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Hi gang!

Here's where we start discussing! So, who's first? (You certainly didn't think I would go first, now, did you?)

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Je toujours serai premier dans votre vie

Sailing to Sarantium was a mosaic of a story... the prose powerful, the protaganist (Crispin) a normal man.. and the story incomplete...

I will go first Manon..Je toujours serai le premier pour vous

I thought sailing was a good read, but not a full story, "sailing to sarantium" could have ended when ariving at Sarantium and not lost anything (maybe) ...Why GGK takes a whole book merely to set the scene is beyond me. The story doesn't really begin until the following book...

The prose and choice of words are beautiful and the character of Crispin believeable... the world is well known and described.(it's Byzantium).. Linon was merely a plot device and stuck out like a sore thumb, it wasn't needed... take Linon out and the story remains the same...or possibly even stronger.

This book is more historical than fantasy in my opinion, Kay knows the period and what happened there and that time... but it lacks a certain creativity. He hints at Byzantium... we know it's Byza Town (founded by greek dude Byza) so why not go whole hog and called it Byzantium?

A brush with the magical world and sacrifice allows the reader a glimpse of what could have been... the portion following the bison was superb... GGK gave all 3 characters present an opportunity to describe the situation from each POV... this was great craft and demonstrated their latent motivations... I was awestruck at those scenes and his mastery of the story telling art...still, wasn't enough to elevate this work to the RECOMMENDED pile on my desk.

GGK has wonderful technique, the book is a mosaic and the story told from multiple POV's and so as the story unfolds, each character has unique perceptions and so we get really detailed look inside the characters.

Each of the characters contribute a unique POV that makes the WHOLE something bizarre and wonderous. The use of GGK's technique makes for careful reading as many minor details in one portion of the book refer to major issues elsewhere. The THEME seems to be life is a mosiac... built up, cemented, crumbling, multi faceted and many coloured... something of a puzzle. This work is difficult to classify... but in my opinion it isn't fantasy, it's historical fiction... but goodness, the quality of the writing is superb.

Crispin reminds me so much of Michelangelo... surrounded by war, soldiers and politicians he only sees the beauty in art and wants to share that pleasure...

The thing that concerns me the most about this book is the lack of emotional attachment the reader has to the characters... I just did not care enough about them, they took me to no highs, to no lows, I shared none of the emotions at all. The power for me was the intellectual struggle between art, politics and war within a web of intrique.

"Sailing" ends Nowhere... or is it the calm before the storm? The story really kicks off in book 2... and like a mosaic I think the ground work has been laid down for the gems to be laid upon at a later date... He's made his bed of mortar... now he plans to lay stones in it.

There is no emotional journey in this book, only the journey of Crispin from one place to another...it all seems so unrealistic... unless GGK pulls something big out of the bag in the next book.

The drama comes in book 2... why bother? Well, the power of the writing is in the prose... the sentences are exquisite... Crispin is a normal man...the history as far as I am aware is correct...and the promise of more to come is seductive. Crispin has to use his wits and the reader has to do the same, the teaser at the end of the book.. is pathetic... but something tell me that I will read the rest sometime... and be richer for it.

As a writer... I must say I admire his work... Sailing is not the best of his work, but there is more to come. A jumble of impression lies in my mind like a mosaic... I wonder if this is what GGK wanted me to think?

I am not sure if I can use direct quotes.. but look at this from chapter one... GGK... is powerful.

He came to, slowly, and gradually became aware of painful, flickering light and the scent of perfume. Not lavender. His head hurt, not altogether unexpectedly. The flour sack had been removed—obviously: he could see blurred candles, shapes behind them and around, vague as yet. His hands appeared to be free. He reached up and very gingerly felt around the egg-shaped lump at the back of his skull.

Now, in my opinion the book is worth reading for powerful images such as these... I hope you found my humble opinion useful!

Manon était que comme bon pour vous pour ainsi dire pour moi?

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I am almost at the end of this book, and I agree with soldier that it just dosnt grab me. I found it a real struggle to get into and came very close to putting it down after the prologue. That said once I had read past the first 50 or so pages the prose and story picked up and I started to enjoy reading it.

