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A Brightness Long Ago

Guy Gavriel Kay (Goodreads Author)

4.16 · Rating details · 4,501 ratings · 711 reviews

International bestselling author Guy Gavriel Kay's latest work is set in a world evoking early Renaissance Italy and offers an extraordinary cast of characters whose lives come together through destiny, love, and ambition.

In a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a maritime city, a man looks back on his youth and the people who shaped his life. Danio Cerra's int ...more

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Hardcover, 423 pages

Published May 14th 2019 by Berkley Books

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May 17, 2019 chai ♡ rated it really liked it

Shelves: adult, adult-historical, adult-sff, fiction, read-in-2019, lgbtq-rep, 2019-releases, lgbtq-ff

It felt unsettlingly disorienting to turn the last page of this book and be back in the noisy, bustling world. I struggled from the webbing of the story, and a deep melancholy that would not lift for many days begun to settle around me. Each word I tried to put down was one word further from what I meant to say. There was, in me, such a simmer of emotions; and I was tempted to read the book again, to go back and relive those moments, open them up and stretch them out full length to see what it w ...more

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Apr 09, 2019 Robin Hobb rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: readers of fantasy, readers of historical novels, people who love Kay's writing.

This will be longer than my usual review because I have a lot to say. And I will attempt not to do spoilers.

First of all, this book comes out in May. I received a free advance copy. I don't think that affects my review. I virtually know Guy Gavriel Kay and hope to someday play cribbage with him.

So, to start with, in the intro in the ARC, Kay observes that our brightest and most lasting memories are usually from our late teens and early twenties. Which sent me to research that right away. If you This will be longer than my usual review because I have a lot to say. And I will attempt not to do spoilers.

First of all, this book comes out in May. I received a free advance copy. I don't think that affects my review. I virtually know Guy Gavriel Kay and hope to someday play cribbage with him.

So, to start with, in the intro in the ARC, Kay observes that our brightest and most lasting memories are usually from our late teens and early twenties. Which sent me to research that right away. If you know my books, you know I have a fascination with memory, and with information stored in our brains and yes, in our blood. So the articles on memory that I read supported what Kay said, and I plunged enthusiastically into the story.

Fantasy is a genre that is a huge umbrella. In my opinion, fantasy is the umbrella that covers all fiction. In this case, this fantasy is set in a world somewhat like Italy, with characters somewhat like historical persons in a time rather like the Renaissance. If you love those times, it will add to your enjoyment of the book. If you knowledge of that place and time is limited or non-existent, don't worry. It doesn't matter.

This is a book about people. The fantasy element is a subtle flavoring, as in a delightful cake where you can't quite identify what you are tasting, but you enjoy it. Some of the people you will meet may seem trivial to the plot. "Why are you telling us about this shoemaker?"

Because Kay knows that, at heart, we are all little people in the greater story we live in. Even the most puffed up and important of us will be a tiny note in history, a few hundred years from now. Yet each of us (as my Fool would remind us all) changes the world every day. So it is with these characters. Painted vividly, these characters are each the main characters in their own stories. Each of them diverts the sequence of events into a slightly different track. Chance encounters become fate.

Of these characters, Guidanio is arguably the most important. He is our guide to that brightness long ago, although he is not always the speaker in the tale. Like the bits of glass in a kaleidoscope, each character shakes the tube, and we see the brightness shine through their opinion of what really happened. Events turn and spin as we regard them from multiple angles.

And finally, my favorite pages in the ARC are 240-243. I don't know if the pages will have the same numbering in the final hardback, but I suspect most of you will know what I loved when you encounter it.

If you've been reading Guy Gavriel Kay for years, then this book will bring an added richness to that experience. IF this if your first book by Kay, don't hesitate to dive into the tale at this point. You will not feel confused nor excluded from the larger story lines that others will see. ...more

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Apr 13, 2019 Paromjit rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, historical-fiction, netgalley, literary-fiction

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 s 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 son 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. ...more

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Apr 24, 2019 Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, italy, fantasy, netgalley

Amazing book! This is really an excellent historical novel, with just a trace of fantasy. If you haven't read one of GGK's recent novels, you owe it to yourself to give him a try. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:

Guy Gavriel Kay writes magical books. Not magic in the sense of mighty wizards and spellcasting with unicorn-hair wands and cauldrons bubbling with potions best not tasted. The magic in Kay’s novels is a more elusive thing. He takes a plot and cast of characters, ones that woul Amazing book! This is really an excellent historical novel, with just a trace of fantasy. If you haven't read one of GGK's recent novels, you owe it to yourself to give him a try. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:

Guy Gavriel Kay writes magical books. Not magic in the sense of mighty wizards and spellcasting with unicorn-hair wands and cauldrons bubbling with potions best not tasted. The magic in Kay’s novels is a more elusive thing. He takes a plot and cast of characters, ones that would be interesting enough even in the hands of lesser authors, and turns them into something extraordinary through his lyrical and profoundly thoughtful storytelling, his insights into human character and motivations, and his musings on life and its meaning.

We like to believe, or pretend, we know what we are doing in our lives. It can be a lie. Winds blow, waves carry us, rain drenches a man caught in the open at night, lightning shatters the sky and sometimes his heart, thunder crashes into him bringing the awareness he will die.

We stand up, as best we can under that. We move forward as best we can, hoping for light, kindness, mercy, for ourselves and those we love.

