“Better than Under Heaven”

I am on record for not liking Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay’s first outing into medieval China. For that reason, it took me longer than usual to pick up River of Stars, which uses the same setting, albeit a few hundred years later. I shouldn’t have hesitated: River of Stars is a fine novel, carefully structured and hitting just the right emotional pitch in the last portions to keep me reading well past midnight.

An odd swing in taste, since stylistically River of Stars has many elements in...