At the beginning of his writing career, Kay worked on the edition of The Silmarillion , which must have had a significant impact on him. That’s why he adds a small pinch of magic to the fate of the main characters, just enough to spice up the action a bit. The author himself quotes a phrase he hears from someone that it is a “story with a quarter turn towards fantasy”, which is not entirely true, I think. Actually, I would describe this text as a novel of manners, which takes place in difficult times, and additionally makes little reference to magical realism.
In this book, the author returns to the world known from several earlier works, where he dealt with the broadly understood areas of the Mediterranean Sea. The artist admits that he is inspired by old history and former characters. However, the reader immersed in Kay’s work does not feel as if he is reading a historical novel, but simply an interesting story born in the writer’s head.
“On the frontier, where empires and religions collide …”
In this novel you will find a wide panorama of the intertwined fates of several main characters. You will meet the warrior archer Danica with her inseparable dog Tico or Leonora Valeri, who humiliated her family by giving birth to an illegitimate child (and suffered the consequences). Their partners are the talented painter Pero and the handsome merchant Marin. Apart from that, you will find many other characters there; some of them are based on historical ones. Of course, the creator’s right is to move freely in time and space: this is how Emperor Rodolfo has his prototype in the person of Rudolf II, the mentally disturbed Roman Emperor and the ruler of Bohemia, the patron saint of astrologers and artists, who – in my humble opinion – deserved a greater role in this book . However, GG Kay prefers to write about ordinary people who are often tortured by the fate they try to oppose.
“… the fate of the heroes is at stake …” and this book …
. Kay knows when to make an unexpected twist. Know that he is an experienced writer with many works on his account. He surprised me a few times, which doesn’t happen very often. Though the beginning was not encouraging, I admit it. A long list of characters, a map … It seemed that this thick book would be hard to understand. And indeed it is so up to a point. But with each chapter, you get to know the heroes better, and even if you don’t care about wars, contested territories, and religious unrest, you start to cheer on the protagonists and make friends with them. And so on to the last page …
Although I had the impression that as the novel approached 700 pages, the author wanted to finish all the plots and some things were told too quickly. I would not mind if the action was divided into two volumes, in which it would follow the rhythm set out in the first parts of the book (there are 4 in total).
The characteristic style of the writer is easily distinguished from the others. I would describe this writing style as romantic, and in some places even a bit exalted. Short sentences, lots of parentheses – some readers may like it all, others a little less. It was the parentheses that annoyed me a bit, I suppose it could have been created differently. However, I appreciate the enormous amount of work and the many readings that have been read – the Canadian author had to prepare himself thoroughly to write such an extensive book with many threads.
Note, now it will be unromantic …
Translation and proofreading cannot be faulted. They perfectly convey the style of GG Kay, there are no mistakes and awkwardness in them.
I have to admit that the cover looks beautiful and is refined. However, I have to criticize the interior a bit. . The letters of one page are reflected here and there on another page, which reminded me of books published in the 1980s. There is not much of it, besides, maybe I just came across such a copy for review … Of course, it does not interfere with reading, but still … a bit spoils the reception of the whole.
