Wednesday, July 24, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay


Guy Gavriel Kay is not a new author - by contrast he's fairly well established in the genre to the point where I've had several people on twitter joke he's one of the few authors I mentioned reading they actually recognized.  But until A Brightness Long Ago, I'd never managed to read any of his works - his last released novel wasn't available at my library until recently and I just had plenty to read of other authors that I never got to him.  But somehow this latest novel of his, which got a few very good reviews in places I read, was available from the library pretty quickly after release, so I put it on reserve and finally got to give his work at try.

And I'm very glad I did, because A Brightness Long Ago is very very good and very different from much of what I've read before.  Set in a world based heavily upon renaissance-era Italy*, this is a book that basically does not really have a plot - this book is entirely based upon its characters, their interactions, development, and relationships.  And these characters are utterly fantastic throughout, driving me to rush through this book far quicker than I expected.  So yeah, this book is highly recommended, and this will not be the last Kay book I check out.

*Apparently this setting is a recurring one in some of Kay's works, and some characters recur.  As I've read none of those prior works (yet), I can say that no prior knowledge is needed whatsoever for this book.  
-----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------
Guidanio Cerra has lived a full life, but his pathway through life might've never gone in such unexpected and some might say....grand...ways if not for fortune putting him in the path of quite a few significant actors in the country of Batiara.  Guidanio - known as Danio to most - was the son of a mere tailor, but he was educated at a prestigious rich school thanks to some lucky connections.  Despite wanting to be nothing more than a bookseller, he felt compelled not to waste that education and went to work in the Court of the Count of Mylasia, a monstrous man known as the Beast.

It was there that he first encountered Adria Ripoli, the daughter of one of the highest Dukes in the land, as she assassinated the Beast and found herself injured and struggling to escape.  For no reason he could name, Danio helped Adria escape, expecting never to see her again....but fate had other plans.  Instead, Danio and Adria's paths would cross again, as Danio wandered through life and Adria tried to live a life of her own choosing.

And through it all, Danio would encounter others of great and small significance, particularly the hated rivals and mercenary commanders Folco Cino d'Acorsi and Teobaldo Monticola di Remigio, a foolish lesser son of a banking family Antenami Sardi, and a pagan traveling healer named Jelena.  Danio would indeed have a front seat to history in the making, as these famous and ordinary people impacted the world in ways large and small....
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The above plot summary is rather difficult because well, A Brightness Long Ago doesn't really have a plot per se.  There's no conflict to be resolved ever in the plot as the plot's main focus, no climax to be worked up to, no antagonist really of any sort whatsoever.  Hell, while I can't even describe the plot directly as Danio telling the origin story of his life, or at least of these events in particular, after being prompted by current events to remember them....because while much of the book is written from Danio's first person point of view, the book also frequently rotates to the points of view of other characters viewing and reacting the same events (from third person perspective).  This, in a lesser writer's hands, could easily result in a bit of a mess, but that's absolutely not what you get here.

That's because the characters here are phenomenal - both in being believable in their actions and personalities and compelling in how they go about their actions.  We really have three pairs of characters here: Danio and Adria as our main pair through their starcrossed relationship as they strive to find a path in their lives, Folco and Teobaldo as our secondary pair as their bitter rivalry plays out, and Antenami and Jelena as sort of the miscellaneous pair, both interacting with events as they occur and having a relationship that changes at least one of them in the process.

Danio is arguably the least interesting of the group, but he still works rather well, as a well educated but sometimes impulsive man, quick on his feet at recognizing how things truly are when others are blinded by their egos and past perceptions, which leads him into the company of all of the aforementioned powerful men.  It makes it easy to believe he'd get into these situations (I thought of comparing him to Forrest Gump in how he stumbles repeatedly into the paths of these major actors and events, but it's as much a result of his quick thinking and perceptive nature as chance) and makes him easy to enjoy as a character in these veins.   Adria is one of the two highlights of these characters, a woman who, in a world where her choices are to either be married off for political purposes or to join a convent, takes it upon herself to try as long as she can to have a life where she can make her own choices, as the right hand woman of Folco in his mercenary group.  Her actions make her so damn easy to root for and care about, and her relationship with Danio is fantastic.  But even aside from that, her interactions with the powerful men around her are just terrific, as she tries to navigate them in a way to control her own destiny.

Then there's Folco and Teobaldo, the hated rivals, who drive much of the conflicts that occur in this book, as their longtime feud is repeatedly brought to the forefront as they are hired by competing cities and Danio repeatedly interacts with both of them.  And they're both great, but I don't want to go forever in this review about each great character.  I do however want to highlight Jelena as the other real excellent character - a wandering pagan healer in a world where those who aren't the main, essentially Christian, religion are generally considered outsiders at best.  Jelena keeps finding her services at first needed by the other characters, causing her to observe major events throughout, but her relations with both Adria and the foolish Antenami result in major changes not only to those two characters but to herself as she continues to wander.   She's the one major character who never gains a position of power, but her journey as one of the little people involved in these conflicts of dangerous lords and others shows another perspective, and also provides a strong statement about the value and sometimes undefinable meaning of what a place means to be a home.

I'm really not explaining the above well, but it's not the type of book where it is easier to describe than to read: A Brightness Long Ago is definitely a book that deserves to be read in its full glory rather than see it summarized.  It's a book that made me feel for the characters quite strongly, brought tears to my eyes at one point and joy at others, and is just great overall.  Normally this is where I'd suggest negatives, but I don't really have many here - the biggest issue with this book one might have is that again it lacks a plot, and if you're looking for that, you won't find it here.  But as a lover of character-focused works, this is very much what I was looking for, and the book's alternate take on renaissance-era Italy works really well with those characters.  I will be reading the other works in this world for sure.
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