A Brightness Long Ago

I read Guy Gavriel Kay's newly released novel, A Brightness Long Ago (#833) with a great deal of pleasure.  His books are classified as "Fantasy", but Edward Rutherford in the cover blurb puts it perfectly - "He tells stories in an invented world … rich in historical echoes..."  His landscape here is the Renaissance patchwork of Italian city states, as was his previous book, Children of Earth and Sky (See my post of 7/5/2016.)  The political, cultural and religious elements of that time echo here with its mercenary armies attacking and defending city states, the pervasive influence of the Jaddite religion and men and women hampered or helped by their places in society.

Mr. Kay blends the stories of several key characters  into an interwoven tapestry in the remembrances of Guidanio Cerra's eventful life at the culmination of an influential career for the powerful city state of Seressa.  (Think Venice at the height of its power.).  As he tells it, it might so easily have been otherwise, had he not met the people that he did, or taken the actions which could have caused Fortune's Wheel to turn against him.

There is the red-haired Adria, a woman whom he helps and never forgets; the feuding Folco D'Acorsi and Teobaldi Monticola of Remigio who both favor him in their turn, and the scion of the Sardi merchant family ruling Firenti who seems to hapless and unpromising in the beginning.  There is also Jelena, the pagan healer who touches all their lives.

So many readers who would appreciate the depth of Kay's writing will miss these books because they will pigeon hole them as a genre they wouldn't bother to read.  Take a closer look here instead.