This was my first time reading anything written by Guy Gavriel Kay and I have to say I'm very impressed. I'm also a bit upset I hadn't heard of this author before because I'd love to have more of his books on my "read" shelf if A Brightness Long Ago is anything to go by.

If I could describe this book in one word, it would be "epic." It is a sweeping, high fantasy tale that fully transports you to another place. Fantasy can be hit or miss for me, but this one was a total hit. Set in an alternative Renaissance Italy, this complex and ambitious tale takes you back in time to a place that feels like it could have actually existed.

This was quite a long book that became extremely complicated at times, but never once did I feel overwhelmed. I did feel a little exhausted by its end, but only because I had just embarked on such a profound and engrossing reading experience.

Historical fantasy isn't a genre I knew much about, but I hope to find more books like this, especially if they are written by this absolutely talented author.

Unfortunately I didn't love this as much as I was hoping to. It's not a bad book by any means, but it pales in comparison to Children of Earth and Sky (to which this book is a prequel, and I did enjoy seeing the characters from that book here!). I'm wondering whether it's worth reading any more of Guy Gavriel Kay's books, since they have so far been very hit or miss.

Guy Gavriel Kay has been a favourite of mine for years, ever since The Fionavar Tapestry broke my heart as a young teen. I've only recently branched out into his less magical, more historical fantasy, though, and A Brightness Long Ago is a perfect example of how he spins real-world history into secondary worlds and creates something truly beautiful with it.

You can absolutely read this as a standalone, despite its links to some of his other books - there's nothing you will miss that affects the story at all. In fact, the story of this book is almost secondary to its exploration of the characters. It's an interesting choice to have the main character and primary narrator, Danio, be someone who, really, doesn't have an awful lot of impact on the world, just happens to be present at some of the major moments. Many authors have played with this conceit, but this is one of the most effective books I've ever seen use it - it isn't a heavy-handed moral about the impact of world events on the 'little guy', but something different, something I'm struggling to explain, but that feels way more real and honest. I think it also helps that although this is presented as a kind of memoir, with Danio looking back on his youth, there are also multiple third-person perspectives that let you flit into and out of different views of the same events. It almost feels like reading a really good narrative history book, but one where you genuinely care about the people involved.

It reminds me most of Kay's Lions of Al-Rassan in its texture, but also of The Golden Key by Jennifer Roberson, Melanie Rawn, and Kate Elliott - lush, lyrical, rich in description, with an intensely personal focus despite the politicking. I think a lot of people will be put off by the slowness and density of the prose, but for me, it feels like sinking into a hot bath, or coming home after a long day. There's a performative quality to the writing - Danio obviously has knowledge of what will happen, as he is looking back, but even the third person narratives have a sense of inevitability about them, which comes across almost didactic in places. This really worked for me, but I can definitely see that it may be off-putting to people expecting something more focused on the immediate.

I'm genuinely struggling to explain this book, but maybe it's better to go into it knowing little and allowing yourself to be swept away. It's beautiful, and smart, and utterly engrossing. Even though it contains only the barest shreds of magic, the whole thing is magical to read. Five stars.

I think I made had found a new favourite writer!
I began to acknowledge this fact after just a few pages when I realized that the writing style and turn of phrase had completely pulled me into the story.

I have received many glowing recommendations concerning the books of Guy Gavriel Kay but I was amazed how, with a few seeming simple phrases, he elicited such strong emotions and aroused my concern not only for the fates of the main characters but also those on the periphery.
At one point I found myself mourning the death of character who had barely merited a paragraph in the several hundreds of pages.

The fantasy-history aspect was both captivating and educational without making any visible effort to flaunt the historical research. Rather than piquing my inclination to check whether the facts are correct, this book has left me with a strong desire to visit Siena during the Palio.

I loved this book and will now search out more books by this author.

There's a reason Guy Gavriel Kay is such a powerhouse fantasy writer, and this novel is no exception. He weaves believable worlds with ease and writes characters so engaging that I feel like I know them. He looks at events and explores consequences - to devastating effect. The lyrical prose draws you in, and the complexity keeps you engaged. Honestly, this book is a masterpiece.

