Sailing to Sarantium

Sarantine Mosaic #1

by Guy Gavriel Kay

The first part of The Sarantine Mosaic, Kay’s sweeping tale of politics, intrigue and adventure inspired by ancient Byzantium.

Rumored to be responsible for the ascension of the previous Emperor, his uncle, amid fire and blood, Valerius the Trakesian has himself now risen to the Golden Throne of the vast empire ruled by the fabled city, Sarantium.

Valerius has a vision to match his a glittering dome that will proclaim his magnificence down through the ages. And so, in a ruined western city on the far distant edge of civilization, a not-so-humble artisan receives a call that will change his life forever.

Crispin is a mosaicist, a layer of bright tiles. Still grieving for the family he lost to the plague, he lives only for his arcane craft, and cares little for ambition, less for money, and for intrigue not at all. But an imperial summons to the most magnificent city in the world is a difficult call to resist.

In this world still half-wild and tangled with magic, no journey is simple; and a journey to Sarantium means a walk into destiny. Bearing with him a deadly secret, and a Queen's seductive promise; guarded only by his own wits and a bird soul talisman from an alchemist's treasury, Crispin sets out for the fabled city from which none return unaltered.

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Historical, Epic Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy

451 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 7, 1998

About the author

Guy Gavriel Kay is a Canadian author of fantasy fiction. Many of his novels are set in fictional realms that resemble real places during real historical periods, such as Constantinople during the reign of Justinian I or Spain during the time of El Cid. Those works are published and marketed as historical fantasy, though the author himself has expressed a preference to shy away from genre categorization when possible.

Reviews

[Petrik · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5/5 stars

It pains me to say this, but it’s time for me to accept that Guy Gavriel Kay’s books aren’t for me.

I understand that Guy Gavriel Kay’s books are hugely loved among many readers, and I honestly loved Tigana, it was my first entry into GGK’s work that made me incredibly excited to try all of his other books. I tried The Lions of Al-Rassan three years ago, and it became the first-ever novel I failed to finish; I read more than 50% of it, and it was maddeningly boring for me. Fast forward to today, for the past three years, I’ve heard from Nicholas Eames—one of my favorite authors—that Lord of Emperors, the second book in The Sarantine Mosaic duology, is his number one favorite book of all time. This is why I tried this duology, this is why I tried Sailing to Sarantium, this is why I tried GGK once again. Unfortunately, similar to The Lions of Al-Rassan, Sailing to Sarantium also failed (I’m sorry, Nick!) to reclaim the magical and mesmerized feeling when I read Tigana.

“He wanted to achieve something of surpassing beauty that would last. A creation that would mean that he--the mosaic worker Caius Crispus of Varena--had been born, and lived a life, and had come to understand a portion of the nature of the world, of what ran through and beneath the deeds of women and men in their souls and in the beauty and the pain of their short living beneath the sun.”

The problems I had with this book can be described as a—more or less—similar to the issues I had with The Lions of Al-Rassan. The first one, and most likely the most crucial ones, is that I couldn’t connect or empathize with the characters. I’ve tried four books so far, and I have to ask you guys something, is there any book by GGK where the female characters won’t immediately want to bang the main character? After having so many books published, surely GGK can come up with at least a few woman who doesn’t instantly fall in love or want to have sex with the main dude on their first encounter? The main character, Crispin, is a master at mosaics who pretty much has nothing else going for him except the fact that he’s a foul-mouthed mosaicist being summoned to Sarantium. He’s not likable as a character, and yet almost every female character he met—except his mother, thankfully—in this book—upon their first meeting—straightaway seduces or fall in love with him. Does being a mosaicist turns the lady on or something? I don’t get it, and to be honest, I’ve read several books with this premise that I loved, but on these books I enjoyed, I never got the feeling of it being male-wish fulfillment.

It’s not the same case with GGK, I probably can understand if this happened only in this book, but this kind of thing happens to be a very common occurrence in GGK’s books. It was tolerable in Tigana, and even that one still has a few very out-of-place or bizarre sex scenes, but it was just insane here, not to mention unbelievable. Need more proof? Almost every woman in this book is a whore, or has worked as one. “But it’s historical realism!” I’m not an expert on Byzantine Empire, but I’m 100000% sure there are other jobs other than being a whore. This isn’t Sailing to Sarantium, this is Seduced to/in Sarantium. An example of the kind of event that annoyed me so much: There was a scene in the book where Crispin told Kasia that she’s free, she’s no longer a whore, then proceed to fuck her on her sleep. Where even is the logic in this? How do you free a whore from being fucked by fucking her? It’s like telling someone “You are now a vegan, you no longer have to eat meat, but I’ll give you my own cooked meat to devour.”

From what I’ve observed and my interactions with readers for the past years, GGK is often well known for his beautiful prose, and to be fair he does write beautifully, but this is also where I had issues with. When I read this book, it seriously felt like GGK was way too enamored with his own writing; phrases and beautiful phrases and sentences were often written without bringing any impact because of oversaturation. Also, I had mixed feelings regarding the first half of the novel, but I thought it would improve significantly in the second half; it didn’t, the second half somehow was even worse to me. I personally found the chariot racing to be a mess, and all the ladies keep pushing themselves on Crispin was so cringeworthy and unbelievable. The entire story didn’t just progress slowly; it progressed at a snail pace. After pushing myself so hard to finish this book, I can’t help but feel that it wasn’t necessary to make The Sarantine Mosaic a duology. There were so many parts in this book that could’ve been cut out without losing any weight; due to this being a duology, the conclusion of this book was utterly unsatisfying to me.

I’m going to stop my review here. As I said, I am definitely on the unpopular opinion side when it comes to GGK’s work, and I don’t want to push future readers from reading his books because MANY do love his books. I have a love and hate relationship with GGK’s books. I absolutely enjoyed his high fantasy book, Tigana, and I’m going to keep on recommending that book. But I am finding it incredibly hard to enjoy his historical fantasy novels. Some readers have mentioned to me that I must know about the real history that inspired GGK’s historical fantasy novels first to enjoy them. Admittedly, I had close to zero knowledge about the Byzantine era that inspired this duology or Medieval Spain that inspired The Lions of Al-Rassan. This could indeed be the reason why his historical fantasy books didn’t work for me, or maybe in the end, it all simply comes down to what I’ve said: Tigana is GGK’s one-hit-wonder for me. I am sure of one thing, though, Sailing to Sarantium didn’t spark my enthusiasm to continue to the sequel, and if I may be brutally honest, I doubt I’ll be reading any more of GGK’s historical fantasy novels.

You can order the book from: Book Depository (Free shipping)

You can find this and the rest of my reviews at Novel Notions

Special thanks to my Patrons on Patreon for giving me extra support towards my passion for reading and reviewing!

My Patrons: Alfred, Alya, Annabeth, Devin, Hamad, Jimmy Nutts, Joie, Mike, Miracle, Nicholas, Zoe.

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of today's fantasy can be traced through branches back to rather small root. Epic fantasy can be traced back Lord of the rings, fairytale inspired fantasy (like that of Gaiman or Diana Wyn Jones) can be traced to Lud in the Mist, grimdark to Dread empire, military fantasy to Black company, science fantasy to Amber chronicles.


