{"id":6519,"date":"2011-07-03T12:41:41","date_gmt":"2011-07-03T00:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=6519"},"modified":"2011-07-03T12:41:46","modified_gmt":"2011-07-03T00:41:46","slug":"what-im-reading-under-heaven-guy-gavriel-kay-my-iron-spine-helen-rickerby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2011\/07\/03\/what-im-reading-under-heaven-guy-gavriel-kay-my-iron-spine-helen-rickerby\/","title":{"rendered":"What I’m Reading: “Under Heaven” (Guy Gavriel Kay) & “My Iron Spine” (Helen Rickerby)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One of the great things about having met a book deadline is that one can then (for at least a few hours) put one’s feet up and relax with a good book—a story, what’s more, written by someone other than oneself!<\/p>\n

In my 1 May post<\/strong><\/a> on the Supernatural Underground<\/a> I talked about ‘comfort reads’: returning to those books that are like old friends. Returning to an author you have liked before, although with a new book, can be a similar process—you hope for that “old friend” feeling of a writing style that you love; the familiar magic of a tale well told. Guy Gavriel Kay<\/a><\/strong> has been one of those authors for me for some time now—I love the poetry and High Romantic style of his Fionavar trilogy<\/strong> (The Summer Tree; The Wandering Fire; The Longest Road<\/em>) and his first standalone, Tigana<\/strong><\/em>, is probably one of my favourite books. I also very much enjoyed A Song for Arbonne<\/strong><\/em> and The Lions of Al-Rassan<\/strong><\/em>. Some of his more recent works have disappointed me a little, however, so it was with some trepidation that I treated myself to a very nice trade paperback edition of his latest novel, Under Heaven<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Firstly, I loved the cover, and although one may not judge a book by its cover, one that ‘speaks’ to you and draws you in is always a great help! And I liked the blurb a lot:<\/p>\n

“Honour is Beyond Measure<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

But It’s Price May Be An Empire …<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

For two years Shen Tai has mourned his celebrated father and lived like a hermit beyond the borders of the Kitan Empire. There, by a mountain lake, the bones of the soldiers killed in great battles between the Kitai and the Tagurans lie unburied and their wailing ghosts strike terror into the living.<\/em><\/p>\n

… (Now) … Tai will be given two hundred and fifty Sardian horses by the Tagurans, legendary steeds from the far west, as a reward for his courage and piety … to give a man even one of the famed Sardians is to honour him greatly; to give him so many 1s a reward<\/em> which would overwhelm an emperor, and could be Tai’s death warrant.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I am about halfway through currently and I am very happy to say that I am really enjoying the read—this is definitely Guy Gavriel Kay at his best: rich storytelling, subtleties of plot and great characterization. And for those of you who like a little bit of romance with your epic adventuring and game of kingdoms, there is at least one very nice one here to be enjoyed.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>Helen Rickerby<\/strong> is a fellow Tuesday Poem Blog<\/strong><\/a> poet and My Iron Spine<\/strong><\/em> (Headworx) is her second collection of poetry. As those of you who follow my Tuesday Poem postings are probably aware by now, I am a huge admirer of Helen’s work and so had been meaning to buy My Iron Spine <\/strong><\/em>for ages. Recently I did just that and am finally starting to read it—and so far, I have to say, I love every poem I’ve read (I am about a 1\/3 of the way through.)\u00a0 Why? Well as a poet myself, I believe that Helen’s structure is very strong and her poems have emotional resonance as well as a great deal of wry humour. Definitely “I like” territory for the Lowe gal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the great things about having met a book deadline is that one can then (for at least a few hours) put one’s feet up and relax with a good book—a story, what’s more, written by someone other than oneself! In my 1 May post on the Supernatural Underground I talked about ‘comfort reads’: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-writers","category-what-im-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6519"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6531,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519\/revisions\/6531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}