Guy Gavriel Kay’s newest novel, A Brightness Long Ago, is a prequel to 2016’s Children of Earth and Sky but although they are set in the same world and share one or two characters, each book also works as a standalone. I think this is probably my favourite of the two, although I enjoyed both.

Like most of Kay’s novels, A Brightness Long Ago takes place in a land which closely resembles a real historical setting – in this case, Renaissance Italy. Our narrator is Guidanio Cerra of Seressa, a city which, with its lagoon and canals, clearly corresponds to Venice. Guidanio is looking back at events from his past, beginning with his time at the court of Uberto of Mylasia, a cruel tyrant who once ‘sealed an enemy in a cask to see if he might observe the soul escaping when his prisoner died’ and who has become known as the Beast due to his treatment of the young girls and boys he summons to his chamber at night. As the son of a humble Seressan tailor, Guidanio knows it is a great honour to have been given a position at Uberto’s court but he quickly discovers what sort of man he is serving and so he is not at all sorry when the Beast is assassinated one night by the latest young woman who has been brought to his rooms.

Her name is Adria Ripoli, the Duke of Macera’s daughter, and she is acting on the orders of her uncle, Folco Cino, a leader of mercenaries. Having witnessed Adria enter Uberto’s chamber to carry out the assassination, Guidanio helps her to escape before she can be captured. He expects never to see her again, but as chance would have it their paths do soon cross again and Guidanio finds himself drawn into the conflict between Folco Cino and his rival mercenary commander, Teobaldo Monticola, two powerful men whose actions could determine the fate of Batiara (Italy).

A Brightness Long Ago explores some of Kay’s favourite themes, such as chance encounters, the spinning of Fortune’s Wheel, and the idea that the small decisions each of us make every day of our lives could have wider repercussions, affecting not only our own future but the future of others too – in other words, that everything we do matters. These are topics that Kay returns to again and again in his novels but they seemed particularly dominant in this one and that was my only slight criticism of the book – not the ideas themselves, but the way the authorial voice is constantly reminding us that ‘things matter’. I would have preferred a more subtle approach, I think! Anyway, the writing was still as beautiful as I’ve come to expect; I won't give any examples here as almost every sentence in this book was worthy of being quoted!

The 15th century Italian (or Batiaran) setting was already familiar to me from Children of Earth and Sky, but even if you haven’t read that book, if you have any knowledge of Renaissance Italy you will probably be able to draw parallels between some of Kay’s characters and members of the Medici, Borgia and Sforza families, among others. There’s a dramatic horse race – one of the most memorable set pieces in the book – inspired by the real life Palio race which has taken place in Siena for centuries, and the fall of Sarantium (Constantinople) is also covered. The different names Kay uses for these people, places and events, along with the two moons in the sky – one blue and one white – mean this book can be classed as ‘historical fantasy’, but there aren’t really any other fantasy elements in the story at all. That’s not a problem for me, but if you’re new to Guy Gavriel Kay and hoping for something with magic and wizards, I would recommend starting with Tigana instead.

I'm such a big Guy Gavriel Kay fan and it was such a joy to return to his writing and world-building. Highly recommend.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for an eARC via NetGalley of Guy Gavriel Kay’s historical fantasy ‘A Brightness Long Ago’ in exchange for an honest review.

As I started reading this on its publication date and knew immediately that I was enjoying it, I decided to immerse myself and so purchased its audiobook edition narrated by Simon Vance.

In this novel the main character, Danio Cerra, looks back on his youth and the people who shaped his life. Although from humble parentage, his intelligence had won him entry to a renowned school. From there he took service in the court of the count known as The Beast.

His life changes dramatically when he recognises
Adria Ripoli as she is escorted into the count's chambers one night. Knowing that Adria is a duke’s daughter rather than the peasant girl she is disguised as prompts him to get involved. Many adventures ensue. The stories of other characters are expertly woven into the narrative.

This is fantasy though not in terms of elves and dragons but set in an alternative world that Kay has developed within a number of his novels. I understand that it serves as a stand-alone prequel to his ‘Children of Earth and Sky’ and is inspired by people and events of Renaissance Italy.

GGK’s storytelling is amazing. I have read a few of his novels and they have always impressed me for their vivid characterisation and flawless world-building. His language is lyrical and just exquisite. This and the richness of description was further enhanced by Vance’s rich voice.