Kay is one of few authors who's work come from different tree entirely as he draws inspiration from history and historical fiction. Sailing to Sarantium play out more like book of historical fiction with personal story of an artisan as main focus. Setting is heavily inspired by Byzantium of Justinian I. Beside few fantasy elements this is very authentic setting and technology, medicine and way of life match those from history books. So Kay put story in historic setting but without restraints of real world's history and geography. In fact way supernatural elements are used is more similar to magical realism than fantasy.

I remember Terry Goodkind talking about not liking his books being labeled as fantasy because he writes books about people no matter what setting they are in. Now Goodkind is delusional, self-loving army but what he says about himself can be applied to Kay.

Story is slow paced and not that eventful and without huge twists or tear jerking moments. This to me would generally sounds like a flaw as book sounds dull when you describe it to people but it really isn't. This book relies more on elaborate worldbuilding and very well developed characters to keep readers attention and it did keep me enthralled from first to last page.

Considering my previous experiences with Kay I think it's not too soon to put of on my "favorite fantasy authors" list

[Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would like to have been in the room when Guy Gavriel Kay pitched this story to his publishers:

“It’s a historical fantasy novel based on the Byzantine Empire and the works of W.B. Yeats. The main character is an artist caught up in political schemes during a tumultuous time.”

“Uh….The Byzantine Empire and poems? And the hero isn’t any kind of an archer or a sorcerer? Some kind of bad ass like we usually see in these books?”

“No, he’s just a mosaicist. That’s a guy who glues bits of colored glass or tiles to walls or ceiling to create images.”

“Uh….that’s great, Guy. Why don’t you go write that up and maybe we’ll take a look at it right after we get through this pile of manuscripts featuring groups of swordsman, thieves, elves and magicians on heroic quests as they battle orcs and goblins.”

Set in the same world as The Lions of Al Rassan but several centuries earlier, Caius Crispus a/k/a Crispin is a talented mosaicist with a fiery temper who is still mourning the family he lost to plague. An Imperial Courier arrives bearing a summons from the emperor for his partner Martinian to come to the capital, Sarantium. Martinian claims that he’s too old to travel and insists that Crispin take his place instead. Crispin is reluctantly pushed into making the hazardous road journey, and soon finds himself being used as a pawn by powerful people.

Wait a second. If he travels by land rather than sea than why is the book called Sailing to Sarantium? Kay explains it like this:

"To say of a man that he was sailing to Sarantium was to say that his life was on the cusp of change: poised for emergent greatness, brilliance, fortune--or else at the very precipice of a final and absolute fall as he met something too vast for his capacity."

Ah, so that explains it…

This is the first book of Kay’s two-part Sarantine Mosaic, and as with the other one I recently read by him, The Lions of Al Rassan, he does a masterful job of building an intricate world full of political and religious conflicts as well as enough day-in-the-life details to make it all feel authentic and realistic. Having his lead character be a smart artist with a tendency of speaking his mind and putting him into the middle of a palace intrigue plot when he’s in over his head made for some interesting scenes that are different that the usual kind of hack-n-slash stuff you’d expect to be driving a story like this. There is just enough action and violence to make it feel dangerous and not just a bunch of people standing around talking, and Crispin’s journey as a way to get over his grief is a nice personal hook.

A couple of points kept this from getting to four stars. One of the things that set The Lions of Al Rassan apart from other fantasies was its lack of any kind of magic or supernatural elements other than one supporting character having some very limited telepathy and precognition. Here there is a full-blown alchemist who has created something that he gives to Crispin as a gift, and then there’s an encounter with a pagan entity. I was far more interested in Crispin navigating the political and religious mine fields of dealing with the Emperor’s court than any of these elements. (Obviously this was a personal preference, and I’m sure some readers will feel the exact opposite.)

Also, there are several strong female characters in positions of power here, and that’s to the book’s credit. However, after the third or four time that Crispin finds himself in the presence of one of these women and finds himself flabbergasted by their intellect and beauty, the conversations took on a rinse-and-repeat flavor. Essentially they have so much in common that they start feeling like the same character and that’s too bad because the first couple of interactions really worked well.

All in all I liked this but didn’t love it. I’d read it before but remembered little of the plot, and I can’t remember how it ends in the next book either so it obviously didn’t blow my mind. I’ll probably move on to Lord of Emperors again at some point, but I’m not in any great hurry.

[Mayim de Vries · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is like a mosaic. I am at a loss how to properly categorise it.

It is neither a place-driven nor a character-driven story. The first part is just a road-tripping gig. It has a feeling of three, loosely connected novellas about people who meet on the road under weird circumstances. The second part reads like a prelude to the next instalment and remains inconclusive in terms of shape and direction.

However, this inability to pin down one particular trope or arch (revenge, love, quest, etc.) attests to Mr Kay's ingenuity. Only a truly great writer is able to write a novel composed of precious and semi-precious stones that put together create something even more valuable and beautiful.

The stones are the stories and back stories and side tales that join together and yet remain distinct in their own unique way. There are lots of different POVs, from a lowly scullion boy to an arrogant imperial courier to a wise alchemist. The writing style (for those unaccustomed to Mr Kay’s elegant prose) is so very opulent - in a way fitting to the Byzantine, I mean Sarantine!, opulence. At the same time, sometimes I was drifting away because of the background detail buildup, like the background of the soldier or the internal monologue of his superior. These are lovely written, but not - in any way that I see - indispensable for the main story.

In fact, there are several internal monologues, personal reflections and musings. It is all wonderfully written, both in terms of narrative and design (each tiniest detail fits perfectly into the whole mosaic of the story), but it takes time to take it all in even though the pace of the novel is fast and you will be met with a cliffhanger after a heartbreak after a plot twist.

The main protagonist, Caius Crispus, described as „choleric and of dark humour, and not inclined to be properly respectful” (totally me), is a mosaicist traveling to Sarantium, the city of Cities, under a false name, and carrying “an overture of marriage to the Emperor, who was very much married, and to the most powerful and dangerous woman in the known world”. Along the road, he picks up two unorthodox companions, a slave girl and a young man of few words but many deeds.

Throughout his journey, Crispus is guarded by the dead, hiding behind the memory of love, but when he arrives into the city he realises that he had come endowed with allegiances and enemies before he'd even set out for the journey. Quickly, he needs to learn what game he'd become a small piece in, how he is being deployed and to what end.

I loved the court and the intrigues of Sarantium! Beautifully written both in terms of machinations as well as conversations barbed with innuendos and diplomatic evasiveness (reminded me of the Goblin Emperor). Also, Mr Kay managed to create one of the most impressive royal marriages. The emotional bond between the Emperor and the Empress is strong, but more importantly, they are equally matched in terms of intelligence and wits and courage. Mr Kay writes that Valerius and Alixana

“were so far ahead of anyone else in this game of courts and intrigues that… it wasn't really a game at all.”

They reminded me of Mr and Mrs Underwood (although they are not as sinister as Frank and his wife).