A Brightness Long Ago, like most of his recent novels, is what Kay aptly describes as “history with a quarter turn to the fantastic.” It’s a prequel of sorts (though a stand-alone read) to his equally excellent 2016 novel Children of Earth and Sky, set some twenty-five years before the events of that novel, in a slightly fantastical version of Renaissance Italy, here called Batiara. (I spent more time than I should have, researching to figure out the real-life counterparts of all the cities and historical characters that play a role in this story. Seressa is Venice, Rome is Rhodias, Sarantium is Constantinople, and so forth.) Inspired by the feud between historical figures Federico da Montefeltro and Sigismondo Malatesta, two great military leaders, Kay tells of the clashes ― both military and personal ― between Folco Cino, lord of Acorsi, and Teobaldo Monticola, lord of Remigio. Their lives, and that of Folco’s niece Adria, a rebellious duke’s daughter, are seen through the eyes of Guidanio (Danio) Cerra, the son of a tailor.

Danio, who narrates most of the tale as the reminiscing of an older man, is chosen to receive an education with the children of nobility because of his intelligence and quickness, raising him far above his humble beginnings. After finishing his schooling he obtains a position in the palace of Count Uberto, known as “the Beast” for his violent and even murderous sexual proclivities.

There were stories of youthful bodies carried out through the smaller palace gates in the dark, dead and marred. And good men still served him ― making their peace with our god as best they could.

Balancing acts of the soul. Acquiescence happens more than its opposite ― a rising up in anger and rejection. There are wolves in the world, inside elegant palaces as well as in the dark woods and the wild.

But Falco (admittedly for his own self-serving reasons) and his niece Adria have concocted a scheme to bring Uberto down. They set Adria up in a farmhouse outside of the city and eventually, almost inevitably, word of the attractive farm girl comes to Uberto and she is summoned to his palace. When Danio sees Adria being brought to Uberto’s suite of rooms and recognizes her as the duke’s daughter who once visited his school, that recognition could be deadly to either Danio or Adria. Or it might prove of immeasurable benefit to both of them.

A Brightness Long Ago follows Danio and Adria, Folco and Teobaldo, and others through the next year or two, as their lives touch and separate and then interweave again. Adria is a particularly bright spark, a spirited and courageous young woman who is doing her best to live a life outside of the normal restrictions on noblewomen, though she knows the freedom she’s found can only be for a limited time. Doors of opportunity open and then close. Her participation in a particularly unusual horse race in Bischio is a high point in the story, where multi-layered plans and schemes of various characters collide in a truly spectacular way.

In his narration, Danio frequently comments on “the random spinning of fortune’s wheel” and how chance occurrences can affect the entire direction of our lives. Our lives aren’t always in our control. But he realizes that personal choices have an equal impact on the path of our lives.

Fortune’s wheel might spin, but you could also choose to spin it, see how it turned, where it took you, and she was still young, and this was the life she wanted.

Kay weaves a pleasurably complex tale with a large cast of characters, but these characters are so vividly drawn and memorable that I never got confused. Kay’s storytelling evinces understanding and sympathy for even deeply flawed characters, even those who served the Beast and were aware of the terrible things he did to innocent youths.

I think, it is the best thought I have, that he was devoted to the idea of being loyal, in a world with little of that. That a man needed to drop an anchor somewhere, declare a truth, find a harbour… Perhaps in the darkest times all we can do is refuse to be part of the darkness.

In his later years, Danio recalls the unforgettable characters from this time in his youth, who still shine as bright torches in his memory. Their brightness will linger in mine as well.

I received a free copy of this novel for review from the publisher through NetGalley. Thank you so much!

Content notes: A few scattered F-bombs; a mildly explicit sex scene; attempted sexual assault. ...more

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Jun 03, 2019 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing

This is my first time reading Guy Gavriel Kay. I learned a little about GGK, when I was in Canada. The employees at Pages book store in Calgary all raved about his books. Kay was speaking at the new Public Library in Calgary- a night I missed due to being sick - ( which I later learned was a sold out event anyway).... but I purchased this book - taking a chance - basically not knowing what the heck I was about to read other than the inspiring encouragement from Mike —- ( smiling face Mike), and This is my first time reading Guy Gavriel Kay. I learned a little about GGK, when I was in Canada. The employees at Pages book store in Calgary all raved about his books. Kay was speaking at the new Public Library in Calgary- a night I missed due to being sick - ( which I later learned was a sold out event anyway).... but I purchased this book - taking a chance - basically not knowing what the heck I was about to read other than the inspiring encouragement from Mike —- ( smiling face Mike), and reviews from Paromjit and Tadiana.

I honestly have NEVER read a book like this...and I’ll never do justice in this review - NEVER...but wow....this book - (hard to pigeonhole and contextualize all that it is)....
grabbed me by my shirt - excited and horrified me at the same time. I was so ‘not’ confident of what I was reading - I had to read parts of the beginning twice to make sure I wasn’t making shit up myself. I wasn’t. But shit was happening fast!
Not a moment wasted....
I lost hours of sleep - transported in this fantasy world ( Batiara/ Renaissance Italy), with ongoing turbulence uproar.

My friend Angela says.....”sometimes books are all about the writing”.....
Well....the writing of this epic fantasy historical fiction is gorgeous!!!! Much to reflect on - and be in ‘aw’.

This book is adventurous- emotional on every human level - reflective - powerful - tragic - political - violent- romantic- with many characters- but a few of the key characters really stand out.

Right away I felt ‘attached-at-the-hip’ - with Adria ( daughter of Duke Ripoli in Macera)....so much so I missed her when she wasn’t in scenes.
The other female I loved was a healer named Jelena.

The main character Guidano Cerra is well educated - a tailors son - we follow his life through his distinguished school - to a job he takes in the court of a duke - known as The Beast.
We also meet Danio Cerra.....evil and holy....he is looking back on his youth.

The storytelling is non-stop and complex - so beautiful with much admiration for the author’s accomplishments.

