Guy Gavriel Kay.

[No Inspiration]

Hey.
I was just thinking that it would be cool to have a section for GGK under authors.
I know alot of us have read his books, and I'm sure there's at least 5 threads about him here. Does anyone know how to go about getting a new author on there?
Thanks in advance.
Lena.

 

[GOLLUM]

Hey.
I was just thinking that it would be cool to have a section for GGK under authors.
I know alot of us have read his books, and I'm sure there's at least 5 threads about him here. Does anyone know how to go about getting a new author on there?
Thanks in advance.
Lena.

Authors are generally added as a subfoorum when members continually discuss their work, so it's very much a matter of supply and demand. Naturlly the greater the amount of dicussion about an author over aperiod of time, the better their chances of being allocated an indivudal forum.

I'm quite a fan of Guy, especilaly hsi Finoviar tapestry, Tingana and I recently purchased a second hand copy of The Lions Of Al-Rasa.

Do you have a favourite of his?.....

 

[No Inspiration]

I think once you've read them all you'll realize that a favourite is nearly impossible to pick.
My three favourite characters in GGK books are Diarmuid, Ammar, and Betran from Fionavar, Lions, and Arbonne, respectively.
If I had to pick a favourite it would probably be Lions or Tigana, but truly, I love them all. Everything up to Last Light is a deadlock tie. Last light and Ysabel are my least favourites, but I still like them both.
I hope that we can get enough GGK conversation up to give him his own section, that would be very cool.
Which did you enjoy more, Fionavar, or Tigana?
Lena.

 

[nixie]

I've read most of his stand-alones and currently reading Summer Tree first installament of the Finoviar.Hard to choose a favourite, maybe Song for Arbonne.

 

[GOLLUM]

Which did you enjoy more, Fionavar, or Tigana?
Lena.

Tough one. Probably Fionavar but tigana is a classic too!!

 

[Connavar]

I have Lions of Al-Razzan, not read all of it yet but i like his style.

 

[Rane Longfox]

Ysabel. Now there's a prime example of a dissapointing book

 

[Connavar]

I have heard that about that book several times now.

Whats so bad?

 

[No Inspiration]

I agree, about Ysabel.
There's nothing wrong with the book, per se. If it had come from any other author it would have been a fine book. It did not, however, and compared to his other books it falls completely flat.
It doesn't have the depth or character you come to expect from a Kay book, and I didn't find the themes to be completely developed. There were themes, and they were evident throughout the book, but I really didn't feel that they were fully formed.
The word depth keeps coming back to me. The one thing that I love most about Kay's work is the sheer amount of depth to everything he writes. I have never failed to become attached to the characters, and I always come away from his books with a new outlook, and plenty of things to think about.
Ysabel was not up to his standards, in my opinion. As I said before, from any other author it would be a fine book. From Kay, though, it was sadly disappointing.
I hope this isn't too garbled, and you're able to get the gist of what I'm trying to say.
Lena.

 

[Rane Longfox]

I wouldn't even give it that much credit, personally...

It just wasn't a good book. In all areas.

 

[Sathai]

I've read Tigana, The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy, and The Last Light of the Sun. I enjoyed Tigana and the Tapestry books, but found The Last Light of the Sun to be kind of blah.

 

[manephelien]

I've only read The Lions of Al-Rassan and enjoyed it. I'd like to read other books set in the same world, are there any?

 

[Rosemary]

I've read most of his stand-alones and currently reading Summer Tree first installament of the Finoviar.Hard to choose a favourite, maybe Song for Arbonne.

Book 2 of the Finovar will be in the post tomorrow!

 

[nixie]

Thanks Rosie

 

[Revelation]

Not a fan.

To me, it seems his writing is really loaded. It's like he's saying in his writing 'read this story about this character's background and feel sad, now feel angry at this injustice done to this character, now feel despair, now laugh at this witty repartae between these two characters.'

It just feels like he writes with an agenda. He first decides what kind of message or lesson or emotion he wants to impart and then he molds his characters and plot around it, instead of the other way around. It feels very awkward.

Matter of fact, if there's anything Kay reminds me of, it's those DragonLance teenie bopper fantasy novels. Same Mary Sue/Marty Stu characters and liberal angst that just jumps out at you.

 

[ScottSF]

I feel he's the best living Fantasy writer. The Sarantium Books and Tiganna are some of the best fiction I've ever read. The stories are engaging, natural, and unpredictable. I'm a few chapters into Ysabelle and I knew from the start that it's not my thing. I just don't usually dig the concept of modern people meeting a fantasy history but I'm trying to drop preconceptions and just read the story. I do think there is a bit of a drop in quality from the two I mentioned above with the others but I've enjoyed them all. Last Light of the Sun was a blast.

 

[williamjm]

I've only read The Lions of Al-Rassan and enjoyed it. I'd like to read other books set in the same world, are there any?

The Sarantine Mosaic duology (Sailing to Sarantium, Lord of Emperors) and The Last Light of the Sun are all set in the same alternate-Europe but there isn't any real connection in plot between them and they're all set in different time periods and different parts of alternate Europe (the Byzantine Empire in the Sarantine books and Alfred the Great-era England for "Last Light").

 

[digs]

My sister and I are both big fans of Kay. The Sarantine Mosaic novels and Tigana are fantastic. I didn't enjoy The Fionavar Tapestry that much - it took me a few tries to get through them - and I barely even started The Last Light of the Sun, mainly because I had a stack of new books that I was eager to get through. I picked up Ysabel because I happened to see it and didn't want to forget it was there, but I think I'll read The Lions of al-Rassan and A Song for Arbonne first, since I've heard really good things about both of them.

Out of curiosity, is Arbonne similar at all to Tigana? For some reason I always lump them together in my mind.

 

[williamjm]

Out of curiosity, is Arbonne similar at all to Tigana? For some reason I always lump them together in my mind.

They did feel similar to me in some ways - they have fairly similar settings (although Arbonne is in Kay's version of Southern France as opposed to Italy for Tigana) and there are some plot similarities (and a lot of plot differences as well).

 

[HappyHippo]

I just re-read Tigana for the third time in a year, and really enjoyed it. I was getting things I'd missed previously, which is always enjoyable.

I like the way he writes relationships, and the way they develop throughout the book. Dianora and Brandin made me howl at the end...again!

Last Light of the Sun was also good, but it took four goes to get past chapter one, and it was a bit garbled at the end (IMHO).