One thing that absolutely has to be said about Mr Kay's prose in Sarantium: the way he pays homage to women is simply phenomenal. Maybe because the MC is so very virile and - I think - so subconsciously hungry for females, even if he guards himself with a memory of a dead love. Women are celebrated, praised, and desired. Kay’s descriptions read like worship:

“She was exquisite, was Styliane Daleina, like pale glass, pale ivory, like one of the knife blades made in the far west of the world, in Esperana, where they crafted such things to be works of beauty as well as agents of death.”

or

”Crispin looked at the woman in the room with him and had a sense of having entered black waters, with unimaginably complex currents trying to suck him down.”

I love the way Mr Kay venerates beauty, wits and courage and compassionate nature of women. On the side note, the lonely sex scene was totally random, even more so than those in Tigana. Maybe this is just Mr Kay's quirk.

Truly, Mr Kay's imagination is a wild and dangerous creature when unleashed. I sailed to Sarantium and I don’t regret it. Why, I look forward to Lord of Emperors.

___

My review of the Lord of Emperors

This was a buddy read with the Kay Squad at FBR.

[Choko · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** 4.35 ***

A buddy read with the Fantasy Buddy Read Group, because we love Kay's storytelling!


"...“He wanted to achieve something of surpassing beauty that would last. A creation that would mean that he--the mosaic worker Caius Crispus of Varena--had been born, and lived a life, and had come to understand a portion of the nature of the world, of what ran through and beneath the deeds of women and men in their souls and in the beauty and the pain of their short living beneath the sun.” ..."

I grew up with stories of the Golden Age of Byzantium. Not hard to do, when we still have churches and mosaics left on the Balkans as legacy of that time. Reading Sailing to Sarantium reminded me of those histories and it is exactly as the author intended. Sarantium is the Fantasy representation of that most glorious and opulent of times in Constantinople, when gold was heavy in the coffers and gems were mixed with the colored glass chips adorning the walls and window panes of the houses of G-d. Not to be outshined by the divinity, those rich and powerful enough adorned their own households in similar lavish fashion, proving to lesser beings how close they are to the Almighty and how the poor are insignificant compared to them. This is a tactic employed by the self-aggrandizing power-mongers since beginning of time, but it does seem like Empires, when reaching their highs and are on the verge of reaching that edge, after which follows a demise, tend to find most reasons for building magnificent monuments to their rains, statues of their heroes, and art proclaiming their G-ds... Loudly and very expensively!!!

"..."O sages standing in God’s holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity."..."

--- Sailing to Byzantium, by W. B. Yeats

The homage G. G. Kay pays to Yeats is obvious, but also does the great poet justice. Just as in the short poem, so in this first part of a duology we are given beautiful prose and the reflection on loss, mortality, and what is left behind after we are gone... What is a legacy and how your role in everyday life directly effects the meaning of the concept. Is it enough to be remembered by your loved-ones, or by a country, or by a civilization? What is the best way to make our mark and do we need a monument to ourselves other than what we do with our lives? Is flesh of your flesh the only way to continue who you are, not just the material of which you are made? And this is just the legacy part. The grief and loss of your beloved spouse and children, are they enough for the ones left behind to attempt to stop time and refuse all joy that might follow? Does a happy moment after their death dishonor them? Or having love for someone new make the love you felt for them less or cheapen its value?

"..."But what did one own if life, if love, could be taken away to darkness? Was it all not just ... a loan, a leasehold, transitory as candles?"..."

The story, in the tradition of GGK's world-building and storytelling, is about a talented Artisan, who is a well respected mosaic creator. Caius Crispus of Varena is on his way to Sarantium under a false name and with a contract to craft a mosaic for the newest basilica (equivalent of Haghia Sofia), just build by the current Emperor Valerius and the Empress, who have no hairs and feel the pressure of newer, emerging powers bubbling in the political swamp around them. Faced with their mortality and well versed in the ways of toppling powerful figures, Valerius and his wife are looking for their rode to immortality. On the road from the Western seat of the Empire, Crispin has some very moving experiences with one of the Old G-ds and a very spiritual revelation when looking at a representation of the One G-d of his fate... A very knowledgeable GR friend of mine was very good to tell me that such reactions to art have a name - hyperkulturemia! See, we always learn something new:)

"...“Amazing, when you thought about it: how quickly-made decisions became the life you lived.” ..."

Crispin is quickly immersed in the politics and intrigues of the high echelons and just as quickly his life becomes imperiled. However, amid loss, danger and supernatural beings, he also struggles with staying true to the memory of his perished wife, since he seems surrounded by some extraordinary women, gifted not only with good looks and high station, but intellect and whit, and see him almost as a challenge as to which one of them would get him to surrender... I love the way GGK describes art, atmosphere and women! I don't think I could grow tired of his veneration of all three. This is why, and the political intrigue, of course, I am looking forward to reading the conclusion to this marvelous series:) I know not all enjoy his writing style, but it fits my reading preferences juuuust right:)

Now I wish you all Happy Reading and may you Always find what you Need in the pages of a Good Book!!!

[Jake Bishop · Rating 5 out of 5]

audio reread update: I quite like the audio for this


Sailing to Sarantium is my first GGK duology, and I know this duology is a lot of people's favorite GGK work. Surprising absolutely nobody I thought it was excellent, but I did not enjoy it as much as I did some of the historical stand alones, simply because....well they stand better on their own. This was fantastic throughout, including the chapters at the end, but it didn't feel to me like the end of a book.

Anyway, it was still amazing.

Sailing To Sarantium, ironically has basically no sailing, it is an in world figure of speech. It is set in a fantasy version of the Byzantine empire about a hundred years after the fall of the western empire. The main characters—Crispin, who may be my favorite GGK character to date—is a mosaicist who get's called to go to the capital, to work on a mosaic...ish. On the way and there he is going to have a bunch of political, and some supernatural stuff get in the way and generally make it not a book about a dude just going to make a mosaic.

Byzantine politics is cutthroat, you see that right from the prologue, which is a 50 page Vignette from about 10 seemingly unrelated PoVs following the events imminently after a long running Emperor with no heirs dies. You see from these PoVs, despite most of them seeming completely unrelated to this, how various people try and claim the title.

In general this book has a lot of political maneuvering, as I have come to expect from GGK, and as I have come to expect, it is sooo good. He is so good at writing conversations that subtext, double meanings but feel believable. And showing how people's choices, and randomness can spiral out and impact events to a major degree.

A theme of this book I really appreciated was finding the beauty in excellence at people's chosen craft. It is obviously going to be a thing for our protagonist, who is literally an artist. But the way he has architects, chariot drivers(did I mention their are chariot races, they are awesome), and cooks are can almost become obsessive about rendering their craft to perfection, not for practical reasons, but for the sake of excellence and beauty itself.

Like in his other books, GGK continues to just not really care about what most people do. He will tell a chapter non linearly, he will have omniscient and limited PoV, hey a random scene is present tense, I guess just because it managed to get the tension and ominous feeling of impending disaster. He does what he wants, it works, i'm here for it.