It is quite a complex tale and multi-layered though I never felt lost but rather completely engaged. It was sad to say goodbye to Danio yet there are plenty of other titles of Kay’s for me to read or reread.

I would think ‘A Brightness Long Ago’ will delight his existing fans and hopefully attract new readers.

I'm a huge fan of Guy Gavriel Kay and was really happy when this ARC was approved.
I found this book amazing, full of layers and food for thought.
It's not the typical fantasy book, it's more an alternate history set in Renaissance Italy. Being Italian I started to try to match the book city and characters with the historical one and I recognized Florence, Federico da Montefeltro (Fosco, the part about the portrait is a clear giveaway) and Urbino.
The matching of the names with history made me appreciate how well researched this book.
As for the book I found it enthralling, full of complex and fleshed out characters, with a fascinating plot.
It's one of those book you start and, even if it is sometimes very slow paced, you're hooked and you start reading them as fast as you can.
I look forward to reading the next book by this author.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Master wordsmith Guy Gavriel Kay returns with an epic historical fantasy that is rich in detail with beautifully crafted characters and immense, immersive and intricate world-building. Undeniably readable with lyrical prose, which draws you into the story, this is a stunning, highly ambitious novel set in the Renaissance period in what is an alternative version of Italy named Batiara. Kay paints vivid pictures of time and place so much so that I felt like I had been transported back in time. It's no wonder this has been long-awaited as it is incredible in its complexity and I'm sure it was a real labour of love for Mr Kay. Crafted exceptionally well with every last detail placed perfectly within the story, this is a must-read for those who appreciate unique fiction.

Although this is described as fantasy the only aspect that differs from reality is the setting, and this hybrid works better than one would initially expect. He broaches some profound and thought-provoking topics throughout the course of the narrative, including our extremely chaotic contemporary existence, history, karma, fate as the fickle mistress she is and philosophical principles of power, perception, memory, the illusion of choice, responsibility, how individual decisions can make both an impact on said individual and the collective/society as a whole and the question of whether a person's path in life is predetermined and whether the individual really is in as much control of his life as he believes.

It is an often moving but always enthralling read which has left an indelible imprint on both my heart and my mind. Once again Kay asserts his dominance and rightly takes his place as the king of the historical fantasy genre. This is a masterclass in impeccable story craft. Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for an ARC.

https://lynns-books.com/2019/05/13/a-brightness-long-ago-by-guy-gavriel-kay/
This is the first book I’ve read by Guy Gavriel Kay but it certainly won’t be my last. I absolutely loved this. Well, in fairness, when I started out I didn’t think it would be my cup of tea, there are a lot of characters, events and places and much to take on board and I thought I was going to sag under the weight of it all – how very wrong I was. Pretty soon the characters and the intrigue had completely drawn me in and my initial thoughts that this would be a bit ‘heavy’ were brushed away by the excellent storytelling.

A Brightness Long Ago is an unusual story. Influenced by Renaissance Italy and even including a couple of real characters from that period who were long time enemies. Fundamentally this is one man’s recollections of a particularly tumultuous period of his life when he took part in and influenced events and at the same time fell in love.

How to pinpoint what I really liked about this. It’s difficult to narrow down. The writing is thoughtful and thought provoking. There are a number of characters that I just loved but more than that it seems to really capture the essence of a period in history that was passionate, tumultuous, chaotic and often violent. This was a time when life was cheap, when mercenaries were called to arms on an almost regular basis, and when feuds seemed to take on a life of their own.

The story is primarily told by Danio Cerra, a young man of promise who’s intelligence secured him a place at a prestigious school and led to a position working for a nobleman referred to as the ‘Beast’. While Danio’s first post was fairly short lived it brought him love and fear and shaped his future.

I won’t elaborate further on the plot. This isn’t a story of good vs evil, we don’t have a hero trying to save the world in fact this is more a series of events, not always connected but brought together by the people in focus and the way in which their lives cross and influence one another. The thing is, that probably sounds a little bit underwhelming and yet it really isn’t. This is very much a character driven novel and it works incredibly well.