Filled with boundless imaginative energy!!! ...more

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May 23, 2020 Spencer Orey rated it really liked it

This is only my second Guy Gavriel Kay book, and apparently I haven't read the excellent ones yet. This one seems to intentionally be more about the intricate impact of minor characters on the Italian Renaissance-ish setting rather than a standard story. It's a mixed bag! Some scenes are real page turners, while some stretches get a bit repetitive. I did really like the city-states and their seasonal wars for territory and taxes, using mercenaries and superstar commanders. And the little slices ...more

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May 14, 2019 Celeste rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, historical

I received this book electronically via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

You can find this review and more at Novel Notions.

“I knew, once, a woman diamond bright and two men I will not forget. I played a part in a story in a fierce, wild, windblown time. I do have that. I always will. I am here and it is mine, for as near to always as we are allowed.”

This is only the second book I’ve read from Guy Gavriel Kay, but I feel secure in stating that I’ve never come across another author wh I received this book electronically via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

You can find this review and more at Novel Notions.

“I knew, once, a woman diamond bright and two men I will not forget. I played a part in a story in a fierce, wild, windblown time. I do have that. I always will. I am here and it is mine, for as near to always as we are allowed.”

This is only the second book I’ve read from Guy Gavriel Kay, but I feel secure in stating that I’ve never come across another author who has his way with words. There’s something about his prose that is both breathtakingly lovely and oddly jarring. In A Brightness Long Ago, Kay paints with his words, writing something that is lush and poignant and real enough to touch. This novel is somewhere between historical fiction and low fantasy, and Kay straddles that divide with great finesse.

“Perhaps it is true of every life, that times from our youth remain with us, even when the people are gone, even if many, many events have played out between where we are and what we are remembering.”

Danio is one of the lucky youths who, despite low birth, are chosen to attend a school with noble children. Because of this education and a compelling personality, Danio finds himself in the midst of history in the making throughout his life, whether in the form of being present during an assassination or witnessing a horse race that will live on in legend or standing on the sidelines as mighty men made war or truces. His was an oddly calming, graceful presence among larger-than-life personalities. There was this graceful poise and sense of honor to his character that I found incredibly compelling.

“Life, the way events actually unfold, is not as precise or as elegantly devised as a storyteller can make it seem. There are moments that find us, like some stray dog on a country road, and they may not carry significance, only truth: that they happened, and we remember them.”

While Danio was the only first person perspective character, we did have other perspective characters. A pagan healer, a wealthy second son with no head for politics, an important daughter who wants nothing more than to escape the life that is expected of her and live life to the very fullest, a mistress yearning for legitimacy. There are others, as well, but these are the lives that most often intertwine themselves with Danio and the two powerful men who seem to dominate this part of the world. All of the characters were multifaceted and interesting, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them grow and change over the course of the novel. The one thing each character seemed to have in common was a preoccupation with sex, but from what I gather that is a common theme in Kay’s work.

“Shelter can be hard to find. A place can become our home for reasons we do not understand. We build memories that turn into what we are, then what we were, as we look back. We live in the light that comes to us.”

The setting for this book is very heavily inspired by Italy, as is apparent by the names of people and places given. The land is made up of city-states who often find themselves at war with one another. So often, in fact, that springtime has become synonymous with war. I’ve read very little set in Italy outside of Romeo and Juliet, so I found the setting very thought-provoking. There was a horse race, briefly mentioned above, that was one of the most amazing sequences I’ve read. I could see and hear and smell absolutely everything, as if I had fallen into the pages and landed in the scene itself. I believe this race with stay with me for some time, which was unexpected.

“We live, it might be said, in unstable times. Dramatic, interesting, magnificent in ways. But not stable. You would never say that.”

There are two reasons that this book didn’t receive a perfect rating from me, and they’re both incredibly subjective. First, the central themes of the story were war, romance, and politics. Two out of these three themes are topics that I often find myself lost in, unable to focus on the intricate political movements and patterns of war. While these are areas I can read past, I have a difficult time enjoying a story that is made up in such large part by these components. Second, I believe that I would have enjoyed this story even more and connected with it on a deeper level if I had read Kay’s Sarantine Mosiac. I won’t explain why, but I’m positive that there are plot points that would have brought me to tears if I had already developed a bond with Sarantium.

“Perhaps in the darkest times all we can do is refuse to be part of the darkness.”

Once again, Kay crafted something incredibly beautiful with this story. While it might not be an immediate favorite, it definitely enticed me into trying more of Kay’s work, and soon. Tigana remains my favorite book my Kay, and among my favorite fantasy novels period, but I now believe that Tigana won’t be the only of his works that I will come to love and cherish. If you want to be transported, and see how the world can be impacted by one life, this is a beautiful novel to try. ...more

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Jan 25, 2019 Kelly rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, fantasy-and-scifi, its-the-quiet-ones, owned, grand-opera

To be honest, I had a lot of trouble slipping away into the world of this one. It took far far longer for the usual Kay incantation to take effect, mostly because it took far, far longer for him to start chanting it. As he’s grown older, Kay has developed an insistence on showing the teller’s hand that I don’t particularly care for or agree with. He wants us to be aware of him there, all the time, and gets more insistent on it as time goes by-he’s gone beyond insisting on the importance of the i To be honest, I had a lot of trouble slipping away into the world of this one. It took far far longer for the usual Kay incantation to take effect, mostly because it took far, far longer for him to start chanting it. As he’s grown older, Kay has developed an insistence on showing the teller’s hand that I don’t particularly care for or agree with. He wants us to be aware of him there, all the time, and gets more insistent on it as time goes by-he’s gone beyond insisting on the importance of the individual humanity and everyday reality of the great heroes and legends he’s retelling. Now, while that is still there, it isn’t enough for him. He seems to be desperately intent on focusing our attention on the chanciness of fate and the choices of storytelling.That was always an element of his books- and a powerful one when well deployed in some of them (Arbonne and Tigana both come to mind)- but he’s obsessed with it now, and frankly it’s getting in the way. It’s boring, repetitive and unimpressive. This sort of thing made the latter part of Under Heaven and most of River of Stars pretty unreadable for me. He pulled way back in the last one, but now we’re back on this horse again and I nearly threw up my hands and gave up when I figured that out. I don’t know why he’s doing this: whether he’s too tired to make magic with the faith or energy he once did or feels like he needs to be the one to give us this message he’s learned and feels it urgently enough to push other concerns aside- I don’t know. I don’t know how to be clearer about this but he is not good at direct lecturing (those italicized bits, ugh) and should stop doing it.