Also his writing is still god tier. In general I think this story is less accessible than Tigana, A Song For Arbonne, or The Lions of Al-Rassan, but that is not due to overly dense writing, which is not at all overwritten in my opinion. It is just due to having a less clear conflict driving the narrative.

Sailing to Sarantium has the story in a place where The Lord of Emperor's could end up being easily my favorite Guy Gavriel Kay book, It has my favorite character, and setting so far. On it's own it is still excellent, but I prefer the other historical stand alones, largely do to more impactful final acts.

9.2/10


Reread update: same rating, but I moved it up my book ranking docs. This book lacks a climactic ending, but manages to be consistently phenomenal throughout.

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a love-hate relationship with Kay’s work: loved Tigana, really liked Song for Arbonne, put Lions of Al-Rassan down in disgust halfway through. (Last Light of the Sun is the only one I’ve been ambivalent about so far.) Maybe this book is too similar to Lions for me--and most people seem to love Lions (if you do, you might want to ignore this review). Or maybe I’ve just read too much Kay.

At any rate, this book is about Crispin, a mosaicist who travels to Sarantium (a very thinly disguised Byzantium) in the place of his more famous but aged partner, who was summoned to work on a project for the Emperor. I like historical fantasy, and I liked the worldbuilding here: the charioteering, the glimpses into the famous bureaucracy, and the descriptions of the world. What I didn’t like was.... just about everything else.

The plot: Crispin travels. He gets to Sarantium. He meets a bunch of people who are involved in intrigues. A bit-part character tries to kill him. Then.... it ends. If you want any kind of climax, let alone a resolution, buy book two, I guess. Given my reaction to this one, I have little interest in book two, and I’m still of the belief that the first book in a sequence ought to have a complete plot arc. And what we have here isn’t even all that interesting; halfway through the book I put it down for a month and read some other books.

Then there’s the characters. Almost every woman in this book is a current or former prostitute. Literally every woman in the book (except Crispin’s mother, who has a walk-on role) throws herself at Crispin right after meeting him, or otherwise tries to seduce him. For that matter, almost everyone in this book of either gender is obsessed with Crispin. He shows up in Sarantium, and all of the sudden, aristocratic women are stalking him back to his hotel and getting in his bed, aristocratic men are stalking him to the bathhouses to have a private chat, the Emperor and Empress are drinking and bantering (and flirting, of course, in the Empress’s case) with him in their private chambers.... Why? I have no idea.

Because unfortunately, Crispin is an uninteresting character for whom I never felt any sympathy. All the tired fantasy stereotypes are on display here. Dead family in the backstory? Check. Speaks his mind at inopportune moments, like when he’s presented at court? Check. No formal weapons training, but can still soundly defeat an assassin who has the advantage of surprise and walk away with nothing more than a bruise or two? Check. Rescues pretty, hapless girls for no apparent reason and is rewarded with sex? Check. The only thing here I hadn’t seen many times before was the mosaicist thing, which did not come close to redeeming this tiresome, obnoxious character. Some of the other characters were much better and there is some decent character development in this book, but it suffers from the focus on Crispin.

And finally, there’s the writing. Stylistically, Kay’s a competent writer, sometimes even a very good writer. This book is not poetically written like Tigana. It is well-written compared to most fantasy, but Kay has a tendency to become overwrought. He's quite obviously in love with his own use of language. Don’t keep telling me how significant and nuanced and layered every character interaction is--SHOW me the consequences of these interactions. There’s a tendency to rhapsodize about character emotions, and for characters to have exaggerated emotional reactions to each other’s words and actions, to prove to us (in the absence of events actually happening) just how important and meaningful this all is.

In sum: if you’re new to Kay, don’t start here. If you’ve loved all his other books, and you don’t care that this is only half a book, then go ahead, you’ll probably love this one too. If you're a heterosexual male, maybe you'll enjoy the wish-fulfillment fantasy. As for me, I’ve had as much of this author as I can take.

[Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

He wanted to make a mosaic that would endure, that those living in after days would know had been made by him, and would honour. And this, he thought, beneath black and dripping trees, walking over sodden, rotting leaves in the forest, would mean that he had set his mark upon the world, and had been.
It was so strange to realize how it was only at this brink of the chasm, threshold of the dark or the god’s holy light, that one could grasp and accept one’s own heart’s yearning for more of the world. For life.

After being quite disillusioned by the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy, which still had aspects of beauty but was not as refined as his later book, I was extremely happy to be overwhelmed by the artistic craftsmanship of Guy Gavriel Kay for the first time since Tigana. Sailing to Sarantium is a rivetingly beautiful story as only Kay can write them.

But is it fantasy or historical fiction?

I always say that while fantasy and historical fiction are two of my favourite literary genres, I detest the combination of the two. I would go so far as to say that I usually have passionately negative feelings about any mixing of fantastical elements with the real world, be it superheroes, urban fantasy or historical fantasy. That does not mean that I cannot enjoy stories with these elements, but it usually leads to me shrugging it off as second-rate fiction. With exceptions, of course. There are always exceptions.

Aside from the early attempts at writing Tolkienesque high fantasy, all of Guy Gavriel Kay’s books, while nominally part of the fantasy genre, have clearly defined historical backgrounds. But whereas in Tigana the inspiration from Renaissance Italy merely helped set up the style of the world, Sailing to Sarantium at times seems more like a historical novel set in the 6th century in the Byzantine Empire.

This might be because Byzantine history is among the fields I am the most familiar with, but I found it impossible to shake off the feeling that the characters were wandering through Byzantine rather than Sarantine fields. This obviously has positive sides. It must have been that Kay meticulously researched the subject, for instance. And it set up for every fantastical moment being a surprising twist: on those rare occasions where something supernatural would show up, I caught myself thinking something along the lines of “What the... oh, right.”

In a way, from what I’ve read so far, it seems to me that Tigana and this book are both examples of Kay’s masterly mixing of fantasy and historical fiction, but whereas Tigana is solidly on the fantasy side of the spectrum, Sailing to Sarantium falls into the historical fiction side of things. Strangely, that seems to be an extraordinarily successful approach, even for a skeptic like me.

[Велислав Върбанов · Rating 5 out of 5]

Невероятно историческо фентъзи, което много силно ме впечатли! „Пътуване към Сарантион“ е първа книга от двутомната „Сарантийска мозайка“, и разказва част от вълнуващата история на Източната Римска империя, пренесена в алтернативен свят. Величественият град Сарантион всъщност представлява фентъзи вариант на Константинопол...

Младият и талантлив майстор на мозайки Гай Крисп от Варена, тръгва на пътешествие към Сарантион, за да замести своя възрастен колега Марциниан, който е получил покана от император Валерий, но не желае да тръгне на път. Въпреки своята младост, Крисп вече е преживял ужасна трагедия – загубил е най-близките си хора заради чумата… Преди да замине, също е натоварен и с мисията да предаде съобщение лично на императора от името на своята кралица Гизел. Пътуването му до столицата на империята никак не е леко и крие много опасности… Крисп и неговите спътници (с които се сприятелява при страховитите приключения по пътя) успяват да пристигнат в Сарантион, обаче и там не ги очаква спокоен живот... Майсторът на мозайка, още с представянето си пред император Валерий и съпругата му Аликсана, принудително е въвлечен в сложните дворцови интриги между различните знатни личности… Всички персонажи в историята са многопластови и интересни, а сарантийската атмосфера – завладяваща!