Let’s look at some of the characters. Danio. A young man of intelligence who is given a good start in life, in spite of his fairly humble background, when he gains a place at a prestigious school. I liked Danio. It would be difficult not to like him. He’s young and inexperienced in ways, he certainly isn’t a warrior and is refreshingly honest about his own limitations in that respect, but he can think fast and improvise. The other characters are Adria, a young woman of noble birth who was definitely born in the wrong period – she’s wonderful, outspoken, fearless – she’s a great addition to be honest and probably my favourite character. Adria likes to ride and to fight, she enjoys danger in fact and is a great character to read about and her uncle Folco gives her the opportunity to serve him as spy and assassin giving her a level of freedom that she never expected. Folco is the lifelong enemy of Teobaldo. Both former military leaders, now Lords, their lives constantly teeter on the brink of violence and bloodshed as if there wasn’t already enough of this with the constant fear of invasion. The two of them are devoured by this rift – but their actions almost feel like a well choreographed dance at times, they come together and beat their chests, there’s something of a standoff, they part ways and then repeat a year later although it appears that the stakes are being raised. There are other characters that play key roles, notably a young woman who is a healer with a love of travel who also finds her life intersecting in memorable ways with the above and another young noble who is something of a dandy until a close brush with death teaches him to reevaluate.

The writing is excellent. I really can’t fault it. The characters were well rounded and the world was established step by step as the story unfolded. In fact, considering everything that’s going on here and the breadth of intrigue the author makes it feel deceptively easy to understand and is even more impressive when you consider that the timeline jumps back and forth. In fact, I must make mention of a horse race that takes place. An unusual race where a number of riders are randomly selected to represent different districts within the city. The race is an old tradition and rife with underhand tactics, scheming and danger. The rivalry is intense and the description of the race itself is absolutely gripping. I was on the edge of my seat. What trickery is this – how on earth did this horse race turn into something that had me glued to the page.

Anyway, I’ll leave it there. I heartily recommend A Brightness Long Ago. It’s an excellent read packed to the gills with interesting characters influenced by a period in history that was volatile and often full of drama. This is fairly low in terms of fantasy, there is mention of ghosts/spirits etc but no magic as such.

I enjoyed this so much that I raced to the end – and then felt bereft that it was all over. I had the urge to immediately go back to the beginning to see what I’d missed in my haste and also the desire to go and delve into the period of history that inspired this piece of work. Just to be sure and in case I’ve been too subtle in this review I thoroughly enjoyed this and look forward to reading more by Guy Gavriel Kay in fact I can now look forward to looking back at some of his previous books.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

I want to give you a quick reaction, which I put together a few minutes after finishing this book - hopefully that will convince you to give it your attention. If not, there's more below. But this was my first, unfiltered thoughts:

"This is numinous, illuminating work. Expectations high, expectations surpassed. Very emotional. Going to be thinking about it for a while."

Not convinced? OK. Let's get into it a little more:

A Brightness Long Ago is a fantasy novel from Guy Gavriel Kay. It’s also a remarkably hard novel to talk about. That’s to its credit; the reason it’s hard to talk about is that there’s so much going on, so many layers, so many personalities, so much story, that getting a handle on it to explain why it’s so great has proven a bit difficult. So, lets start with this: This is a fantastic book, which explores life, death, sacrifice, age, the role of chance in history, and the role of people in the world. And that’s only a narrow sampling.

This is a book with a lot to say. But it’s not just that, not just a pick-up-and-play philosophy text. It has characters whose lives feel as real as the reader’s own, whose loves and hatreds, dreams and duties, whose enmities and hopes all shape them, and the people around them. These are living, breathing people, with a rich inner life to match the political machinations and world events they find themselves entangled by. The world? The story’s set in the world of one of the parallel, almost-histories that Kay does so well, and I drew parallels with the renaissance Republic of Venice, which we’ve seen once before in another work of Kay’s.

So that’s the elevator pitch. Deep, complex, believable characterisation. Vividly realised, semi-historical setting. A story that draws you in and won’t let go, through all its tides of hope and torment. The narrative is about people, first – about the way their personalities, their ambitions their affections and enmities shape the world around them.

