Guy Gavriel Kay
Author of Tigana
About the Author
Guy Gavriel Kay was born on November 7, 1954 in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada. He became interested in fantasy fiction while working as an assistant to Christopher Tolkien. He assisted him with the editing of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion. After receiving a law degree from the University of show more Toronto, he became principal writer and associate producer for the CBC radio series, The Scales of Justice. He also wrote several episodes when the series moved to television. He has written social and political commentary for several publications including the National Post, The Globe and Mail, and The Guardian. His first fantasy novels were The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road, which make up the Fionavar Tapestry Trilogy. His other works include A Song for Arbonne, The Lions of Al-Rassan, Beyond This Dark House, The Last Light of the Sun, and Under Heaven. He has received numerous awards including and the Aurora Award for Tigana and The Wandering Fire, the 2008 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel for Ysabel, and the International Goliardos Award for his work in the fantasy field. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Twitter profile picture, public domain
Series
Works by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Fionavar Tapestry 1. The Summer Tree 2. The Wandering Fire 3. The Darkest Road (1986) 619 copies
Sendero de Tinieblas 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Kay, Guy Gavriel
- Birthdate
- 1954-11-07
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Canada (birth)
- Birthplace
- Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada
- Places of residence
- Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Education
- University of Manitoba
University of Toronto - Occupations
- editor
Associate Producer (radio)
writer (radio)
fantasy writer - Awards and honors
- Guest of Honour, Eastercon, UK (2000)
Scales of Justice Award (best media treatment of a legal issue, Canadian Law Reform Commission, 1985)
Guest of Honor, Vericon, Cambridge, MA (2007) - Short biography
- Guy Gavriel Kay (born November 7, 1954) is a Canadian author of fantasy fiction. Many of his novels are set in fictional realms that resemble real places during real historical periods, such as Constantinople during the reign of Justinian I or Spain during the time of El Cid. Those works are published and marketed as historical fantasy, though the author himself has expressed a preference to shy away from genre categorization when possible. Kay was born in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. When Christopher Tolkien needed an assistant to edit his father J.R.R. Tolkien's unpublished work, he chose Kay, then a student at the University of Manitoba, whose parents were friends of Baillie Tolkien's parents. Kay moved to Oxford in 1974 to assist Tolkien in the editing of The Silmarillion.
He returned to Canada in 1976 to finish a law degree at the University of Toronto, and became interested in fiction writing.
Kay became Principal Writer and Associate Producer for a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio series, The Scales of Justice.
In 1984, Kay's first fantasy work, The Summer Tree, the first volume of the trilogy The Fionavar Tapestry, was published.
Members
Discussions
Guy Kay - where to start and other discussion in The Green Dragon (April 2013)
Tigana Spoiler Thread: Fantasy February Group Read in 75 Books Challenge for 2013 (February 2013)
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay: Fantasy February Group Read in 75 Books Challenge for 2013 (February 2013)
For Guy Kay fans in FantasyFans (June 2012)
Group Read (March): Guy Gavriel Kay in The 11 in 11 Category Challenge (April 2011)
The Lions of Al Rassan (in part assumes you've read it...) in The Green Dragon (January 2010)
Book Discussion: A Song for Arbonne ~CAUTION ~ Contains SPOILERS in The Green Dragon (July 2009)
Book Discussion: A Song for Arbonne - SPOILER FREE Thread in The Green Dragon (July 2009)
Tigana discussion! Part Four: The Price of Blood in The Green Dragon (July 2008)
At last, it is time to begin discussing Tigana! Part One Discussion in The Green Dragon (June 2008)
Book Discussion: Arthurian Themed Read *Spoiler Free* in The Green Dragon (March 2008)
Tigana Part Five Discussion: THE MEMORY OF A FLAME in The Green Dragon (February 2007)
Tigana Part Three Discussion: EMBER TO EMBER in The Green Dragon (October 2006)
Tigana Part Two - Dianora - discuss in The Green Dragon (October 2006)
Reviews
Quite good, although not at the level of Kay's best novels (like The Lions of Al-Rassan and Tigana). It's secondary world fantasy inspired on ancient China. It was an interesting story, but a bit slow to start, and the main character was likable but perhaps a bit too contemplative to warm up to him right away.