But. But. He’s too good for there not to be a but. When he stopped being concerned about structure and being too good to do what he’s good at doing- he still had it. His Carnival sequence, when we finally got there, was wonderful- as they always are. Kay loves Carnival, the delicious interruption to the wheel and rules of the year, the possibilities of it- there’s always a Carnival in his best ones. And he let himself write one and it was fantastic (he undercut it right after with the worst of those dreadful italic interludes though but c’est la vie). He also still writes some of the only action sequences I care to read, as well. I skip through battle scenes in almost every book but his because they’re about character choices and suspense and really do turn on a knife’s edge when he gets going. Again- he let himself do something he’s good at and it sang again. Shocking! But there’s more here than the best of his old tricks. He made a surprising choice with a the fate of the major female character- something he hasn’t done in awhile for me- and I was quite moved by it. He wrote a successful Catriana- a better one. A more measured one. I respected that. I liked that the book focused on a minor character who stayed that relatively that way- not a hero to be discovered to save us all. This is at most a medium-stakes story told by a low level functionary and bystander. I don’t see a lot of those written in the high octane genre of high fantasy and I thought it was a strong choice that made some of his points better than any direct lecture would. I wish he had trusted that. I also liked that although sometimes he took it to almost an absurdist extreme here that affected the pacing, he was still concerned, as he has always been, with etching out the 3D humanity of other minor characters as well. And telling it in the voice of a secondary character gave us a real reason for him to remember to do that, to a fault. He also did a good job with bringing the story full circle by the end back to the tone of where he started. The final unspooling of the thread was realistic, quietly compelling, and sounded like exactly what it was meant to be- a man lost in powerful memories- older, but not old enough that he can’t still feel what it was like to be inside them. And we get good, interesting reasons why he won’t want to let any part of it go.

I will say this, also. I currently do not like how he is trying to make his structural points, as I said. I still think he’s better at adding depth to the magic than he is at deconstructing it. But...this was a better attempt at it than either of the China books or Ysabel. And it’s clearly what he’s interested in writing on. So if this is where he’s going regardless, I’d certainly encourage him in this direction- in the direction of that last chapter, in the direction of choosing this smaller story, in the direction of recollections and memory and trying to live in spite of it. I think there’s a way to remix these ingredients, take some out and make it work. And I do admire evolving. This is closer to where it needs to be. But it’s not there yet. I’d like to vanish inside one of his worlds completely one more time, though. I miss it. So I hope he gets there. ...more

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Aug 12, 2019 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, 2019-shelf

To be perfectly candid, I wasn't a huge fan of Kay's earlier work and I left off reading anything else by him, thinking I already got his measure. Two books in an early trilogy. They were pretty good but it left a not-so-pleasant taste in my mouth.

So why did I come back? Give him another try?

I can't really say. I don't know. I just remembered how lyrical his prose was in places and thought, perhaps, he had grown into an even better writer since then. That maybe I judged him a bit too harshly. M ...more

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Feb 13, 2019 Nicholas Eames rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A BRIGHTNESS LONG AGO is, like all of Kay’s work, exquisitely crafted and deeply moving. By turns beautiful and bittersweet, it tells the story of small people caught in the current of world-shattering events, and of the ripples they make that are sometimes—but not always—lost in the flow of history. His most compelling characters are those found lingering near the frame of a famous portrait, or rendered, almost as an afterthought, in glass and stone. Guy Gavriel Kay has written a masterpiece, y ...more

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Jul 04, 2019 Violet wells rated it liked it

My first experience of fantasy historical fiction. (Though arguably you could say all historical fiction is fantasy.) The author states this book was inspired by his reading about the feud between the Montefeltro and Malatesta families in fifteenth century Italy. And this is the world he recreates which he achieves in an authentic though superficial way. Thus Rimini becomes Remigio, Florence becomes Firenta, Venice Seressa and so on.
There's a very good depiction of Siena's Palio.
This novel ha ...more

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May 07, 2019 Sherwood Smith added it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, alt-history

Guy Gavriel Kay’s new book is set twenty-five years before his previous. Instead of a sprawling epic, the story paints three interrelated setpieces, each with a leisurely beginning, building to white-knuckled tension.

At the center is the hatred of two formidable mercenary captains, Folco Cino d'Acorsi and Teobaldo Monticola, based on two colorful Renaissance figures. Running tangentially is the story of Adria Ripoli, whose tale intersects with the occasional first-person reminiscence of Guidanio Guy Gavriel Kay’s new book is set twenty-five years before his previous. Instead of a sprawling epic, the story paints three interrelated setpieces, each with a leisurely beginning, building to white-knuckled tension.

At the center is the hatred of two formidable mercenary captains, Folco Cino d'Acorsi and Teobaldo Monticola, based on two colorful Renaissance figures. Running tangentially is the story of Adria Ripoli, whose tale intersects with the occasional first-person reminiscence of Guidanio Cerra, a young man venturing into the fraught world after years of first-rate education.

Guidanio’s tone is elegiac, and many are his reflections on the merciless flow of time, of the violence of his time, contrasting with the universal appreciation—worship, even—of art.

