of books, some re-reads, some new and/or new-to-me. Finally got around to reading
Guy Gavriel Kay's
Under Heaven and
River of Stars, a diptych in his Kitai setting which, like
Barry Hughart's The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox (one of my nostalgia re-read selections, from the Subterranean Press e-book I got from a long-ago HB, which seems to have a disappointing number of typos and possible autocorrects which changed the meaning of the intended phrases) take place in “an ancient China that never was”.
In an introductory note somewhere, GGK explains that he prefers to do his thinly-veiled historical fantasies, which essentially amount to retellings with a mild dose of magical realism, because it gives him the freedom to play with the story and characters as he pleases, without the intrusiveness of ascribing certain acts and attitudes to the real people who existed once upon a time, long-dead and little known though they may be. Given that there's quite a bit of supposedly non-satirical mainstream historical fiction purporting to tell authentic tales about the personalities behind the history, which have made me wonder if the author's “research” included so much as a skim of the relevant Wikipedia article, I admire his scrupulous restraint even if I think it's an unnecessary nicety, considering.
A few reviews have labelled GGK's style of historical fantasy “alternate history”, but IMHO that's not really the case, since there's not so much points of departure exploring what might have been as points of convergence depicting what it could have been like for someone caught up then and there. Aside from being recast into a mildly fantastical expy version, nothing really changes as far as the fates of people and nations goes. Only the personal outcomes of a few individuals might change as they get swept up into the tide of history which continues to follow the real life events and timelines quite closely. In this case, expy Tang dynasty in the prelude to the events that would lead to its eventual collapse, and a few centuries later, expy Song in the period which tries to recover from the Tang collapse, but in turn is destined to collapse upon itself as well.
In an interview, GGK claimed that RoS isn't actually a sequel to UH, any more than the European Enlightenment would have been a sequel to the Renaissance, which makes a certain amount of sense. But while not a direct follow-up on the characters and events, RoS does explore the fallout and lingering effects of the collapse of faux-Tang, which pervade the faux-Song political and cultural outlook to an unhealthy degree as the diminished Kitan empire strives to rebuild past glories even while they strive to suppress the qualities that probably led them to glory in the first place (it seems that GGK thinks their IRL counterparts picked up the wrong lessons from history, and I'm inclined to agree; as far as non-barbarian-invader-established dynastic eras go, it's pretty much been downhill for China since the Tang and the isolationist policies and ever more rigid class and social and gender stratification probably didn't help at all).
In term of storytelling, UH had a grander feel with larger than life characters* and higher stakes. There was certainly more excitement and drama. But I think in the end, RoS was overall the better story of the two, more grounded and resonant on a level closer to home than the grand heroic tragedy of UH, with a lower-key feel of sadness and decline and hope. I think in a way, it helps that GGK takes as his model real life historical events, which kind of have an anti-tendency to happily ever after or grand triumphs against overwhelming odds, rather than the standard heroic journey and inevitable defeat of evil with perhaps a token nobly tragic sacrifice along the way. It does give him and his novels greater flexibility and well, novelty, in letting the story unfold in ways that feel unexpected compared to much more standard fantasy tales.
Anyway, these were both quite good and recommended if you're interested in the grand sweep of historical events affecting seemingly ordinary people who sometimes find themselves becoming not so ordinary in response to them, in a sideways version of ancient China.
Also read
Ann Leckie's
Provenance, a self-contained novel in her Imperial Radch universe, though far outside of Radch space. This was a lower-key domestic adventure and quasi-coming of age tale for the scion of an important family with A Clever Plan™ to impress the clan head, which of course goes wrong. There's a bit of mystery involved, but it's really mainly a device to get the rest of the plot rolling, rather than a full-fledged investigative whodunnit.
The pronoun/gender play in this one was different, with the standard male and female sexes and an also standard third sex which was apparently quite common throughout the related systems. And while we only had vague hints that the events of the Ancillary trilogy had important fallout effects yet to be explored, we did get a glimpse of some of the other species mentioned in the earlier books, as well as how the Radchaai look from the outside (apparently, they have the British entertainment niche of generic dramatic villain accent).
Overall, a charming tale which gives a nice glimpse of personal and familial expectations in a slightly different society where autographed souvenirs are SRS BSNS, and an enjoyable look at a portion of the rest of the setting, for which I hope we eventually get more.
* Based on larger than life historical figures turned legend, of whom I was surprised but pleased to recognize two. Although they were two that pretty much anyone who takes even a cursory look into Chinese history and culture will have encountered anyway, and at first I thought the one based on the famous poet was actually based a famous historian of similar expied name. I didn't recognize any of the expied historical figures in RoS (some of whom GGK helpfully names along with recommended further reading sources in an afterword), but I'm feeling proud that the thing I thought really seemed a lot like a reference to a famous Chinese classic I only know by reputation did in fact turn out to be one.