The world is classic Kay, in both senses. It feels like a lightly shifted version of Europe in the 1400’s, with a focus in a peninsula of warring city states with more than a passing similarity to Italy of that period. Regular Kay readers will have seen this world before – and even this small part of it, which was also heavily featured in his last novel, Children of Earth and Sky. New and old readers alike can delight in the lyrical prose, which builds a world up brick by brick, a world which feels instantly familiar, but with flashes of strangeness woven through it – a dream of sea-foam in the mortar. It’s a mark of Kay’s skill that every tree, every leaf, every stone, every wall feels alive, a luxuriant tapestry for his characters to run through. And while the detail is there, the wider aspect doesn’t suffer. There’s feuding cities, driven toward conflict by politics negotiated on a knife’s edge. There’s mercenary armies on the march, with all the destructive potential that implies. And there’s joys, as well – horses running their hearts out, and unexpected friendships found between cups of wine.
This is a sprawling epic, engaging with difficult questions about ethics and systemic and personal morality, while also getting up close and personal – be that romance, individual crises of conscience, duels or any other of the plethora of human experience. This is such a densely packed story, and throughout, is absolutely captivating.

I normally go on about the plot and the characters a little more – here, I wanted to give impressions of the breadth and scope of the work, of the way it made me feel, of the depth and emotional integrity of it because getting into the detail quickly got a bit spoilery.
Suffice to say, if you’ve picked up a Kay novel before, this is another masterclass in fantasy from him; smart, emotionally raw, incredibly well characterised, wrapped in some truly beautiful prose. If this is your first step into this world – it’s fantastic. That simple. Pick it up and you won’t want to put it back down. It’s an ambitious, compelling story whose ambitions are realised, and which it’s a genuine pleasure to read.

If you need to know whether it’s worth buying? Yes. Stop reading this, and go pick it up instead. You won’t regret it.

Shortly before reading A Brightness Long Ago, I was wondering whether something like Line of Duty could work as a book. Whether if, once removed from the soundtrack of awkward pauses, slight tonal inflections and shifting facial expressions, a story built on the slowest and most thorough accumulation of details can work. It is a foolish question; Line of Duty is Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for the modern age.



I mention this because while reading A Brightness Long Ago, I often considered the similarities between John le Carre and Guy Gavriel Kay, and that consideration started with their shared willingness to write as slowly as they like in the sure knowledge their fans are enraptured regardless.



Mind you, the main person Kay reminded me of is himself. It reminded me most of Tigana, both for the renaissance Italy inspired setting and the main overarching plot of ordinary people caught between the millstones of two enemies. But the nature of the rivalry reminded me more of The Lions of Al-Rassan; the sudden fierceness of love of The Last Light of the Sun.



The main character, Danio Cerra, does feel rather original though. The story chronicles his youth and early rise in the time of these two millstones, great mercenary captains seeking to secure their power in a land of greater powers. The story concentrates mainly on a few main key events and from there on, follows the unpredictable ripples of those events.



Some of it is told as a first person narrative by Danio; other parts are told in the third person from the perspective of the characters involved. Most parts are told in the past tense, a few in the present; most often the mercenary Folco and his niece Adria, but it is also used when recording the thoughts of the souls of the recently slain. This variety of approaches allows for a huge amount of nuance and shade to be brought to the said few main key events, which is something I believe Kay shares with Le Carre.



Of course, the origin of the recognition of things shared is the slowness. Kay quite deliberately puts the cart before the horse, relaying page after page of scene setting and back story before getting to the actual incident. The effect is to layer the plot with tension; both that of the slow build up and nervous questioning of when something terrible will happen, and that which comes with the empathy we build for people we spend so long with. I put this book down frequently, but often it was only for five or ten minutes to just let the ideas sit within me. Others will disagree, say that this book is too slow and too devoid of action. That will be a very fair criticism from those to whom it matters highly, but such is the skill that Kay works with, the majority of those who are willing to read slow books will not agree with it.



The biggest similarity though is the underlying theme of ordinary people changed and crushed by the powers that be, their own drive and desires, and sheer dumb luck. The angle of approach is somewhat different for in A Brightness Long Ago, the changes are positive more often than negative, and more about how one moment can stick with you forever and change who you are. Sometimes the changes are huge, forcing characters to notice the world how it really is and what power they have. Sometimes the changes are small, more a matter of the character's circumstances than their thoughts, although that too will change them. But there is something of Le Carre's exacting pressures and psychological maiming here too, although here the pressure comes from warfare and societal pressures. That pressure mostly affects the female characters, or men affected by the injustices inflicted on them; there is a quiet but clear feminist strand to this book.



