hey there booktube Katie here and you're
watching Katie Loves to Read. In order to
celebrate my second anniversary on
booktube, reaching three thousand
subscribers and it being the end of
exams, I thought that I would make a
video all about Guy Gavriel Kay and his
books and I also want to give away one
of his books to one of you guys. First
off in terms of the giveaway if you want
to enter what you need to do is
subscribe to my channel then you need to
either follow me on Goodreads or Twitter
so that I can get in contact with you if
you win then you need to leave me a
comment down below saying which of Guy
Gavriel Kay's books you would like to win
and leave your Twitter handle or your
Goodreads details so I can get in touch
with you if you do win. The giveaway is going
to be international but I'll be doing it
through Book Depository so you need to
live in a country the Book Depository
ships to and also be sending the winner
a paperback copy you need to have your
parents permission if you're under 18 or
be over 18 to enter and this giveaway is
going to be open for the next two weeks
if you would like to find out a bit more
about Guy Gabriel Kay's books so you can
decide which one you'd like to win keep
watching let's start off with the key
things about Guy Gavriel Kay that you
should know before you try and read any
of his books. First off he writes
historical fantasy mainly although he
has written one tolkien-esque fantasy
series. So most of these books are
heavier on the historical elements and
they are on the fantastical ones, the
fantastical ones pop up here and there.
They're quite minor and they're not the
main thrust of the plot for the most
part and I wasn't sure about that when I
went in if I'd I like that because I'm so
used to typical high fantasy but that
actually really worked for me
I love historical fiction and I love
general fiction and I think that Guy
Gavriel Kay's works in particular will
appeal to people who share that because
his writing is really beautiful and very
evocative but at the same time it's not
inaccessible if you don't read a lot of
adult fiction I don't think you're going
to be lost trying to read any of his
books. Another key thing you should know
is that the sense of place and setting
is incredibly important in Kay
at least in his historical fantasies
because the setting in itself becomes
probably I would say the main character
of his novels. As I said his writing is
lovely and beautiful and evocative and
he really makes you feel like you are
there, like you can see everything that's
around these characters and that's
amazing. It feels like you're you're on a
trip with Kay, like you're seeing the
Byzantine Empire or you're seeing Sung
Dynasty China or you're seeing Croatia
in the Renaissance period and that's
really wonderful.
Another key thread to Guy Gavriel
Kay's books is art. What he's doing as a
writer is an art form, I don't think
anybody's going to argue with me over
that. His books are works of art, he's
also a poet and you will find that a lot
of the major characters in his book are
artistic so in under heaven we have
poets, in Tigana we have musicians in
the Sarantine Mosaic Duology we have
mosaicist and their art form is kind of
key to the plot and it's an interesting
thread that seems to trace its way through
pretty much all of Kay's novels. Even in
his tolkien-esque
fantasy the Fionavar tapestry a lot
is said about tapestry and making tapestries
and weaving even though the
tapestry is supposed to represent the
whole world and the Weaver is kind of the
god in the world who is weaving the
tapestry and controlling how things play
out and that thread of art as I found
it's just very interesting and it's a
nice way in which Kay ties all of his
different books together. Another key
thing because he writes a lot in Europe
in kind of medieval to Renaissance times
is a battle between religions. So we have
the Christians in Europe and then we
have the Muslims in the Ottoman Empire
however with Kay he renames everything
with kind of a pretty similar name so if
you're Christian youre a Jaddite and if
you are a Muslim you are an Asharite
the Ottoman Empire is called the
Osmanli Empire the Byzantine Empire
is called the Saratine Empire
and that's true all place-names are kind
of minorly tweaked so you normally know
where he's talking about. But yeah this
clash between religions - it's an
important theme running through a lot of
his books and I don't think he presents
one side as better than the other,
he's just presenting as the history
as it was. This was a reality that there was a
clash between religions and Kay is
representing it to you, you will see good
representations of people on both sides
and he doesn't favor one side or the
other. He's showing you history through
his books and yeah I just thought that
that was an important thing to mention.
Anyway the question I get asked the most
with Kay because you know I'm the person
who's read all 13 of his books is where
should I start.
