Where I Have No Notes

Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this whole book, page by page, character by character, event by event. I have no notes.

Sometimes people will give a book 6 out of the possible 5, and I usually think this is silly (except for when talking about dogs, who often deserve their 15/10--because they're good dogs, Bront) but I find I want to break the rules here for this novel. I have loved so many 5-star novels that I don't remember enjoying as much or feeling so much while I read them.

I often name Kay's Tigana and Under Heaven and Lions of Al-Rassan among my favorite books of all time, so I knew I'd like this. I connected with this novel even more.

Like most of his novels, this is set in a fictional earth, one that is often very much like ours, with a geography and history that parallels our own but contains magic and other fantasy touches, and there are echoes here of characters and events out of his earlier books, little easter eggs here and there, though I suspect I missed a few because it's been awhile since I read some of them. But now we're up to the period of time when Sarantium--this world's Constantinople--has fallen to the empire from the east (and been renamed Asharias), and nations like Seressa (our Venice) and other "European" powers large and small are doing their best to survive that empire's steady expansion. Our main characters all meet up one spring and summer on travels toward Asharias (or on other business), and they all change the course of events and each others' lives in significant ways.

So many characters to love: the young woman taken from a monastery to be a spy; the journeyman painter who falls in love with her; the young woman, once a refugee but now a raider and avenger who misses the brother stolen from their home by the Asharites as a small boy; the wealthy, noble trader trying to survive in a modest merchant town that is squeezed between large neighbors; the stolen child, now a warrior in the Asharite army, who hardly remembers who he had once been; and a bunch more.

Kay doesn't just plot their stories well or write beautiful prose--he does that--but he also makes each one of these memorable, unique, distinct, almost real, from their entrance to the end of the book. I never found myself saying, "wait, which one was he?" the way I almost always do in books. I knew them and understood what they were doing and why. I can't tell you exactly how he made that happen, but I can tell you that it was by craft, not by accident.

For me, the most salient feature of this book and, honestly, any book by this author--brought about by the perception of time passing, lives moving by, great events falling into the past, the world inexorably changing--is the deep feeling of nostalgia that it evokes. So many lines and so many scenes give me that sensation, almost as if I'm remembering these things from long ago, things I have almost forgotten, and he's bringing them back to mind so that we can sit with that bittersweet awareness for a time, bringing the long-dead back to life for just a while. It's an amazing feat, and it's done with honest emotions, nothing cheap or tricky. But it also makes me put my books down for a little bit, because it's hard to start something else...

Not everything here works out--it's not that kind of novel--but all the stories are buttoned up by the end, and even the sad bits are somehow beautiful. (That is not how I usually feel.) Still, overall, the various stories trend toward happiness. Even though it's laced with the recognition that everything ends, including cities and empires and friendships and the lives of those we love, the feeling is nevertheless positive, optimistic and hopeful. There's a great deal of patient love blazing in these stories, in these characters, and it makes them feel larger than life, legendary--and that crowds out, for me, the worst of the darkness.

So--I loved it. Beautiful. With wonderful language, excellent pacing and plotting, and profoundly moving storytelling, it's the best thing I've read in a long time, and I'd struggle to name anything that exceeds it.

Very highly recommended.

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