GGK has a special touch as a writer, though. He is good with emotions and he uses the themes of his stories in a powerful way to make it resonate with the reader. He also can write beautiful passages. I particularly enjoyed the final part of the story.… (more)
GGK has a special touch as a writer, though. He is good with emotions and he uses the themes of his stories in a powerful way to make it resonate with the reader. He also can write beautiful passages. I particularly enjoyed the final part of the story.… (more)
Maghi invasori scagliano maledizione, principe e ribelli destabilizzano politica del regno x riconquistarlo e sciogliere (orribile) maleficio
(molto poco fantasy, personaggi che quando non sono piatti sono antipatici, suspance e colpi di scena non pervenuti, e nemmeno il ritmo, ma quello non serve perchè non succede mai niente.... però qualcosa c'è: la maestria del narratore e qualcos'altro che si nasconde tra le righe e quindi 4 stelle, che per me è una valutazione molto alta)
(molto poco fantasy, personaggi che quando non sono piatti sono antipatici, suspance e colpi di scena non pervenuti, e nemmeno il ritmo, ma quello non serve perchè non succede mai niente.... però qualcosa c'è: la maestria del narratore e qualcos'altro che si nasconde tra le righe e quindi 4 stelle, che per me è una valutazione molto alta)
protagonisti poco simpatici, storia tipicamente fantasy (YA dell '84)
per una recensione più "particolareggiata" leggere @Krell
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4520782525
(merita!!)
per una recensione più "particolareggiata" leggere @Krell
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4520782525
(merita!!)
Lists
Best Audiobooks (1)
French Books (1)
Epic Fantasy (1)
Epic Fiction (1)
Ghosts (1)
Which house? (1)
1990s (2)
Five star books (3)
1980s (3)
Nineties (2)
Favourite Books (3)
Antiheroes (1)
Unread books (2)
mom (2)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 29
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 35,057
- Popularity
- #540
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 1,022
- ISBNs
- 499
- Languages
- 19
- Favorited
- 319
Nevertheless, it seemed to me that after the Sarantine Mosaic his output had been a bit less inspired (I have yet to read River of Stars and Children of Earth and Sky, though). A Brightness Long Ago in some ways is a return to his better form, I would say. Perhaps not quite as good as The Lions of Al-Rassan and Tigana, but very good.
This one, like Tigana, is inspired in Renaissance Italy, a very interesting period for the flourishing of the arts and the political chaos, with no nation-state and many more or less independent cities, to say nothing of the Vatican, warring with each other, often hiring mercenary armies.
There are four main characters, but the central part of the story is the feud and rivalry between two very competent mercenary leaders who lead two rival, albeit minor, cities. In the same way as with Rodrigo Belmonte and Ammar ibn Khairan in The Lions of Al-Rassan, you can probably end up liking, or at least respecting and enjoying, both larger-than-life characters, even if they are in opposite sides of the conflict.
There is also a lot of emphasis on the stories of little people, not just powerful figures, on women who strive for agency in a world where it's difficult for them to escape from the traditional role of passive wife and mother, and also on same-sex relationships besides the usual heterosexual ones. All this is more inclusive, but it also has the downside that the characters in historical fantasies increasingly seem to be more aligned with 21st century values and way of thinking. You may decide for yourself whether that's a good thing, or whether we risk making all past periods too uniform, or perhaps both.
The fantasy content is very light, as usual with Kay, but it exists. There are some emotional and moving moments, and other parts that seem more like a skilled craftsman going through the routine, but all in all this is a very enjoyable story.… (more)