It’s a deeply engaging story, sharply painful at moments, filled with beauty and violence (as is much writing about the Renaissance). The three set-pieces are all set against the incipient fall of Sarantium/Constantinople. There’s little magic. When the supernatural enters the story, it’s quite effective, imbuing those scenes with the shimmer of the numinous—a contrast to the many scenes of deliberate violence.

At first I thought this book was a frame tale, especially as it becomes clear that Guidanio is writing his memories of those brief years much later, when he’s older and wiser. The interspersion of third-person chunks from others’ POV I thought at first were inserted by Guidanio, though they never quite fit together, jinking back and forth in time, overlapping events and sometimes repetitions of ideas, but when we got to the POV of a ghost, I was thrown out of the story. How could Guidanio obtain that?

As I read, I was always aware of these narrative pieces not quite fitting together (especially when we got chunks from various POVs sitting alone in a room thinking exposition at the reader) and began to long for an omniscient narrator to fit it all together either right up front a la Thackeray, or subtly, as Jane Austen’s narrator does in her later novels especially. Even the shifts in tense were not as jarring as the patchwork of third person scenes interspersed with first person—these matched the intensity of the scenes they were employed in. An omni narrator could have woven all this into one narrative, shifting tenses when necessary, and (at least for me) lifting the whole to another level.

But we all read differently. Most readers won’t notice, and most of those who do won’t care because the story will draw them into the lives (some tragically brief) of these memorable characters, and the thoughts offered about big questions as well as small. But for me it’s the difference between a really good book and what might have been a great one.

Copy provided by NetGalley ...more

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Apr 10, 2019 Tucker (TuckerTheReader) marked it as other

Shelves: arc-physical, historical-fiction, adult

Many thanks to Berkely for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

DNF at page 38. This book just isn't for me. It's another one of those fantasy novels that is very high fantasy and I just don't mesh well with those books. Fantasy lovers will definitely enjoy this one! It just wasn't for me

Happy reading!

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Now available!

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Oct 01, 2019 Jennifer (Insert Lit Pun) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Say hello to my new fantasy obsession.

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Feb 26, 2019 Adam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

“We like to believe, or pretend, we know what we are doing in our lives. It can be a lie. Winds blow, waves carry us, rain drenches a man caught in the open at night, lightning shatters the sky and sometimes his heart, thunder crashes into him bringing the awareness he will die. We stand up, as best we can under that. We move forward as best we can, hoping for light, kindness, mercy, for ourselves and those we love. Sometimes these things come, sometimes they do not.”

Guy Gavriel Kay’s A Brightne ...more

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Nov 22, 2018 Bob/Sally rated it really liked it

Shelves: canadian, fantasy-historical

No matter the era, themes, characters, or plot, a Guy Gavriel Kay novel is always a marvel of narrative construction. Few authors can weave a tale in quite the same way he does, building a narrative that engages the reader as effortlessly as it flows from the page, and yet which, upon further reflection, is revealed to be a thing of complex beauty.

A Brightness Long Ago is a story told in offset layers, with one narrative thread overlapping another, repeatedly taking us back a step to view pieces No matter the era, themes, characters, or plot, a Guy Gavriel Kay novel is always a marvel of narrative construction. Few authors can weave a tale in quite the same way he does, building a narrative that engages the reader as effortlessly as it flows from the page, and yet which, upon further reflection, is revealed to be a thing of complex beauty.

A Brightness Long Ago is a story told in offset layers, with one narrative thread overlapping another, repeatedly taking us back a step to view pieces of scenes from a different point of view, before advancing further into the narrative from there. It's a technique that could be jarring, disconcerting even, but in Kay's hands it enhances the story, building connections with the characters, even as it builds our appreciation for what he's accomplished.

It's not just a story of overlapping narrative threads, of course, but one of overlapping lives, and there is where the brightness shines strongest. Guidanio Cerra is at the heart of it all, a young man who comes into some very powerful, very dangerous circles. On the surface, it seems like a matter of right place, right time, but the more we read, the more we realize it's his choices - sometimes the simplest of choices - that guide him into those circles. The first circle he steps into is that of Adria Ripoli, a young woman about to assassinate the Beast. The lead-up to that act, the act itself, the escape, and the circle that follows, bringing Jelena, the healer, into the story, is more exciting than many novels, and that's less than 60 pages of a 560-page book.

The two biggest, boldest circles are those of Folco Cino and Teobaldo Monticola, rival mercenary commanders with a shared history. It's a rivalry that threatens to spill over into battle, with the threat of war looming large over the whole story, and yet that's not the focus here. Kay can do battles, sieges, and conflicts very well, but here he is less interested in the action and more in the motives, the relationships, and the personalities. The crossing of their circles is alternately amusing and tense, playing out over the turning of seasons, until it does finally come to violence. A smaller circle connecting both men, drawing Guidanio deeper into intrigue, is that of Ginevra della Valle, a beautiful Mistress who alters the course of fate with a word, a wink, and a wager.

Whereas so many fantasies are all about the story, with a quest or a conflict driving the narrative, we don't have that thread to follow here. Instead, A Brightness Long Ago follows the threads of the characters and their relationships, becoming more about the act of choosing than the choices we make, and more about the nature of memory than the memories we keep. Those overlapping circles, narratives, and characters are what make the story here, and it's a powerful one. By the time the story reaches its climax, it's almost shocking to see the way in which fate changes everything, and how the choices we make sometimes may mean everything to our lives, but nothing to the world.

https://beauty-in-ruins.blogspot.com/... ...more

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Feb 08, 2019 Jessica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, own

A beautiful meditation on how seemingly small choices can have such great consequences, and on how people who come into our lives, even briefly, can change them. As Danio Cerra reflects on his life, on the great upheaval he witnessed in his youth, we see how small, impulsive decisions made by him and others brought dukes to their knees, ruined or saved whole cities, and changed the course of history.