[Paul Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Upon a dome, with glass and stone and semi-precious gems …”

… and streaming and flickering light through windows and from a glory of candles below, Crispin knew he wanted to achieve something of surpassing beauty that would last.”

One has to wonder if Leonardo da Vinci had the same thoughts when he first thrilled at the beckoning emptiness of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel far above him.

Thirty-five years after the publication of THE FIONAVAR TAPESTRY, it is difficult to believe that Guy Gavriel Kay’s writing remains as fresh, as compelling, as imaginative, as thrilling, as provocative, as evocative and as exciting as the first day that I drooled over THE SUMMER TREE, the opening novel in Kay’s debut fantasy trilogy. But it is also reasonable to say that it is more mature and more thought-compelling. It is no small matter of personal and national pride for me that I can say I was one of those lucky fantasy lovers who stumbled upon Kay’s work shortly after its initial publication and I have been a fan ever since.

SAILING TO SARANTIUM, the first in a two part duology entitled THE SARANTINE MOSAIC, is brilliantly painted on a broad world canvas modeled after the 6th century eastern Mediterranean Byzantine Empire under Justinian I. Just as Justinian did in the declining years of the then fragile and rapidly weakening Holy Roman Empire, Emperor Valerius, newly seated in the grand city of Sarantium after the death of his predecessor, is struggling to regain control of the belligerent western parts of his fractious dominion. Coupled with these ongoing political disputes is the newer conflict between the long-established pagan polytheistic religious beliefs of those who would dispute Sarantium’s right to rule, and Jaddism, a new and powerful monotheistic would-be theocracy that (in my views at least) represents an obvious mash-up of selected parts of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Crispin, a talented mosaicist, indeed, arguably the finest mosaicist in the Empire has been asked to come to Sarantium (or is that “commanded”?) to tile the dome of the newly constructed Sanctuary, which will unmistakably showcase the combined power of the Empire and the supremacy of the Jaddite religion.

“She prayed to holy Jad, to his son the Charioteer who had died bringing fire to mortal men, and then – to be as sure as one could ever be sure – to the gods and goddesses her people had worshipped when they were a wild cluster of tribes in the hard lands north and east … before coming down into fertile Batiara and accepting Jad of the Sun, conquering heirs to an Empire’s homeland.”

That, of course, is the most basic outline of the story but it is the manner of the telling of that story that makes SAILING TO SARANTIUM such a gripping tale. Kay’s command of the third person narrative story-telling style is beyond breathtaking. A reader will almost certainly be put into the position of being an avid listener enjoying a glass of wine or a cup of ale at the foot of the skilled narrator teasing the story out piece by piece in front of a warming fireplace. The scene, for example, in which Crispin first meets the Emperor and his wife and must, of necessity, diplomatically dance on the head of a pin to simultaneously showcase his confident knowledge of the technique of creating mosaics with the Emperor while avoiding a unilateral “off with his head” decision for his injudicious display or impudence and arrogance, is simply beyond breathtaking. But my simply saying so does the wonder of Kay’s epic short shrift. You’re going to have to experience it yourself to see what I mean!

Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

[Inna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ох, яке ж прекрасне «плавання»!

Ґай Ґевріел Кей отак спокійно, виважено, без поспіху цілковито занурив мене у свій світ Джада. Я справді не очікувала, що в псевдоісторичне фентезі, де головним героєм є мозаїст, а самого фентезі – лише дещиця, можна настільки провалитися.
Радію, що маю під рукою продовження і дуже вболіваю, аби автора продовжили у нас перекладати.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Duology review: 5 brilliant stars!!

My favourite Kay books so far. This duology is, simply put, a masterpiece!!

A wonderful homage to art, to women, to beauty and to love!

Kay's writing is elegant, almost poetic at times and rich beyond measure at others, matching the greatness and opulence of Sarantium. He will take you on a journey through which you will just have to pay attention to the road, having no clue whatsoever as to the destination. But it is all worth it!


Full Painting of The Sarantine Mosaic used in French Canadian editions

In itself, the story is simple. Crispin, a brilliant mosaicist, still grieving for the family he lost to the plague, who lives only for his arcane craft and cares little for ambition, less for money, and for intrigue not at all, must answer an imperial summons to Sarantium, to work on the greatest art work ever imagined.


geofftaylor-artist.com

In this world still half-wild and tangled with magic, no journey is simple. Bearing with him a Queen’s seductive promise, Crispin sets out for the fabled city from which none return unaltered, guarded only by his wits and a bird soul talisman from an alchemist’s treasury.

The first half of the first book describes his journey, during which Crispin risks his life, gets into trouble, and wins the devotion of a clever former slave girl, the loyalty of a hired hand of few words and sound deeds, and the friendship and respect of a rough and foul-mouthed commander.
The second part of the book deals with Crispin’s introduction to the Sarantium court and introduces us to the ruthless game for power, in which our unsuspecting mosaicist has already unwittingly become an important player.

And this is what the second book portrays: the political intrigue in Sarantium, a city of power, the seat of the Emperor of the East, a city and world based on Byzantium in the 5th or 6th centuries.

With masterful skill Kay builds for us here a wondrous mosaic of chariot racers, soldiers, politicians, dancers, actors, prostitutes, doctors and artisans. with Crispin, our main protagonist, smack down in the middle of it all.
He is now working on the dome of the biggest house of worship ever created; the crowning jewel of the rain of Emperor Valentine II, his legacy to the world.

The Emperor himself, along his exquisitely beautiful wife Aliana are dancing on a knife's edge in a court full of dangerous albeit subtle intrigue where the tiniest nuance may mean the difference between life and death. Two bold visionaries with plans that may hold dire consequences for entire kingdoms, their fate becomes tightly entwined with that of Crispin and by extension, with that of Queen Gisel, Crispin's own monarch exiled in Sarantium herself.


Keith Birdsong Lord of Emperors: Book Two of the Sarantine Mosaic Paperback Novel Cover Painting Original Art

Art and beauty are foremost present in these books.
From the description of the masterful mosaics to that of the fabled Sarantium, from the view of a forest in sunlight to the sight of a mythic zubir standing in a clearing at dawn, above a little bird lying on its side on the grass, Kay gives us art and beauty.

Then we have the women. Clever and strong women! Women that take a man’s breath away with their beauty then make him fear for his life the next minute with just their wits for a weapon. Kay honours women not only by setting them in high places in the great power game, but also by giving them courage, strength and resilience, even if they are mere slave girls. He even honours them through memory, a lost love, a lost wife, a lost girl, whose memory will never leave the man to whom they once belonged.