It is very difficult to find anything negative about A Brightness Long Ago. The extremely unrushed quality of the story does at times go further than it should and leave me a little bored, but that never lasted long. In more or less every other facet - characterisation, storytelling, prose - it is excellent. At times it is sublime. Too many times for be to pick out a favourite. However, I do have one mild critique, and that is the final dramatic point is not the most satisfying and that after it, the story meanders around for a little more as it establishes the consequences. I suspect that, given how A Brightness Long Ago is a story of the power of the memories those formative moments of our youth, that is somewhat the point. The moments happen and Danio's memories become less clear. His life becomes less dramatic. And when that got me to consider how my brightest memories are increasingly long ago, I did feel very emotional. And is it right to criticise an ending that does that?



Some might be put off by the relatively minor use of supernatural elements compared to the rest of the genre. I hope not but it is possible. I sometimes think Kay's sparing usage is the reason he is not routinely mentioned as one of the genre's titans of today. Sometimes I think it is because of the literary nature of his writing compared to the action-adventure thrust of so much of fantasy. Maybe it is simply a perception brought on by the Atlantic. In any case, A Brightness Long Ago proves that Kay should be considered among the titans and that books built on the slowest and most thorough accumulation of details can work.



(An ARC for this book was provided by Hodder & Stoughton in an exchange for an honest review; I thank them for giving me this opportunity)

A Brightness Long Ago is a novel about unexpected events that change the course of one's life. Guidanio Cerra's meeting with Adria Ripoli in Mylasia (and I can never read this name without transposing it into Malaysia) alters the course of his life dramatically, with effects that ripple throughout the book. At each juncture, his choices--not always wise, not always safe--lead to even more unexpected events and meetings. What else can catapult a tailor's son from his small life in Seressa onto the political stage that involves the two most influential mercenary commanders in Batiara?

And there it is: A Brightness Long Ago also the story of a war of wills between those two commanders: Folco Cino d'Acorsi and Teobaldo Monticola. It's not so much the story of war itself, though war is the backdrop to everything in this book, but their battle of wills, their manoeuvring, the little decisions and plays that change the course of history. It's also a story of honour and faith--misplaced honour in some cases, and neglected faith--and very much a tale of personal choice and responsibility and how that ripples from the personal to the political and vice versa.

The narrative shifts between POVs and time: Danio's POV is in the first person, but third person narratives include POVs from Adria, Folco and Teobaldo. It involves memory, that fickle thing that always changes and fades with time; a breathtaking scope that is both focused on the short span of time from the Guidanio's first meeting with Adria to the fall of Sarantium and played out over the years from the first battle between Folco and Teobaldo.

It's apparently a prequel, but I read it without having read the other book, so it works fine as a standalone. If anything, it spurs you on to want to read that other one, Children of Earth and Sky, which I will eventually get to (when this TBR shrinks)!

I can't really define why it's not a 5-star book for me, like all the other books of Kay's have been. It broke my heart, it did, but it took a long time getting there and maybe it's too sprawling, maybe I need the background of the book that came before this but is set after it, maybe I've been too distracted over Eastercon. It feels like one of those books that you need to re-read to really get it. So I'll leave it at 4 stars, and if I ever have the time to read it again, we'll see if that changes.

This was the first time I read a Guy Gavriel Kay book and I have to say that I quite enjoyed it Even though this book is stated to be a fantasy, it's not entirely so. The only fantasy part which I found was the setting of this entire story was set in Batiara, a fantasy version of Italy in the early Renaissance. I loved the characters in the book especially: Guidanio Cerra, the son of a bookseller from Seressa, Adria Ripoli, the youngest daughter of the Duke Arimanno Ripoli, the Duke of Macera, also the woman at the center of the two most striking set-pieces in the novel, the powerful rival mercenaries, Folco Cino d'Acorsi and Teobaldo Monticola di Remigio, and the intriguing Jelena, the healer and also Antenami Sardi, the spoilt son of banker Piero Sardi, who starts to grow up and mature more as the book progresses amongst the others. The other characters, who are, what they can be called 'bit-part', are created brilliantly as well and each given a history and a proper background. Although I have to be honest that some parts of the book did confuse me a lot. Overall a very enjoyable book, one that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend. A big thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for giving me this book in exchange of my hones review.

