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
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
Delicious, a meaty, engrossing book with prose that brushed the edges of poetry. In some ways, it is three different books that might have benefited from being turned into full novels, but that's part of the joy of Kay's work-- he always has me wishing there was more time to explore relationships, back stories, and so on. It's an unusual setting for the type of fantasy I read, set in ancient China during the Tang Dynasty, a golden age of China's power. He wove the characters together in one of those plot lines where a single decisions coupled with coincidence prove disastrous, with far-reaching and unintended consequences. If you like Kay's style and prose, this is worth reading strictly for the enjoyment of his language.… (more)
8/10
[a:Guy Gavriel Kay|60177|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1218804723p2/60177.jpg] is a gifted storyteller, and [b:A Brightness Long Ago|41458663|A Brightness Long Ago|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1535529056l/41458663._SY75_.jpg|64721100] is a well-told story. The characters are not cast as heroes or villains, but as people with strengths and flaws, passions and fears, all too human in their motives and actions. Kay’s female characters are as complex and compelling as his male characters.
So, why not 5 stars? The main voice, that of Guidanio Cerra, is a bit too philosophical, or maybe a bit too intrusive, in his musings about stories and their impact on one’s life. I found those interludes distracting, like hiccups that jolted me out of the flow of the novel by reminding me that I was reading a novel. I also found the changing POVs and the occasional overlaps or changes in the chronology of the story a bit confusing—just momentarily as I figured out who was narrating or when the event happened in relation to previous events.
Still, I highly recommend this book (and everything else I’ve read by this author)!… (more)
[a:Guy Gavriel Kay|60177|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1218804723p2/60177.jpg] is a gifted storyteller, and [b:A Brightness Long Ago|41458663|A Brightness Long Ago|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1535529056l/41458663._SY75_.jpg|64721100] is a well-told story. The characters are not cast as heroes or villains, but as people with strengths and flaws, passions and fears, all too human in their motives and actions. Kay’s female characters are as complex and compelling as his male characters.
So, why not 5 stars? The main voice, that of Guidanio Cerra, is a bit too philosophical, or maybe a bit too intrusive, in his musings about stories and their impact on one’s life. I found those interludes distracting, like hiccups that jolted me out of the flow of the novel by reminding me that I was reading a novel. I also found the changing POVs and the occasional overlaps or changes in the chronology of the story a bit confusing—just momentarily as I figured out who was narrating or when the event happened in relation to previous events.
Still, I highly recommend this book (and everything else I’ve read by this author)!… (more)
Lists
Which house? (1)
Five star books (3)
Best Audiobooks (1)
Ghosts (1)
French Books (1)
Antiheroes (1)
Epic Fantasy (1)
Epic Fiction (1)
Nineties (2)
1980s (3)
Favourite Books (3)
mom (2)
1990s (2)
Unread books (2)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 32
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 35,963
- Popularity
- #520
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 1,029
- ISBNs
- 506
- Languages
- 19
- Favorited
- 320
I first read this not long after the series came out (1984 for the first one). I was in my early teens, and there wasn’t much fantasy that felt inclusive of females, stories told in a lush world of sweeping scope. You know how desperate my thirteen year-old self was? Two words: Thomas Covenant. Kay was a refreshing summer breeze, and the writing–oh, the writing! It remained shiny in my memory, musical and strong enough to pull at the heart.
Like many nostalgia reads, I was somewhat afraid to approach it again, afraid it wouldn’t hold up to twenty-five years of memories. However, I found it remained satisfying, almost as delicious, just as emotional and evocative, and somehow, even more balanced than I remembered.
Continued at:
http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/the-summer-tree-by-guy-gavriel-kay/… (more)