SciFi/Fantasy Book Review; Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay https://t.co/vkie5z5FJR Short Review: 9 out of 10 (1/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) November 7, 2019

Short Review (cont): In his fantasy pastiche of Renaissance Europe, Kay weaves yet another fantastic character focused story of a pirate girl, a young merchant man, a painter, & a woman meant as a spy, as they are shaped by historic forces. Slow, but well worth the read. (2/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) November 7, 2019

I was a latecomer to the work of Canadian fantasy author, Guy Gavriel Kay, with me only reading my first Kay novel earlier this year.  And well, I really loved that first experience with Kay's work, in his most recent work, A Brightness Long Ago (Review Here), so it was never going to take me long to try and catch up with Kay's backlog.  Children of Earth and Sky is another book in the same universe as A Brightness Long Ago (ABLA was essentially a stand-alone sequel) - Kay's low fantasy version of Europe - so it was a logical next book for me to try.

And again I really enjoyed Children of Earth and Sky quite a bit, for much the same reasons as A Brightness Long Ago.  Like that other book, it's an incredibly character focused story, following a set of major characters - and a few others - and really lacking a major plot other than to follow a set of characters as they find themselves caught up in the events of this pastiche renaissance Europe.  It's a slow-paced book that often jumps between characters we haven't seen in quite a while, but Kay manages to give even the minorest of characters real life and depth - making them interesting to read - so that it always works, culminating in a rather satisfying ending for all involved.

More after the jump:


------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------
With the Holy City of Sarantium having fallen, the Jaddite cities have adapted to the new world order.  For the prosperous merchant city of Seressia, that adaptation has been to trade not only with the Jaddite world, but also with the enemy Osmanli Empire - with Seressia relying upon its trade, and its wide net of spies, to stay ahead.  The smaller merchant city of Dubrava also relies upon trade with all sides, but also on its small stature making it look too inoffensive to be feared.  And then there are the Senjanis, the Jaddite raiders who try to stay out of poverty and hunger by raiding the enemy ships on the seas....as well as the ships of those who would do business with them, to the great annoyance of the merchant cities.

In this era comes a number of people, who find themselves caught in the affairs of these nations:
A woman removed from a convent to act as a spy for Seressia upon Dubrava;
A young painter asked by Seressia to serve as a spy....and maybe assassin....as he paints the Khalif of the Empire;
A young Senjani woman, desperate to prove she deserves to raid as much as the men so that she can get back at the Osmanli Empire that kidnapped her brother and split her family, guided by the spirit of her grandfather;
A young Dubravan merchant, second son of a distinguished family, whose life to this point has merely involved womanizing and trading;

As the lives of these four, and others, converge, events around the world will continue to advance, and these individuals will have to struggle to not only find their own paths, and their own loves, but to survive.
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As I mentioned above the jump, this book really doesn't have an overarching plot, with the story essentially just following the major characters, and a few others, as events around the world progress and as each character finds their journeys putting them in the middle of major world events.  Many of the characters - and of course all the places - are clearly based upon real historical figures, as are of course the places involved - Kay does not try to hide this, and it helps give his world more gravitas and realness as the major events....are clearly ones that have happened in real life.  And Kay does a great job in making these historical characters interesting, even when we see them only for small glimpses - for example, as we see a couple of politicians/ambassadors in the fantasy equivalent of the Holy Roman Empire deal with each other in rather amusing ways.

But the center of this book are the four or five major characters, and its to them that the book returns to over and over again.  And they're all tremendous - although the highlight is Danica, the Senjani raider who wants only to prove her worthiness for raids so that she may get the opportunity for her vengeance, and who finds herself on a much longer winding path towards that goal than she could've imagined.  Always going places - from pirate ship to guerrilla band - with her pet dog Tico, Danica's righteous indignation, as well as quick thinking and skill with a bow, makes her a character the reader will naturally empathize with and want to survive and achieve her goals.  But the other characters are strong as well, as they go on their own journeys even after they separate from one another after the second and third acts of the story.

Again, this is a character focused story - after all, the events in question are shaped by history, and so it's not like the characters can do much to change them.  Which is not to say that these characters don't have major effects on the history of this world (and thus, our history), as their actions take them into the paths of major figures and rulers of this world, and allow them to change events to some extent.  But really these events, and the other actors, exist to allow the characters to truly shine, and Kay does just a phenomenal job at pulling that off.  I will say though, at one point I thought Kay was going to go the same route he did in A Brightness Long Ago, to my disappointment, and he in fact takes a different route, leading to a very satisfying and enjoyable read.

So yeah, I really enjoyed this one, and I don't really have much to say other than that.  I'll be back for the earlier novels in this universe at some point, I'm sure.