Oh where do I begin with the glories that are this book? It brings the heartbreak and beauty that live in the world(s) of Guy Gavriel Kay, interconnected tales of Byzantium and southern France and medieval Spain. Now we have the realms of England and Wales and the Vikings, told as they begin to shift and change from constant invasion and warfare to wisdom and tentative alliance.

The book begins on the island of Rabady and delves into the ways and customs of the Erlings, starting with the theft of a grey stallion by an exiled warrior's son, Bern. And Bern manages to escape his fate, with the stallion, while he pursues a warrior's way amongst the fierce mercenaries of Jormsvik on the mainland.

Into the tale, told in a bit of hindsight, is the rise of King Aeldred of the Anglcyns, last survivor of his royal line when the Erling raiders slaughter his father and brother. Aeldred manages to survive in the Anglcyn marshes for a season with two brothers-in-arms, attracting more Anglcyn survivors to him, until he makes his revenge on the Erling raiders and wins back his kingdom.

By the time of the main storyline, King Aeldred has established peace in his kingdom for 25 years, married and has 4 children, and is set to have his third annual fair and festival with the rebuilding of his kingdom. The cleric, Ceinion, of the Cyngael, journeys between the Anglcyn kingdom and that of the Cyngael.

The Cyngael are represented by the Arbreth and the Cadyr, two factions who are often caught stealing cattle and raiding one another's farms, and that is how Alun and Dai enter the tale when they try to start a cattle raid on Brynn ap Hywll's farm and holdings. It is in the land of the Cyngael that a hint of magic takes place, with the Fae and their Queen and mysterious lights that hint at another world coexisting with the one in this tale.

The language of this book is one of longing and sorrow and hope and youth, and weaves in observations about the commonality of human experience and knowledge and what happens when fates and choices overlap. I especially liked the bits of lives of incidental characters, who would never make it into the songs or history books, but whose lives are forever changed by encounters with the larger world. ( )

This book was honestly pretty disappointing. the characters weren't compelling, and it tried a bit too hard to be deep and full of Earth Shattering Moments. Not even close to the quality of the Lions of Al-Rassan or a Song for Arbonne. ( )

Craving more historical fantasy, especially of Viking flavor, I'd picked up this book with high hopes, for I'd heard good things about it. I'd read the Fionavar Tapestry over a year ago, and though that was somewhat rough-going, I was more optimistic for this one, given its much later publication.

I don't know anything about Guy Gavriel Kay's more recent works, but I think I can safely say now that I don't really like his prose. On one hand, there's no doubt that I favor for fantasy a more elevated, perhaps somewhat removed, kind of language---and that's not on Kay himself. Regardless, there's something very heavy-handed about his prose, for he spends too much time describing without much flavor the emotions of the characters, writing in circles about their 'sorrow' (he was prone to doing this in the Fionavar Tapestry, as well), and making protracted meta-narrative observations until little about which to ponder is left for the reader. None of the characters felt particularly remarkable, and the segments that explore the events of the story and their future consequences from the perspectives of common bystanders, while occasionally interesting, come off more often than not as terribly contrived. They add to the (already too numerous) number of perspectives throughout the book, diluting, in my experience, the depth of narration.

Nonetheless, there are things to appreciate. I thought Kay's calquing of the historical groups to create his Anglcyn, Cyngael, and Erlings, and Alfred the Great for Aeldred and Asser for Ceinon, among others, to be quite clever (maybe this is common in the world of historical fantasy---I wouldn't know). ( )

I can't really put into words what is lacking in this novel. This was my second time reading it - I read it when it initially came out and was dissapointed, but I think it was because I read it too fast and missed much of the subtlety that is usually present in Kay's works. Apparently that wasn't the issue.

I think its the characters - they aren't remarkable or interesting or even very real. I had no emotional connection to them. When a Kay character dies, I expect to feel some emotion, and with this book I got nothing.

I also had a very unique feeling while reading this book - that I just had to finish it. It was like pulling teeth to get through it, and I usually devour Kay books. ( )

Ah, I love Guy Gavriel Kay so much! He writes fantasy with the lyrical prose of a masterful author and the striking character insights of someone who understands the depth of the human spirit. I lost track of how many times I fell madly in love with one of his characters within a page or two of them being introduced. Now that's some masterful writing right there!

I also appreciated the pace of this book: slow without meandering, detailed without being bogged down in minutia. And the various glimpses into seemingly random people's whole lifespans were both unexpected and always welcome. Kay made me believe I was reading about real people: people who lived, died, and MATTERED.

I'm so glad to have picked this one up. ( )