A Little “A Song For Arbonne” Paean
As those of you who follow this blog may be aware, I’m a bit of a fan of Guy Gavriel Kay’s style of fantasy—most recently mentioning his Fionavar trilogy as one of my Favourite Epic Fantasy series, and Tigana as one of my Favourite Fantasy Standalone Novels. And I also did a book report on Under Heaven ‘way back’ in 2011.
Also recently, I found myself dipping back into another Kay favourite, A Song for Arbonne, and was reminded again of why I enjoy so much of his writing. In fact there are many reasons why with this book, but the element I particularly want to share today is how Kay can insert a small and apparently incidental happening at the beginning of his tale—and wham kapow, hit you with it again at the end as a major point in resolving the story. Personally I just love this sleight-of-storytelling approach, especially when it is so masterfully done.
And no, I am absolutely not going to tell you the how and why, because that would be spoiler territory—and to appreciate the artistry I really feel you have to read A Song for Arbonne for yourself. Besides, it’s such a great story anyway, that I don’t want to deny you one iota of reading pleasure…
Alsoz, dear readers, for those of you who know I’m also a Kinuko Craft fan, it will come as no surprise to you that I very much “heart” the original US hardcover art for A Song for Arbonne. Yup, love it! But the UK cover (the one I have on my shelves) is also cool. 😉
Kinuko Craft does beautiful book covers for fantasy books IMO.
I have a few books with covers done by her and they are lovely, and really suit the story.
Juliet Marillier’s “Wildwood Dancing’ is another of my favourites, plus quite a few of the Patricia McKillip jackets.
I’m also a fan of Guy Gavriel Kay. I love his fantasy books (A Song for Arbonne and Tigana are my favourite Kay books). I think that everybody should Kay’s books.
Oops… I pressed the post button too soon. 😉
I think that everybody should Kay’s books. –> I think that everybody should *read* Kay’s books.
I think Guy Gavriel Kay is Awesome—but you’ve probably already figured that out! 😉