This book also made me think about how much I love Guy's style. Not just the achingly poetic way ...more

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May 13, 2019 Lou rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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' ...more

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Dec 05, 2019 Algernon (Darth Anyan) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2019

We like to believe, or pretend, we know what we are doing in our lives. It can be a lie. Winds blow, waves carry us, rain drenches a man caught in the open at night, lightning shatters the sky and sometimes his heart, thunder crashes into him bringing the awareness he will die.
We stand up, as best we can under that. We move forward as best we can, hoping for light, kindness, mercy, for ourselves and those we love.
Sometimes these things come, sometimes they do not.

This quote covers the whole of ...more

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Apr 29, 2019 Lisa rated it it was amazing

Review from Tenacious Reader: http://www.tenaciousreader.com/2019/0...

This is a book that is more about the human element than the bigger picture of the world. How people’s lives can be defined, shaped, altered by a single moment. It is about those passing moments and memories. There are no guarantees in life, just because you feel something should be doesn’t mean it will happen or be that way. This book is full of danger, excitement, betrayal and love. Kay continues to prove his skill at storyt Review from Tenacious Reader: http://www.tenaciousreader.com/2019/0...

This is a book that is more about the human element than the bigger picture of the world. How people’s lives can be defined, shaped, altered by a single moment. It is about those passing moments and memories. There are no guarantees in life, just because you feel something should be doesn’t mean it will happen or be that way. This book is full of danger, excitement, betrayal and love. Kay continues to prove his skill at storytelling is on a different level from most authors.

Within the first hour of reading this book I was quickly reminded that even though I know I love reading Guy Gavriel Kay’s books, reading a new one is a fresh and strong reminder of how much I love them and why. I had a hard time putting this book down because I just kept wanting more, I was invested in the characters, their lives and the potential I could immediately see in them and the story. I wanted to see where things would end up.

There is a decent size cast of characters and perspectives in this and I loved reading each character’s individual story. I feel like every character was important and their role in the larger story was critical, there was one individual that seems to be at the center of it all. Danio Cerra, a merchant’s son who was lucky enough to attend a prestigious school, seemed to find himself in the midst of many defining moments. He is very intelligent and quick witted. He is an excellent read of the people around him and seems to have a knack for understanding what to do and say to sway the tides.

Among those unexpected and defining situations, he meets a woman who he realizes he can either save, at risk of his own life, or he can essentially ensure the end of her life. His decision here is so critical, yet has to be instantaneous (no decisions is essentially a decision in itself). A brief moment that changes everything. This book is full of moments like this, and Danio is in the middle of them more often than one would think. He can easily be seen as a trivial player by those around him, he is just the son of a tailor who happened to attend a good school. But he proves himself time and again to be more.

I want to note that this book is not told in a traditional, chronological format. There are time jumps both forward and back for individual characters throughout. So 20% in, you might get details about what a character might be in 5 years, or perhaps you will get a flashback. It is a format that could cause a reader frustration or confusion in some instances, but I found it worked well and helped highlight how important instances in time as well as memories can be. Kay did an excellent job crafting this story and used the timejumps very effectively. They were also easy to follow and served the story well. Highly recommend, and as a bonus, typical of Kay, this is a standalone. It is very satisfying to read a single book and get the completed story. ...more

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Sep 09, 2020 aPriL does feral sometimes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: alt-universe, woman-warrier, metafiction, pseudo-history, a-jack-in-the-box-pop-surprise, macho-man, young-adult

‘A Brightness Long Ago’ by Guy Gavriel Kay is very poetic, and it is a beautifully written young adult-ish novel. It is a fictional memoir about several personalities who were a ‘brightness’ while they lived. The narrator, Danio Cerra, was only a young commoner, a son of a tailor, who through accident met these unusual aristocratic personalities in this ‘memoir’ of his youth. The ‘fantasy universe’ where all of these characters live is an era which resembles closely Renaissance Italy.

Most of th ‘A Brightness Long Ago’ by Guy Gavriel Kay is very poetic, and it is a beautifully written young adult-ish novel. It is a fictional memoir about several personalities who were a ‘brightness’ while they lived. The narrator, Danio Cerra, was only a young commoner, a son of a tailor, who through accident met these unusual aristocratic personalities in this ‘memoir’ of his youth. The ‘fantasy universe’ where all of these characters live is an era which resembles closely Renaissance Italy.

Most of the characters Danio meets who shine so bright in his remembrance are members of several high-born families in charge of neighboring city-states. Some are mercenary princes for hire in the almost constant wars and skirmishes between important aristocratic families. Alliances between the princes are temporary and fluid. Businessmen and merchants hold some secondary power due to their wealth and ability to hire or provide funds to the princes for supplying their armies. They also can buy their way into the aristocracy, taking over newly created titles, as well as marrying up.

Some of the interesting people Danio meets were not only male warriors, they were women who through their bravery and strength of character flouted gender conventions of the era. One in particular whom Danio meets after her successful assassination of a psychopath who was ruling over a city-state he saves by aiding her escape. She sustained an injury to her leg and needed help since she could not walk out after she killed the tyrant. This intervention changes the course of Danio’s life. As a result, Danio meets a lot of people he might never have met. Before too long, he learns he possesses a wit which impresses many powerful people, some of whom he has to play against each other to save his own life.

Kay also lists in the back of his novel in an Acknowledgments section the books about Renaissance Italy which he used as source material for his lightly disguised ‘fantasy’ universe.