An historical fantasy novel set in a parallel world that mirrors the warring fifteenth century Italian city states. This is the first book by Guy Gavriel Kay I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
There is a large cast of characters and the story is told through their different perspectives. The shifting view points and the movement between geographical locations takes some time to get used to but once mastered the story flows beautifully.
The main themes are the wheel of fortune and the process of story telling. Fate either takes its victims or is manipulated to see what comes up. It's a story about making choices and taking chances. The characters' stories weave in and out of each other. The narrative threads overlap and there is much recalling of past episodes. There is a self-referential section in the middle of the book in which stories are seen as important, not just the making of them but the way in which they are told.
A beautifully written story that makes me want to find out more about the real people in fifteenth century Italy. I shall definitely be reading more of Guy Gavriel Kay's books.

Extraordinarily profound, complex, lyrical and moving storytelling that deserves far more than the five stars I am able to award it. I have never read Guy Gavriel Kay before, so this was my first read, a historical fantasy, where the term fantasy is misleading because it is deployed to throw the most brightest and insightful of spotlights on the complexity of history and the chaotic reality of the contemporary world we live in. It mulls over the nature of power and memory, of how the future is shaped and turned by choices and decisions by repercussions that are unforseen, where the tiniest and the most apparently insignificant and minor person, and their interactions, play their part. The author gives us a multilayered story of what at first appear to be a disparate set of characters and their lives that emerge to give us shifting perspectives with an interlinked and overlapping web of connections, in this story of love, ambition, the rise and fall of influential characters, human impulses and fate.

This is set in Batiara, a version of Italy in the early Renaissance, evoked through a richly textured, subtle and delicate world building. The novel opens on a explosive note, Danio Cerra is now an old man, reflecting on his memories of his earlier youth in the most turbulent of times. Danio was a tailor's whose intelligence secured him entry to a school of privilege and mixing in circles that would ordinarily be out of reach for those of his social status, and which is to place him in a powerfully dangerous milieu. This leads him to the court of the Count, the beast, and his fateful encounter with the feisty and noble Adria Ripoli, on the verge of assassinating the beast. Adria challenges her role and expectations of her to live and do what she wants to do. He comes to find himself in close contact with Teobaldo Monticola and Folco Cino, intense rivals and mercenary commanders. Vibrant pictures of minor and fringe characters, such as that of Jelena, the healer, have their own unexpected importance.

Gabriel Gavriel Kay's epic and expert storytelling makes the kind of impact that left me admiring his considerable talents as a writer. He is astute and remarkable, compassionate in his humanity in capturing an era and a place, with insights that can be applied to our world today. He spins a thought provoking tale that is more than the sum of its parts, creating an enthralling, compelling and charismatic set of characters, the important, yes, but the greater focus on the more marginal people, that cannot fail to capture the reader's interest. This made for an indelible, exhilarating and memorable reading experience which I recommend highly to those looking for something different with depth. Many thanks to Hodder and Stoughton for an ARC.

It’s been a long time since I read a book by Guy Gavriel Kay and it was worth the wait, this is story rich in notable characters and depth of story, it transfixed and transported me to the renaissance period, a colourful and engaging book that satiates and fulfills, just my opinion but why don’t you find out for yourself and go ahead and read it

This is the latest of Guy Gavriel Kay's historical fantasy novels set in his slightly alternative Europe. It shares the same not quite Venice and other Italian city states as his previous book, Children Of Earth And Sky, and actually slyly leads directly into that book if you're paying attention. You don't need to have read the others, but there'll be a few nice touches like this you'll miss out on if you haven't. There's no overarching plot as such, more a study of several characters as they orbit each other around a series of set pieces. One of his favourite motifs is the mosaic, and that's how this book works - something going on here, then something else over there, all combining to form one overall picture. It's exquisitely written, as you'd expect from Kay, and never less than completely believable or evocative, with some wonderful characterisation. I've long held that GGK is the best contemporary fantasy writer, and while this is perhaps not quite up there with The Lions of Al-Rassan or the Sarantium books, it's still head and shoulders above pretty much every other fantasy novel that'll be published this year.