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Hi guys! Just to let you know that I'll be posting my comments later next week-end. I'm away for the week, and connecting from a hotel room at high rates and slow connection time really sucks! But, I haven't forgotten. How could I forget the coolest bunch of australian dudes in the world? ">

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I'm glad you'll go on to book 2, Manon. I personally believe it's worth it. Everything happens in book 2.

Tell me, how did you get on with Tigana in the end?

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I was intrigued enough to want to continue reading it. I agree with most of what Soldier has said, but I wouldn't know about the second book... I haven't finished reading the first yet.

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Je serai toujours le premier dans votre vie

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Er... Christine might have something to say about that, Soldier. She seems to be a nice gal, and considering that I might meet you at the TorCon next year, I'd like to be on her good side to begin with... ">

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I had to put it down, because I wanted to read Sarantium for this discussion group, and I had all of these other books to read for my workshop. Now that I'm back, I'll reorder my stack of reading and put it back there again. I'll let you know.

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Whew. Back after a small hiatus. I was trying to finish this durn book after searching for it for a while. Well, finally found it and made it through. Hmm. Made it through sounds like I didn't like it. But I did, more or less.

I tried to avoid reading the other posts, so I could focus on my own thoughts. I did see part of Steve's, though. I also thought that the Linon thread was a bit ... underexplored. It seemed so alien to the rest of the story. In fact, the whole bison thing seemed patched on, so to speak.

The other thread that I didn't really care for was the Pronobius Tillicitus thing. The courier in the beginning. What in Jad's name did he have to do with things? Yes, he set things off in the beginning, and he was brought back again for some death threats later, but overall, he was a walk-on character that got too much light, IMO. *Especially* in the beginning.

Speaking of the beginning, a 50 page prologue is just too much, I think. I kept wanting to scan, but I forced myself to read on, wondering when the real story was going to begin. I always give the author the benefit of the doubt until I've actually finished the read, but now that I'm done, I'd say the prologue is mostly unneeded. He does an *excellent* job of showing the intrigue in Sarantium, so why have the precursor? Maybe to set the scene, but even so, he's a good enough writer that he could set the scene no matter where he started.

I think starting with Pronobius delivering the message to Martinian would have been an excellent start to the novel.

One techinque that stuck out like a sore thumb for me is Kay's knack for jumping back and forth in time. The jumping back and forth is not the issue. That technique can be quite interesting. But when Kay did it, he ended up summarizing *so much* material. Urgh. It seemed like half the book was narrative summary instead of immediate scenes, and I think he lost a ton of punch because of it.

The story itself, I think, was not truly a story. It's a beginning. There was not much middle and there was very little end. That, to me, was a fairly large problem with the book.

Now, despite all those gripes, I really enjoyed this book. Kay's got a great style of writing, if a bit heavy. It certainly doesn't read fast. His characters are very vivid and unique, but also human. I loved getting pulled back to near-Byzantium to see the lifestyle back then. The accuracy of the mosaic's life was nicely done, and gave a new slant on a fantasy story.

Kay brings senses into his prose quite well, I think, and I very often had bright views of the world and the characters.

So, I'm glad I read it, but I'll wait a while to start the next one, I think.

Cheers all,

Brad.

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I feel all of Sailing is a prologue to Lord of Emperors. I also sense this must have begun as a stand alone novel and would have better for it. I love Kay's work - all of it - every last word. I think he has a way of bolting together a sentence which makes me want to go bang my head against a wall. Beautiful writing, vivid descriptions, characters you just know because they are so well drawn...sigh.

But I think in this instance we were all ripped off as readers. I love the story - I just think it should have been one book for $20 instead of two for $36 and then everyone would have been satisfied with a slow start but a tale that gathered steam and a damn good read by the end of it.

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Fiona

I think this was originally intended to be one book.. byut the marketing people decided to release it as 2... it's the only logical explanation that I can think of..

Of course I am sloshed on Pernod so maybe I am not fully sensible (Big Hills no comments please).

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I agree with Brad on the Prologue thing. 50 pages is waaaaayyyyy to long! I usually try to put down a book at the end of a chapter between reads, and since I've been reading this one at lunch time, it took me about tree tries before I reached the end of it, feeling as if I had missed on something.