So Guy Gavriel Kay will tell you read
all the summaries of his books,
obviously don't start in the middle of
the series but you know pick one that
sounds good to you and that's how I
approached it but I do actually think
there are three places that are easier
to start than others. There are some of
Kay's books that are better once you've
read his other books and there are some
of Kay's books that are quite weak and if
you start there you might never read
another book by him again. The first
place I would recommend starting is my
favorite book which is Tigana and
basically this is set in an alternate
medieval Italy. It's quite heavy on the
fantasy elements by Kay standards we have
two warring sorcerers who own different
parts of Italy and one is trying to push
each other off the land and then we have
this land called Thigana and Tigana
is now called Lower Corta I
think and basically the people there
have been made to forget the name of the
land and their history through the spell
that one of the sorcerers puts on them
and it's an examination of memory, of
identity and of our connection to our
people and to our land. We follow a group
of musicians who are trying to do away
with the spell and overthrow the sorcerers
and it's it's truly wonderful I love it.
It's also inspired by an Irish play
called Translations by Brian Friel which
is all about how
the English anglicized Irish place-names
and basically chipped away at the Irish
identity and the connection we have to
our land so as an Irish person naturally
I was interested in that and also I
studied that play at Leaving Cert so
I had kind of an intimate knowledge of
it and it was interesting to know but
that was one of the things that inspired
this novel. Another place you could start
is where I started which is with Sailing
to Sarantium which is the first book in
the Sarantine Mosaic Duology. It is set
in the Byzantine Empire and we follow a
young mosaicist called Crispin. He was
called to the capital where he is asked
to make a mosaic for the Emperor and
then the sequel Lord of Emperors is one
of my favorite Kay books and it is full
of political intrigue and it's all kinds
of wonderful. Another place you might
like to start is A Song for Arbonne
which is that matriarchal France and it
is wonderful.
It's one of Kay's lesser-known books but
it's, it's so good. So we basically have
matriarchal France which is warring with
a very misogynisticly ruled Germany and
then we follow a German prince I think
who's living in France and we also
follow a group of singers and musicians
and then there's also a priestess who
can see the future involved. It's crazy
and wonderful and I loved it and I also
really loved a particular battle scene
at the end which was just so well
written and I could just envisage so
well. So now that you know where I think
you should start I thought I would
briefly speak about all of Kay's books and
I will rank them in order from my
favorite to my least favorite so that
once you've started maybe you'll know
where you should go next or maybe you
just want to hear what I think of all of
Kay's books in one place. My favorite book
Tigana. I love it I love it for all
the reasons I've already said it is Kay's
magnum opus and I think it's incredible.
I'm going to be rereading it soon if you
want to reread it with me let me know,
actually that would be fun. My second
favorite is Lord of Emperors. It's
wonderful as I said, it's full of
political intrigue it's mile-a-minute
and I love being in the Byzantine Empire
because it's so similar to the Roman
Empire because it's basically a
continuation of the Roman
but further east and I studied a lot
about ancient Rome and ancient Greece in
secondary school so i just i love
reading about it. Then coming in at
number three that is the last Kay book
that i actually read and that was River
of Stars. I'm not sure if I have an extra
emotional connection to this because of the
Kay's book I read but it's set in Sung
dynasty China and the Chinese are
warring with the Mongolians in the North
trying to get back their lost 13
provinces and it follows our main
character Ren Daiyan who thinks that he
is going to be the person who will be
able to do that. It's heartbreaking and
wonderful and I just really love it. I
thought the characters were really well
developed in this one in particular and
yeah I have a great love for this. Next
on my list then is The Lions of Al-Rassan
and this one is set in the Iberian
Peninsula in Spain after the Turkish and
Moors have invaded so basically the
Christians in the north are trying to
get rid of the Muslims in the south and
we get a lot of different perspectives.
We get the perspective of a character
who I think is Jewish I can't remember
what analog name Kay uses for Judaism but
I think she was Jewish, we follow a lot
of the Muslim characters and we also
follow some of the Christian characters
in the north who are fighting to free
southern Spain and to retake it for the
Christians and the writing and this is
incredible. It's really really evocative
and getting to see Kay's perspective of
the Alhambra is really interesting
because I had a book on the Alhambra as
a kid so it made me feel nostalgic in
that regard. Next on my list is one I
have a full review for, this is
Children of Earth and Sky this is set in
Renaissance Europe and this is one of
Kay's books that you should not start off
with read this after you've read the Sarantine
Mosiac Duology preferably because this
makes a lot of references to it. It's set
in the same world as the Sarantine Mosiac
Duology but a couple of hundred years on
and having read the Sarantine Mosiac
Duology definitely enrichens this or
at least it did for me and basically it
follows a group of people who are going
across Europe to go to the Ottoman or
Osmanli Empire and one of our main
characters is a kick-ass female
pirate. Kay generally has a lot of
strong female characters in his books,
they aren't normally the main character
but they are there and I definitely
appreciate having to read their
perspective even though in a lot of
historical periods women were not at the
forefront per se maybe that's just what
I've been taught I don't know.... The next
one on my list on is Sailing to Sarantium
which is the first book in the
Sarantine Mosiac Duology and I just
really enjoy this but it's not a
standout is the second book in the
series. Then next on the list would be A
Song for Arbonnewhich as I said I love
it because who doesn't want to read
about a matriarchal society anyone
anyone at all? No I didn't think so.