And finally the love!
Love not as sex but as feeling. Crispin’s still burning love for his lost wife. The love of a man for a few captured souls for whose freedom he is ready to lay down his life. The love of emperor Valerius for his beloved Alixana, which is so deceptively simple described that one cannot help but feel its intensity:

The Emperor reads no mystic certainties of any kind in the late-night flames, sitting at the woman’s feet, one hand touching her instep and the jewelled slipper. He says, “Never leave me.”
“Wherever would I go?” she murmurs after a moment, trying to keep the tone light and just failing.
He looks up. “Never leave me,” he says again, the grey eyes on hers this time.
He can do this to her, take breath from chest and throat. A constriction of great need. After all these years.
“Not in life,” she replies.

And last, but not least, the love of art. Love brought to us by a simple craftsman, willing to risk being maimed or blinded to follow his dream, to create the greatest artwork ever imagined, a masterpiece to be remembered for ages to come.

How far would you go to follow your dream? How far will Crispin go? You're gonna have to read this to find out but I guarantee ... it's worth it!! With his exquisite prose and elegant style, Kay will make you realize the beauty of living, the fleetingness and fragility of life! He will show you how every little moment is precious, a gift to be treasured and enjoyed!

I highly recommend this to all those who love beauty, strength and life! Smooth sailing on the winds of fate!!


Cover of Sailing to Sarantium (Croatian hardback)

Check out this review and more over at The Magic Book Corner

[Wanda Pedersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sinking into a Guy Gavriel Kay historical fantasy is like immersing myself in a warm, fragrant bath, lovely and comforting. His worldview meshes with mine so well, he is truly the perfect author match for me. Now that I have finished this volume, I have only three unread books of his left and this distresses me. What will I do until he publishes the next? Well, begin a re-reading cycle, yes, but there is no feeling like the first experience of a GGK novel.

Well, I shall persevere. Because this author writes main characters who are decent men like Caius Crispin. He may be cranky (he has reasons) and he may take risks, but he is kind to those who he has power over, perhaps the most telling measure of a man. In addition to decent men, Kay writes women as real people (we are, you know), with the same aspirations and emotions as his male characters. They aren't perplexing enigmas, they aren't cardboard cut-outs, they are fully realized people. This is the major reason that I adore Mr. Kay's fiction.

The other main reason is his treatment of the religious aspect of life. Crispen comes face to face with a Pagan god, he is knocked on his back by a spectacular Jaddite mosaic, and both of these experiences feel absolutely real to me. I feel his awe right along with him. Aspiring to be a happy Pagan myself, feeling a lot of sympathy for such things, this aspect of the story delights me. (This is why The Egypt Game grabbed me firmly as a tween and why the King Arthur cycle continues to speak to me so loudly today, I am just a sucker for pre-Christian religions.)

As Crispin plans his grand mosaic, I am reminded of another favourite book, What's Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies. It's main character, Francis Cornish, also creates a very personal masterpiece, a painting done in Old Master style, but featuring people and symbols peculiar to the artist. He smuggles his own mythology into it and creates something extraordinary, just as I expect Crispen will do in this sanctuary.

I both look forward to and dread reading the second half of this tale. On one hand I want to spend more time in this world with these people. On the other hand, then the adventure will be over. The best books leave me feeling torn this way.

Book number 383 of my Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Project.

Cross posted at my blog:

https://wanda-thenextfifty.blogspot.c...

[Megan Baxter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guy Gavriel Kay excels at writing those moments when the world stops, the characters hold their breath, and I do too. Those moments when powers beyond comprehension are right in front of you (worldly or supernatural), and no one knows what the outcome will be, where everything hangs on a knife's edge.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[Joshua Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I were to talk about small elements of both this book and its structure, you would likely think it's not a great book. Such as: a very long Prologue that bounces around a myriad of points of view; a main protagonist of a fantasy story that's not a warrior, wizard, noble, thief, assassin, etc., but an artisan; a long journey that is half the book; and a lack of closure at the end. This is a book that honestly checks most of the boxes of what we would call a book "middle book" syndrome. And it works. And it's AMAZING.

Kay manages to take a straight-forward story of a mosaicist traveling to a capital of an empire for a job and turn it into this remarkably rich story full of high stakes, political intrigue, magical creatures and beautifully drawn characters. The history and lore present here is so developed but without dull exposition drops. The immersion factor for me was sky high, and I felt invested in Crispin's story immediately, and thought about this book constantly when not reading it.

I love Kay's prose. I love how Kay never relies upon over the top action sequence or large set pieces to tell a great story. (Although there's a great chariot race in this one!). I love how Kay can introduce a character and you can somehow inherently understand them in a paragraph or two. I love how Kay can give you a POV character for 4 pages that never appears again that you will continue to think about long after their lone scene. I just love this author as he is truly a writer of quality, and frankly the most underrated voice of his generation.

And if this review seems overly glowing, I've read three more books by Kay that I think are better than this one!

[Alissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? It seems to be difficult to rate Kay's books any less than 5 full and deserved stars. This story offers, among others, a compelling “game of courts and intrigues”, violent intricacies, the clash of the sacred and profane, journeys and brilliant colors, all skillfully brushed with Kay's trademark themes and storytelling.

Surprisingly, this book has a few more magical elements than those I read before, namely the brilliant masterpieces that are The Lions of Al-Rassan and A Song for Arbonne, and they fit very well into a story fashioned after the reign of Justinian the Great. Moving with ease in his alternate Byzantium, Kay crafts an engaging tale and gives all his characters a full voice, each with well-rounded thoughts and personalities.

Through the gradual world-building, the captivating introduction of the characters and the use of foreshadowing (if a bit pronounced) the narrative unfolds in a crescendo of unpredictability and tension, achieving an impeccable immersive effect and seamlessly bridging the two instalments of this duet.

Do yourself a favor, pick a book penned by Kay.

You moved through time and things were left behind and yet stayed with you. The nature of how men lived. He had thought to avoid that, to hide from it, after they’d died. It could not be done.

[Benghis Kahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exquisitely crafted read that just about perfectly met my expectations for a GGK volume 1 of 2--elegantly written and engaging while not blowing me away by the overall story just yet.

This was an atypical reading experience for me since I did it quite slowly and only in print (did not gel with the audiobook narrator), but I don't think that hurt its impact due to how much each of the long scenes felt like its own short story.

At the heart of the tale is Crispin, someone who recently lost his wife and daughters to a plague and has very little to live for at the start of this book (a trope I really enjoy reading). This makes him rash and reckless and brave, spurring the unlikely events that are to follow for a provincial mosaicist. The way Kay has him always noticing the light or colors around him or greatly moved by art he sees or by his imaginings of what he might create had me totally convinced I was within the POV of a master artist.

I found his journey to Sarantium utterly compelling and was just about equally engaged by what happened when we got there, what with a tour de force chariot-race sequence and various conversations among the elite of the city that might've well have been action scenes for all the verbal jousting going on.

I love fast-paced narratives with short chapters where time and important events just fly by, but I think I love this slow-paced style just as much where we might take a couple hundred pages to make it through a single day and night -- where we linger in a scene and conversation and are in no rush to reach the next one. This book had so many deliciously exquisite sequences for me to sink my teeth into and get lost in, and I don't think GGK could bore me if he tried.

