Previous SFF Author: Amie Kaufman
(1954- )
Guy Gavriel Kay is a lawyer who helped edit some of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works in the 1970s. Many of GGK’s novels could be classified as historical fantasy. You can read excerpts of Guy Gavriel Kay’s award-winning fantasy at his website.
In case you haven’t noticed, we’re fans of Guy Gavriel Kay, and Rob and Stefan recently reported that Mr. Kay’s newest novel, Under Heaven, which releases today, is definitely up to par. (Comment below for your chance to win a copy.) While striving to suppress his enthusiasm about speaking with his favorite fantasy author, Rob was recently able to chat coherently with GGK about his newest work
Robert Rhodes: As with your previous books, I greatly enjoyed and admired Under Heaven.
I’m happy to temporarily come out of FanLit retirement to spend some time with my favorite author, Guy Gavriel Kay. Kay’s newest novel, River of Stars, was released today and it’s as wonderful as I’d hoped (here’s my review). Bill and Kelly loved it, too. Trust us: you don’t want to miss River of Stars!
We’re giving away a copy of River of Stars to one random commenter with a U.S.A. address.
Robert Rhodes: I have in hand a beautiful edition of your new novel,
The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay
I absolutely loved everything about Guy Gavriel Kay’s stand-alone novels Tigana and A Song for Arbonne, so it was with great excitement that I downloaded the newly released audio version of The Summer Tree, the first novel in his famous THE FIONAVAR TAPESTRY.
In The Summer Tree we meet Loren Silvercloak, a wizard who has traveled from the world of Fionavar to Toronto to fetch five university students (three guys and two girls) who are needed to help fight an ancient evil force that has been bound under a mountain for centuries.
Kat Hooper and Katie Burton | Guy Gavriel Kay | Audio | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
The Wandering Fire by Guy Gavriel Kay
It’s been 1½ years since I read The Summer Tree, Guy Gavriel Kay’s first novel and the first in his Fionavar Tapestry. I mentioned in the review for that book that I’m an adoring fan of Kay’s later stand-alone novels but that I found The Summer Tree derivative and heavy. I would have happily skipped its sequel, The Wandering Fire, but I had already purchased it at Audible,
Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
It is difficult to summarize the plot, for so much of the story unfolds organically — indeed, as a near-perfect tainflower — that one fears to spoil the pleasure of becoming swept up in the narrative. That said, the tale concerns the Palm, a mythic penninsula reminiscent of Italy, a land divided between two wizard-conquerors. One conqueror has utterly blighted the province of Lower Corte with an undreamt-of dark magic. (Take a fresh look at the map of the Palm mid-way through,
Rob Rhodes and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4, 4.5 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay
In this homage to the troubadours and the “court of love” of medieval France, Guy Gavriel Kay comes down from the dizzying heights of The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy and creates a beautiful and memorable tale of mere mortals ensnared by political intrigue, enmity and love. (GGK does allude to Fionavar quite nicely, however, in a brief lullaby.)
While the plot is perhaps too complex for adequate summary here, it’s certainly not too complex for your reading pleasure.
Rob Rhodes and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4, 4.5 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Last Light of the Sun is another of Guy Gavriel Kay’s lovely historical fantasies. This one blends Norse, Celtic, and Anglo-Saxon histories with a bit of faerie mythos. We follow a few main characters from each of these societies as they interact with each other to shape their land and destinies. As usual in a Guy Gavriel Kay novel, we see the struggles from each perspective, so there’s no single “hero” or “villain.” We understand what motivates each of the characters and their culture and we can admire their strengths and recognize their weaknesses.
Kat Hooper and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4, 5 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
In the turbulent region that used to be the stable empire of Al-Rassan, petty kings vie for power. Each of these rulers is ambitions and clever, but none of them has been able to acquire his position without the help of others — crafty advisors, brave army commanders, brilliantly inventive doctors, devoted wives and children — and sometimes the same people who have served them well are the same ones who may later cause their downfall.