If you are familiar with the Italian Renaissance era, gentle reader, then you have some idea of the fluidity of the real-life dramas between the actual rulers of the Italian city-states, including the Pope. They were interesting times. I have posted a Wikipedia link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian...

If you enjoy Kay’s not-really-a-fantasy YA-ish historical-ish novel, I recommend Dorothy Dunnett’s fictional series, the House of Niccolò (start here: Niccolò Rising). Dunnett’s European Renaissance series is set in the real world and is much more dense with the real-world politics of the Renaissance and its people. Dunnett’s books are more of an adult read. The novels are extremely convoluted with the actual politics, wars and marriage alliances European aristocrats and merchants actually played in history fencing with other for power and wealth. ...more

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Aug 24, 2019 Kathleen rated it really liked it

Canadian author Kay is a storyteller of historical fantasy. In this tale, he has recreated 15th century Italy with fictional characters that feel real. This is a dangerous time and events seem to swirl on something as trivial as a chance encounter—“the random spinning of fortune’s wheel”; or perhaps fate due to divine intervention.

The novel opens with Adira Ripoli assassinating a despicable despot through a poison kiss. However, she is wounded and requires assistance to escape. Enter Guidanio Ce ...more

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Aug 09, 2019 AnnaLuce rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: titles-i-love, 2019-reviews, ebooks-overdrive, 6-so-so-reads, lgbtqia, covers-i-love

★★★✰✰ 3 stars

“An encounter on a springtime road. The random spinning of fortune’s wheel. It can sway us, change us, shape or end our days.”

Perhaps if Guy Gavriel Kay had paid more attention to his story and his characters, rather than devoting himself to the cadence of his carefully orchestrated prose, I would have been able to enjoy reading A Brightness Long Ago more than I did...the first few chapters are compelling but what follows is a repetitive, wearisome, and occasionally pedantic ta ...more

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Apr 10, 2019 Mayim de Vries marked it as to-read · review of another edition

How is it possible that I missed this?!

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Apr 07, 2019 Kristen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Full review is here on my blog!~

As this book is by GGK, it goes without saying that it is beautiful. But I have to say it anyway: goddamn this is a beautiful book. This review isn’t going to be as eloquent as others you’ll see for it. I am finding it rather difficult to even get words together for my thoughts on it that aren’t just ‘breathtakingly beautiful’ over and over. So it goes. The Lions of Al-Rassan is the only other Kay book that I’ve read up until now, and I wasn’t really expecting to Full review is here on my blog!~

As this book is by GGK, it goes without saying that it is beautiful. But I have to say it anyway: goddamn this is a beautiful book. This review isn’t going to be as eloquent as others you’ll see for it. I am finding it rather difficult to even get words together for my thoughts on it that aren’t just ‘breathtakingly beautiful’ over and over. So it goes. The Lions of Al-Rassan is the only other Kay book that I’ve read up until now, and I wasn’t really expecting to latch on to the very next I read like I did Lions… but here we are. They’re about even.

This story takes place in what is… more or less Italy in the 15th or so century, and it follows Guidanio Cerra, who is the son of a tailor who still nonetheless finds himself being allowed to study at a rather prestigious school. After that, he takes a job in the court of a duke, known as The Beast, and one night recognizes Adria Ripoli, the daughter of a powerful Duke as she enters The Beast’s rooms with every intention of assassinating him. She succeeds, but gets injured along the way. Danio helps her escape the castle. This won’t be the last time they meet, but it is the first. The story unfolds around Danio, and encompasses many people, but mainly two mercenary commanders who have had a long standing rivalry with each other, Folco Cino D’Acorsi and Teobaldo Monticola di Remigio.

As I said, this is a beautifully written story, and once I sat down with it, I couldn’t stop reading it until well into the wee hours of the morning. Kay’s prose is absolutely gorgeous, for a start, and the way it forms a story slowly but so intricately really puts the comparisons of Kay’s work to tapestries into perspective. It really is rather like having a story woven into a tapestry around you. The characters were so well built that I was emoting hard for them right from the start. Even characters that didn’t show up quite as often, such as the healer Jelena, or the rich and rather frivolous nobleman Antenami Sardi were so well written even in their comparatively brief appearances that they seemed to just emerge fully-formed into the story whenever needed.

We want to sink into the tale, leave our own lives behind, find lives to encounter, even to enter for a time. We can resist being reminded of the artificer, the craft. We want to be immersed, lost, not remember what it is we are doing, having done to us, as we turn pages, look at a painting, hear a song, watch a dance. Still, that is what is being done to us. It is. Even so… we do turn the page, and can be lost again.

So all told, this book was amazing. It was beautiful and rich. It was evocative and thought-provoking. It was tear-jerking and smile-inducing. In short, it was a masterpiece. GGK is a Canadian national treasure. Since he has already been given the Order of Canada, which is our highest civilian honor, we should knight him, or give him a Tim Horton’s gift card or something. Everyone loves gift cards, right?

All of the stars in the universe out of 5.

Thanks to the author, as well as Berkley via NetGalley for the review copy. ...more

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Jun 25, 2019 Esther rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: __net-galley, _favourites, fantasy, w-middle-east, w-alternate-history, author-male, zz-2019

I received this book from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I think I may have 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 th ...more

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Jan 18, 2020 Jane rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fantasy, library, fantasy

more like 3.5 out of 5.
"I knew, once, a woman diamond bright and two men I will not forget. I played a part in a story in a fierce wild, windblown time. I do have that. I always will. I am here, and it is mine, for as near to always as we are allowed."

So reminisces Guidianio Cerra, the main character in this historical fantasy set in a fictional 15th century Renaissance Italy. This novel traces the city-state warfare of that time, and concentrates on two leading mercenary commanders who carry ...more

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May 27, 2019 Adah Udechukwu rated it it was amazing

A Brightness Long Ago is the best novel I have read this year. The novel is awesome, the plot is compelling and all characters in the novel are worth reading about.

