This review is by Suzanne Tindal/Wohlthat, an Australian journalist and writer who can be found on Twitter as @engochick.

Under Heaven is a fantasy using the Chinese Tang Dynasty as a framework. Author Guy Gavriel Kay does not, therefore, have to create a world as such, but conduct research into the one which had once existed.

He took his inspiration to write about this period of Chinese history from famed poets, so it’s not so strange that the mood he sets from the very beginning in this book is pensive and philosophic. The main character Tai is introspective, given to doing the opposite of what many of the other, stereotypically materialistic, inhabitants of his world are wont to do.

Tai, the second son of a celebrated general, decides to use a mourning period for his father to bury the dead at a battlefield which his father fought at forty years earlier. Because of the many angry and sorrowing ghosts inhabiting the field, which men can actually hear, he is thought of as crazy. But he spends two years digging graves, and is rewarded with a lavish gift from the princess of the people across the border – a careless gift which men would kill for and which will endanger his life.

The gift takes him away from the battlefield as he decides to deliver it to the imperial court before someone kills him over it. However, having been so long away from the court, he’s lost the subtlety necessary to survive in the political currents, resulting in games which Kay portrays in detail.

Unfortunately, the closed nature of these political games has not aided Kay in his characterisation. I did not become attached to Tai, who I felt was a walking stereotype of the “different” man who acts according to his heart. It was also difficult to get a glimpse into the other characters’ motives or emotions because we as the reader were only able to see the glimpses which their court poker faces allowed us. Only two characters gained my approval, one being a drunken poet, and another being an emperor’s concubine, who I think Kay drew well.

In general, I’m not sure where Kay was aiming this novel. I don’t feel that the story had enough intricacies to draw in those who love highly political Chinese-themed fantasy, and at the same time didn’t have enough sword fighting for those who love Chinese martial arts tales. For those who like romances, Kay has not tread the traditional route with his protagonists, leaving me (as one who enjoys a good love story) not satisfied. He has some supernatural elements in the novel, however, they’re not a main feature, which left me wondering why they were there at all.

In conclusion, he tried to pack too many elements into a story without doing a good job on any of them. The book was, however, written in a poetic manner and those looking for a bit of diversion may enjoy it.

Rating: 2.5/5

UK Under Heaven cover

Canadian fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay has revealed the new US/Canada and UK draft covers of his new book, Under Heaven, which is due to be published in April 2010.

The book will take place in a world inspired by the Chinese T’ang Dynasty of the 8th century, focusing on Shen Tai, the son of a general who led the forces of imperial Kitai in a war twenty years before, in which forty thousand men were slain alongside a mountain lake. More details are available from a Penguin press release.

“This is a next-to-final version, minor tweaks will be done before release in April,” wrote Kay on his Bright Weavings site. “… it [has also] been confirmed that the Under Heaven cover will be the front cover for Penguin Canada’s catalogue this spring. Really nice news, to my mind as much a tribute to the look and design as to anything else. (They did this for Ysabel, too, actually.)”

Kay has published eleven fantasy novels, commencing with his applauded trilogy The Fionavar Tapestry. He has won a number of major awards and been nominated for many more. All of his works have a link to the world of Fionavar, the first of all the worlds, of which the rest are merely echoes.

US/Canada Under Heaven cover

Canadian fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay has launched a new internet journal to share his thoughts in the lead-up to the April 2010 publication of his new book, Under Heaven.

The book will take place in a world inspired by the Chinese T’ang Dynasty of the 8th century, focusing on Shen Tai, the son of a general who led the forces of imperial Kitai in a war twenty years before, in which forty thousand men were slain alongside a mountain lake. More details are available from the Penguin press release.

Kay has published eleven fantasy novels, commencing with his applauded trilogy The Fionavar Tapestry. He has won a number of major awards and been nominated for many more. All of his works have a link to the world of Fionavar, the first of all the worlds, of which the rest are merely echoes.

On the first entry in the journal, Kay writes that one of things he attempts to achieve with such journals (he conducted a similar exercise for his 2007 novel Ysabel) is to give readers a glimpe into the publishing world, and how a manuscript becomes a book. But it appears as if the author will apply a sense of humour as well:

“I remember, in the first of these journals, for Last Light, describing one editor as ‘doughty’ and then musing on the awesome importance of the letter ‘t’ in that adjective. I still like that one. He’s decent enough to pretend to do so, even though we no longer work together, so he doesn’t have to!”

As for the book itself, Kay is currently working on what he says is the “final” pass-through of Under Heaven. “I use the quote marks because it really isn’t final,” he writes. That process is likely to be done by early to mid-October. After that, the book goes to his copy editor, and then on-wards through the publishing process.

Commentary
After reading many, many recommendations for Guy Gavriel Kay’s work, I picked up The Summer Tree, the first volume in The Fionavar Tapestry, several weeks ago, and I’m almost finished.

While I haven’t yet written a review of the book (look out for that soon), suffice it to say that I’ve already ordered the next couple of books in the series and will probably end up with Guy Gavriel Kay’s entire collected works on my shelves. He’s that good.

The author reminds me of Ursula K. Le Guin. His writing goes to the heart of what it really means to be human; using fantasy tropes to illustrate the deepest ideas about our lives. His writing isn’t hard, or complicated; it’s easy to pick up and easy to keep reading, but that simplicity is deceptive. I would commend Guy Gavriel Kay to anyone. And I suspect there will be a lot of people out there who will be anticipating his next work with pleasure and bated breath.