The Lions of Al-Rassan is the story of a few of these people,
Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay
The new emperor in Sarantium has a lot to atone for, so he’s building a grand chapel to his god and calling the most famous artisans in the surrounding regions to come work for him. Crispin, a mosaicist from a neighboring country, is one of these. Unhappy since his wife and children died, Crispin doesn’t think he has much to live for anymore, and he doesn’t want to go to Sarantium. But when his young queen, who sits her throne precariously, asks Crispin to carry a secret proposal to the already-married emperor of Sarantium,
Kat Hooper and Skye Walker´s rating: 3, 4 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Audio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay
Lord of Emperors is the second (and final) novel in Guy Gavriel Kay’s THE SARANTINE MOSAIC duology. The story, set in a pseudo-Byzantine Empire, mostly centers on Crispin, a mosaicist from a neighboring kingdom who’s been commissioned to decorate the ceiling of a new chapel the emperor is building. Against his wishes, Crispin has been drawn into the Sarantine court’s political intrigue. In this second installment, the political turmoil finally comes to a head and Crispin’s life is, once again,
Kat Hooper and Kevin Wei´s rating: 3, 4 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Audio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
What can I say about this book? If I see a new Guy Gavriel Kay book on the shelf at the bookstore, I buy it. It didn’t work out this time, though, and the reason is that the way this story is told makes no sense to me as a reader, and I cannot fathom why Kay wrote this book from the perspective of a teenager.
The story is about a fifteen year-old boy from Canada who accompanies his father, a world-renowned photographer,
Guest´s rating: 2.5 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Stand-Alone, World Fantasy Award | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
Under Heaven is the long-awaited new novel by master fantasist Guy Gavriel Kay — and let’s get the most important news out of the way: it was 100% worth the wait.
Fans of Guy Gavriel Kay know that his novels often take place in what appear to be fantasy versions of real countries: A Song for Arbonne is set in 13th century France, The Lions of Al-Rassan in Spain during the Moorish occupation,
Stefan Raets, Rob Rhodes and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4.5, 5 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 10 comments |
River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay
Since this is a fantasy review site, let’s get this out nice and early. Outside of its setting — a fictionalized and truncated version of China’ s 11th century Northern Song Dynasty — there is next to no fantasy in River of Stars, Guy Gavriel Kay’s newest work. A few ghosts, an occasional fox-woman, and that’s it. So fantasy readers will have to take those few bones tossed their way and then settle for graceful, lyrical prose, beautifully drawn characters,
Bill Capossere and Rob Rhodes´s rating: 5 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay
A new Guy Gavriel Kay novel is cause for great celebration and anticipation in our household, as he has authored some of our most beloved novels over the decades (by “our” I mean my wife, my fifteen-year-old son, and myself). A consummate storyteller and stylist (the two don’t always go hand in hand), his long-term consistency is remarkable, and his newest work, Children of Earth and Sky, finds him still at the top of his form.
One way to describe a Guy Gavriel Kay novel is that it’s a bit like peering at history as it unfolds at the bottom of a pool of water (think of the water as Kay’s artistic imagination) — you mostly recognize what you’re looking at,
Bill Capossere and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 5 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay
I confess that I always dread just a little bit reviewing a new Guy Gavriel Kay novel. Not because I’m concerned it won’t be any good; Kay writing a bad book would have to be on anyone’s list of Impending Signs of the Apocalypse. But because what makes his books not just good but stand-out good is so damn ineffable.
Granted, not solely so. I can easily toss off a host of tangible, well-crafted elements, all the usual suspects: fascinatingly rich characters,
Bill Capossere and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 5 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay
As I write this, it’s early spring in Rochester, and those who live in the Northeast know what that means. Cold. Clouds. Wind. The false promise of warmth. The precipitation that no longer falls in feet and inches but instead has become a more annoying (and far less pretty) alternation of rain and sleet and hail that you know has to stop soon, will stop soon, but still Just. Keeps. On. Happening. Bleak, yes. But then here it is: a new Guy Gavriel Kay book arriving like an early harbinger of spring — a shaft of sun through the cloud cover,
Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Guy Gavriel Kay | SFF Reviews | 12 comments |
Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay
In Written on the Dark (2025), Guy Gavriel Kay returns to his “quarter-turn from our own” world, here shifting time and place to a late-medieval “France” (Ferrieres in Kay’s universe) ruled by a “mad king.” When the king’s brother is killed by the powerful Duke of Barratin and left on the streets of Orane (think Paris), tavern poet Thierry Villar finds himself embroiled in the politics and intrigue of a world he’d never imagined himself part of, as Ferrieres tries to avoid civil war while also attempting to fend off an exterior invasion by the king of the island nation across the channel [some spoilers to follow in this review;
Bill Capossere and Rob Rhodes´s rating: 5 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Previous SFF Author: Amie Kaufman
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.
COMMENT Was I hinting that? I wasn't aware of it. But now that you mention it.... 🤔
So it sounds like you're hinting Fox may have had three or so different incomplete stories that he stitched together,…