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Dec 17, 2018 Debbie Gascoyne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, metafiction, netgalley, 2018, arc

Guy Gavriel Kay’s website is called “Bright Weavings,” and this new novel is brightly woven. The narrative is, indeed, more weblike than linear, tracing the tight but seemingly random relationships between characters in one brief moment in time. For me, the title represents the brief light of a life flaring out in the dark reaches of history; Kay brings them to life and their lives shine and interact like a kaleidoscope.

The novel opens with an incredibly tense and suspenseful assassination, and Guy Gavriel Kay’s website is called “Bright Weavings,” and this new novel is brightly woven. The narrative is, indeed, more weblike than linear, tracing the tight but seemingly random relationships between characters in one brief moment in time. For me, the title represents the brief light of a life flaring out in the dark reaches of history; Kay brings them to life and their lives shine and interact like a kaleidoscope.

The novel opens with an incredibly tense and suspenseful assassination, and two characters meet whose lives will intersect briefly. Their lives intersect with others, and with others, and so the web is woven. It is a novel built of moments – like history – each one shining out, radiantly important to the individual at its center, perhaps meaningless beyond that context, or having repercussions that go unsuspected at the time.

In our universe, Guidanio Cerra, the narrator whose memory captures most of the threads of this web and spans a time-line that exceeds the direct actions of the novel, would have read Boethius in the school in Avegna where he was fortunate enough to study and which led his path to cross with larger figures of his time. He thinks about Fortune’s Wheel, and if we have read Boethius, we think of his central lesson which is to withstand the blows of fate and set an even keel through life. Guidanio Cerra does that, and perhaps this is why he is the one to encounter and witness the brief, more fortune-driven lives of others, and to reflect on them and his own place in them.

We meet many characters: Guidanio Cerra, the son of a bookseller from Seressa (a Venice analogue), Adria Ripoli, the young woman at the center of the two most striking set-pieces in the novel (the assassination and the most exhilarating horse-race), the powerful rival mercenaries, Folco Cino and Teobaldo Monticola, and the intriguing Jelena, the healer. And others. We get brief insights into the lives of “bit” characters as well, each one vividly drawn even if just for a moment.

Kay is known as a fantasy writer, but this is something of a misnomer; Kay himself resists genre identification. A Brightness Long Ago is perhaps the least “fantasy-like” of his novels that I’ve read, and I’ve read most of them (all but one, I think). This is set in the same world as Children of Earth and Sky, and I believe is a prequel. Someone needs to write a guide to Kay’s characters and settings, because there are connections and threads running between his works that add to the complex sense of connectedness that informs them. Perhaps the best description of Kay’s work would be “meta-history” – his novels are set in a world that does not exist, yet explore and illuminate themes and historical trends that are very much alive in our own. Kay’s work always has an underlying melancholy, a sense of tragic inevitability, perhaps just in the sense that all our lives and enterprises are brief and ultimately pointless, but we also get the sense that each of us has our own brightness to share, and what a brilliant light that can be.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. ...more

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Oct 25, 2019 Contrarius rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, i-got-at-scribd

Well.... I'm waffling a lot on this one.

On the one hand, Kay is a skilled and confident writer. There's a calm surety to his work -- there's never a sense that he's lost in the forest.

On the other hand, he often seems to be making a point rather than actually telling a story, which means that I often find myself less engrossed with the story itself than I would like to be.

In this case, Kay is talking about things like how small decisions can have large impacts on our lives, how cheap life can be Well.... I'm waffling a lot on this one.

On the one hand, Kay is a skilled and confident writer. There's a calm surety to his work -- there's never a sense that he's lost in the forest.

On the other hand, he often seems to be making a point rather than actually telling a story, which means that I often find myself less engrossed with the story itself than I would like to be.

In this case, Kay is talking about things like how small decisions can have large impacts on our lives, how cheap life can be, how everyone (and everything) dies eventually, how sometimes moments of personal significance are lost to history -- but not always, about the impact of loss, and about memory and nostalgia for things that have passed. And he does this effectively, if sometimes obviously and with a heavy hand.

Kay uses multiple POVs, one in first person. This feels odd, because the story starts out with a framing device as though it's all being told by this character in his memory, but then starts to alternate with other characters and scenes that the first character has no direct knowledge of. And when the scenes alternate, there tends to be alot of recapping of things that we the readers already know about from previous scenes, which got seriously annoying at times. Additionally, since these scenes keep jumping around in time and place, the whole tends to feel more like a series of vignettes than a coherent story.

On the other hand, Kay is undeniably a good writer. He does carry you along with the action, and scenes around the climax are especially touching. And there is plenty of atmosphere and intriguing worldbuilding throughout.

So I'm waffling. Take my words with a few grains of salt, and read the many good five-star reviews for this book. Myself, I'm waffling between 3 and 4.

As for the narrator -- this is narrated by Simon Vance, one of my favorite narrators ever in the entire history of the universe. I would listen to him read anything at all. If you listen to a lot of his books, you'll notice that he actually has a somewhat limited range of accents and voices -- but I don't care. His delivery grabs me every time. YMMV! ...more

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Beyond Reality: A Brightness Long Ago (9/20): finished reading (spoilers)	9	19	Sep 24, 2020 08:49AM
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About Guy Gavriel Kay

Guy Gavriel Kay

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Guy Gavriel Kay is a Canadian author of fantasy fiction. Many of his novels are set in fictional realms that resemble real places during real historical periods, such as Constantinople during the reign of Justinian I or Spain during the time of El Cid. Those works are published and marketed as historical fantasy, though the author himself has expressed a preference to shy away from genre categoriz ...more