The Last Light of the Sun | ||||||||
Guy Gavriel Kay | ||||||||
Viking Canada, 512 pages | ||||||||
|
A review by Cindy Lynn Speer
The Last Light of the Sun is a richly detailed world, extremely
familiar, but not quite our own. The gods they worship are not the ones of our
world, the names of the places familiar, but not the names we use. The text is also very saga-like. Guy Gavriel Kay uses words and names
that sound Viking-like (or Celtic, or Anglican) and combined with the way he writes his narrative it makes it feel very
old fashioned. This familiarity enriches the setting, making it more dense when combined with the details of everyday life,
from songs to the silly games they play to the details of the long ships and the exciting combat scenes. The old people are
quite Fae like, especially in their propensity to steal whatever mortals they find attractive, while the fact that they have
to be the first soul fallen in battle on the night of the blue moon makes it folkloric. I love the combination of fact and
fiction because you get the solid feel of historical fact overlaid with the wonder of fantasy.
At first I felt that in some ways there was almost too many people, each with their own personality, their own goals, their own
ways of reaching said goals. You get to the point where you've spent enough time with them to be thoroughly involved, and truly
care what happens to them, and then you're moving on to the next person. I soon realized that his point isn't the individuals
so much as the whole forest. Each character is a thread in a huge, complex tapestry, and once you start forcing yourself not
to see the individual adventure, as I often do, but how the few moments add to the whole of the feel of the book, to what the
eventual goal will be, you really begin to appreciate the care with which Kay has created these people. It's much more complex
than my summary permits, so many interesting people add a lot to the story.
While I think that anyone would enjoy The Last Light of the Sun, this extremely evocative tale will strike a special cord with people who
enjoy ancient European history such as those who enjoyed Cecelia Holland's The Soul Thief, for instance, will really like this story.
Cindy Lynn Speer loves books so much that she's designed most of her life around them, both as a librarian and a writer. Her books aren't due out anywhere soon, but she's trying. You can find her site at www.apenandfire.com. |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
If you find any errors, typos or anything else worth mentioning,
please send it to editor@sfsite.com.
Copyright © 1996-2014 SF Site All Rights Reserved Worldwide