Then I have the final book in Kay's
Tolkienesque portal fantasy series this
is The Darkest Road and I really enjoyed
this book because it ties everything
together so well and it took a bunch of
twists and turns I wasn't really seeing,
it also kind of better explains how the
Arthurian elements are supposed to work
although I'm still a little bit confused
in that regard but yes it was definitely
a great end to what wasn't maybe my
favorite series by him but I can see why
it is well loved. The one thing I will
say about the series, not the 3rd book
really, but the first two books I
would say is that the characters are not
as well developed as they are in his
later books and I didn't connect to them
as much as I did with some of his
historical fantasy novels. Next then I
have Under Heaven and this is the first
book in the Under Heaven Duology, the
sequel to which is rRver of Stars this
is set in Tang Dynasty China, so a
couple of hundred years before and it
starts off with a man who's burying a an
army who have been killed in an act of
great mourning and it moves on from
there when he's called to the capital
and political intrigue ensues. The reason
this is so far down my list is I read
this when I got sick and that I had to
put it down for like a month and a half
and I think I just felt disconnected
from it so it's one that I definitely
want to reread. It has all the things I
love about Kay - the sense of place, the
wonderful characters, the beautiful
writing so maybe second time around I
will enjoy it more. Next then I have The
Summer Tree which is the
first book in the Fionavar Tapestry
and as I said it's good but not amazing
but I do think Kay's writing even then
was quite special and it was interesting
to see how he approached something that
wasn't historical fiction where he had
constructed world himself.
And so further to that my next book that's on
the list is the second book which was
The Wandering Fire which was my least
favorite book in series probably because
the heteronormativity was killing me at
that point and the Arthurian elements
got introduced and weren't really
explained at all.
Then the second to last book is the Last
Light of the Sun this is basically following
the war between the Welsh, the English
and the Vikings or the Vikings kept
coming and raiding and I liked this
but I thought I was going to really
love it because obviously we've got
Celtic people like me, we've got Viking
people also like me but yeah it just
kind of lacks in terms of a cohesive
narrative thread for much of it, there's
just the load of different stories going
on you're like I don't really see how
these are relevant but cool. There's also
an unnecessary rape scene in this which
nobody ever needs thanks for that Kay
and it also kind of lacked a strong
female perspective that I'm used to. Yhe
final book on this list will probably be
no surprise to anyone this is Ysabel
which is Guy Gavriel Kay's YA urban
fantasy novel. I basically think this is
trash it does not have Kay's classic
great writing. I thought the characters
didn't actually feel like teenagers at
all, that they spoke in ways that didn't
seem natural for teenagers and I don't
know I just really didn't like this book.
It did have an interesting sense of
place, it did tie in to the Fionavar
tapestry and that was probably the
most interesting part, getting to
see characters from that book all over
again grown-up but yeah this is not what
I would recommend you start with for Kay
because I think you'll be dreadfully
disappointed and it might put you off
him for evermore. Anyway don't forget to
enter the giveaway you need to subscribe
to my channel you need to leave me a
comment telling me which these books you
would like to win, you need to give me your
Twitter handle or your Goodreads link so
that I can get in touch with you if you
do win and you need to have followed me
on Twitter or Goodreads so I can get in
touch it is an international giveaway so
if you live in a countries that Book
Depository ships to you can enter if you
don't I'm really sorry and it will
be open for two weeks, I think that's
pretty much everything I will leave all
the details down below just in case and
that's it for today so thank you guys
for watching, thank you guys for two
great years and thank you for getting me
to 3,000 subscribers and I will see you
in my next video
bye!
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