[Madison Goodyear · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m going to come back and write more for all of my most recent reviews when I get my laptop back, because I have things to say! This one took a while for me to get invested/hooked, but about halfway I got really sucked in. Starting the next book immediately

[Read By Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is incredible, and the only negative I have is that it's not a complete story really. It does have more of a natural stopping point than I expected, but there's a lot of followup that can be done in Lord of Emperors. Everyone says LoE is much better and to that I say: I am not ready. This is probably my favorite of Kay's prose so far, but I liked Lions more for being a complete standalone. Regardless, this book was exactly what I was craving and if I wasn't in the middle of several other books, I would start Lord of Emperors this second.

9.5/10

[Lightreads · Rating 2 out of 5]

A mosaicist is summoned east to not!Byzantium to serve the Emperor in construction of the mightiest sanctuary dome the world has known. His journey takes him through danger, mystical adventure, and court intrigue, culminating in . . . er . . . absolutely nothing. One assumes the point will arrive in the sequel?

Wow, this is remarkable. I really mean it. This book never once uses the word ‘vagina,’ and yet if you woke me up in the dead of night and asked me what this book was about, I would have groggily muttered, “cunts. Lots.” A woman is introduced to us, and the book leans over and mutters out the side of its mouth, “by the way, she has a vagina.” And a few pages later into a scene with her, the book taps you on the shoulder and whispers, “yep, still got one.” And when she exits, well, “vagina vagina vagina!” And then when the next woman comes along, the book is all, “she has one too! Do you remember what vaginas are for?”

Vaginas are for men to fuck, for anyone who didn’t know. Willingly, unwillingly, for political gain, for manipulation. Kay is partly in control of the subliminally horrible sexual politics: those portions are somewhat uncomfortable and sometimes unintentionally funny. Mostly, though, I don’t think Kay realizes that his entire construction of feminine sexuality is defined by how available any given vagina is to a man, and how attractive the body attached to the vagina is, and how politically valuable the body is. Those parts are creepy.

Should I read the sequel? Genuine question – I had pretty big problems with the book above and beyond the vaginas, mostly because it was, um, boring.

[Jdarry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This man continues to shock and awe me with each book i read of his. The final chapter of this one floored me. Hard to rate this one given it is very clearly a pt 1 of a story but screw it 5/5.

Will be continuing with Lord of Emperors very shortly

[Gyan K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unabashed 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟5/5 stars!
I am reviewing the complete Sarantine mosaic duology here because to me these 2 books, Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of emperors, are really just one book broken up into two volumes. This is the best work by GGK that I have read so far. I loved A song for Arbonne and Sarantine mosaic is a much superior work. Leagues better than Tigana and Under heaven.
The story is masterfully crafted, GGK taking utmost care to hone the plotting, the pacing, the twists and turns, the surprises, and obviously the prose is the work of a maestro.
Character work in this multiPOV is also the work of a genius. It shines.

[Emiliya Bozhilova · Rating 5 out of 5]

С тази книга обикнах света на Източната Римска Империя от времето на Юстиниан I. Свят, просъществувал над 1000 г след падането на стария Рим и съхранил цивилизацията му, оставил ни “Света София” в наследство.

Нищо в този свят не е просто. Под блестящата повърхност кипи жестокост и жажда за власт. Но и под безмилостната маска често бликва неочаквана човечност. Свободата и красотата на изкуството, силата да не се оставиш на течението, инструментите на властта с неизбежната им жестокост, сблъсъкът на цивилизациите (било то варварите, плячкосали Рим, племената с човешки жертвоприношения или Сасанидската империя с нейната рафинирана жестокост и висока култура), религиозната нетърпимост противопоставена на здравия разум и обич към хората, политическата неизбежност - всичко това, и още много, се лее из страниците. Няма неинтересни герои - императори, генерали, принцеси, художници, лекари, колесничари, роби, войници - всички оживяват. Светът на 6 век е пълнокръвен и залива читателя с изумителните си прилики и не чак толкова разлики в сравнение с нашия.

За мен си остава недостатък, че книгата е оформена като алтернативна история. Материалът е достатъчен за исторически роман, и Кай е свършил огромна работа в извайването на епохата. Но и така ни пренася в дворците, стадионите, храмовете, копторите и пустините на своя измислен свят, без дори да предупреди читателя за размаха на приключението, което го очаква.

[Brooke (B for Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly a mosaic of a novel. Gorgeous prose, immerse Byzantine world building and politics, an epic quest. A sense of style that is circular and repetitive like a mosaic. The big picture that I capture after finishing is that the main function of this book is decorative and can be enjoyed for it's beauty alone, like a mosaic, without overanalyzing. It is flawed. At around 70% the repetitive nature of the mosaic started to put me to sleep. I also feel very strongly GGK did not handle the romance well, and he tends to not write women well at all in general.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

As my first G.G.K. book, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. Nothing wrong with that; in fact, I often prefer not having any expectations going into a book. But with Kay, I often heard the term "alternate history" or "historical fantasy." I was wary of those labels, and in fact I was really more confused than anything else since I noticed people using them interchangeably (and they clearly are not synonymous with each other). After reading Sailing to Sarantium, it's clear that the book is neither.

Kay certainly drew his inspiration from history, and the setting of his book is modeled around a comparable historical framework. Sarantium is obviously meant to be Kay's version of Byzantium. Valerius is clearly meant to be Justinian, with Theodora playing the inspiration for his wife. So yes, in a sense the book is very historical in nature (perhaps at times, blatantly so) but "historically inspired" is probably the best term for it. I have to give Kay credit for the finesse of his inspired world. It feels real enough as though the world could actually have existed, but uniquely portrayed enough that you only rarely feel like Kay is borrowing too heavily. Kay's world never seems forced.

There is a certain way of talking about the characters in the book that I never got used to. A certain detachment, that left me feeling like I never really got to know the characters, or become invested in them. I felt like any or all of the main characters could be killed off at a moment's notice, and I would simply shrug my shoulders and read onward. Very little of my enjoyment from the book came from the characters. Sure, they did things and said things, but they were never portrayed in a way that made me excited to read about one person over another. They were all merely tools and pawns for the purpose of moving the larger story.

The prose too, had it's high points and low points, yet drastically so. In every chapter, there were moments of noticeably awkward sentences, and poorly structured syntax that forced me to pause and reread the sentence just to make sure I actually read it right. Yet, on the other hand, some passages were absolutely beautiful and passionately cut to the heart of matters profound to my heart. That, I think, is Kay's biggest strength: the musings and positions on society, politics, or the human condition. Kay's detached style of writing seems to shine when his characters are pondering the nature of existence, reality, and the afterlife. Theological debates seem so much more poignant, with Kay's non-emotional voice driving it. The thing that makes characterization suffer in this novel, is the thing that makes the "meat" of the novel shine.

Sure, I couldn't seem to care too much about the characters. Sure, Kay seems to draw so many direct parallels to history that the book might as well just be historical fiction. But other than that, Kay's commentary of life, death, and everything in between and beyond, impressed me and resonated with me. I'm intrigued to see what else is in store for the second volume of this two-part novel.

[Kevin Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

87/100

Book good

[Ivana Books Are Magic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Within this book there is a metaphor that I quite liked. This metaphor happens to be the title of this book. Sailing to Sarantium is a metaphor used brilliantly during the course of the novel. It means that somebody has taken a change, braved to do something, changed his life in a drastic way. The metaphor does make sense because a man that is sailing to capital may be changing his life. Especially when that capital happens to be the centre of power and the place of many wonders. I can't say that I was sailing to Sarantium when I decided to read this novel, because I've already read and enjoyed two novels by Kay. I wasn’t exactly taking a chance. On the contrary, I was pretty sure I will like this novel and that was certainly the case. I enjoyed sailing to Sarantium, sailing to this wonderful fantasy world.



Sarantium is based on Constantinople. One way or another, this city is where all the prominent characters want to be, whether they realize it or not. This city draws them in with its beauty and culture. It also happens to be the place where interesting things happen, being the centre of power and politics. Historical lovers will enjoy parallels with the actual historical period and places that appear in this book. Art lovers and artists will love all those passages about the nature of art. They will surely enjoy reading about that timeless struggle of artist to achieve something extraordinary in this faulty world. Fantasy lovers will admire the care and detail that were put into creation of this fantasy world. They will also enjoy the characters and the plot. This novel is wonderfully crafted and it is a very enjoyable read. It is not a short novel (fantasy novels usually aren’t), but I’ve read it fairly quickly, in the course of two days. Is this novel a page turner? Yes, I would dare to say so. The protagonist of this novel, the mosaicist Crispin is very likeable and you can’t but feel for him. In addition, all the other characters presented feel like they belong there and the way they life stories get interwoven in this novel is simply ingenious.


There is a depth to this novel that I didn’t notice in other novels by Kay that I’ve read so far. It may have been that I wasn’t paying attention, but I don’t remember those two as having as many interesting moral paradoxes, philosophical passages and theological debates. I liked the way the writer made religion an integral part of this book. Religion can play many roles, both positive and negative ones. The link between politics and religion is something that is well handled in this novel. I’m not surprised that the author managed to show the connection between religion and the society because he obviously invested time and effort into developing this fantasy world. What did surprise me was the finesse with which the spiritual experiences occurring to characters in this novel were handled. I believe that Kay actually managed to show the way religion can influence the individual, both for the good and the bad. The central religion of the Empire, based on worship of Jad, is obviously based on Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Paganism also plays an interesting role and it is the base of the only mystical experience describes in this book, an experience that has a profound effect on our protagonist.

Are there negatives? Well, yes. This book doesn't have a proper ending and it I'm assuming it is because it has to be read with the sequel. Another small thing that annoyed me is how there is a constant emphasis on how 'clever' the characters and the conversation at the court are, while in fact I didn't see a testimony to that over the average intelligence. Nevertheless, I would say that this is a first class fantasy book. It may just be the best novel by Kay that I have read so far. I can't wait to read the sequel.

[Chris Haught · Rating 4 out of 5]

For most of this read, I thought I was holding another 5-star GGK book. The political manueverings and intrigue are fantastic, as are the twists and turns that the protagonist, Caius Crispus, faces. The individual pieces in the political puzzle are intriguing too, from the Empress Arixana and the Emperor Valerius to the Queen Gisel, and the First Stratego Leontus and his seductive aristocrat bride.

The book beautifully sets up the sequel, Lord of Emperors, which now goes to the top of my read pile. I do feel that my rating of this dropped to a 4-star because of that set up. Not in itself, but in the need for it. The last chapter of this book was quite a wind down from the intrigue that I'd been served for so many pages. It felt like a wrap up, but one that wasn't going to answer any questions. I already knew there was a second part, so I wasn't too concerned. Especially since I have a copy of it as well. But as a singular work on its own merit, Sailing to Sarantium suffers a little for the ending. I suspect that I'll be much more satisfied with the ending of the next book and the duology itself.

This book does serve notice that I have indeed been overlooking the work of Guy Gavriel Kay for too long. It is only in the last year and a half that I've been reading him at all, and each book reinforces this thought. Tigana was my first and I gave it 5 stars. Then, earlier this year, I read A Song for Arbonne and wanted to give it 6 stars. As I read through this one, I felt sure it would rank right between the previous 5-star ratings, being a little better than Tigana but not quite as wonderful as Arbonne, but in the end Tigana had a much more satisfactory wrap up.

Should I penalize a book that is obviously meant to be the set up for a second volume? Perhaps not. It may be that when I do read Lord of Emperors I may feel the need to come back and revisit this decision. It is true that Kay set the bar pretty high with the other books I've read, so half a story won't be able to stand up against them. But once I've completed the duology, we'll see how the total sum of the package compares.

[Володимир Демченко · Rating 4 out of 5]

Історія не може бути істиною, бо вона завжди лише уривчаста інтерпретація очевидців. От і у Кея вийшла своя інтерпретація на тему історії Візантії, або ж Сарантію по книзі, в епоху імператора Юстіана І (Валерія ІІ). Звідси постають два способи читати книгу: або ви знаєте історію Візантії і відчуваєте радість впізнавання персонажів і подій, або вриваєтесь в цілковито невідомий світ. Для першого шляху можу порадити вам короткий екскурс: підкаст харківського історика Bushwacker «Страх и ненависть в Константинополе» (🇷🇺 alert)

Прочитавши книгу я не можу погодитись з визначенням «псевдоісторичне фентезі», як зазначено в анотації видавництва. По-перше, Ґай Ґеврієл Кей не вигадує історичних подій, навпаки, він впевнено рухається руслом історії Другого Риму, не змінюючи навіть географії - лише імена головних персонажів. По-друге, від фентезі, в звичному розумінні, тут є дише кілька містичних елементів які, по факту, не прориваються в реальність, залишаючись якимись напівнатяками: розмовами в голові, містичними тваринами та ритуальними убивствами. Скоріше це нагадує містичний реалізм та історію в художньому викладі.

За головного героя автор обрав художника, а точніше мозаїста, якого Імператор викликає в столицю для оформлення нового храму і всю книгу мене не покидало відчуття, що автор надихався «Андрієм Рубльовим» Тарковського. Тут вам і суперечки талановитого учня зі своїм учителем, і неприязні картини «темних віків», і боротьба монотеїзму з кривавим язичництвом. Власне про що я?

Найбільше мені в книзі сподобалась саме історична лінія. Правда через неї ж «Плавання в Сарантій» ризикувало отримати від мене ***, бо видно що в кінці автор поспішав закрити всі незакриті лінії, а ім було тісно в рамках 570 сторінок. Взагалі остання чверть книги лишає по собі певне відчуття невдоволення, бо здавалося події лише зараз набрали потрібного драматичного рівня.

Книга читається доволі легко і можу сміливо її рекомендувати любителям історичної «художки».

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew going into it that this would feel incomplete as a story. Many reviews have said that it needs to be read in conjunction with its sequel. I think the novel definitely suffers from lack of a climax towards the end and a pace that seems too slow in places. Having said that, I really enjoyed the book. I'm a big fan of historical fiction set in Roman times and although this is historical fantasy, the world felt familiar. A rich tapestry has been woven with many characters. I hope no more are introduced for the sequel though. It is my hope that this novel has set up the following one, for more action and pace.