Under Heaven discussion

The book ‘Under Heaven’ by Guy Gavriel Kay stood out amongst the hordes of Canadian books just waiting for me. I have always loved a good fantasy novel, something that I can disappear into; where I can pretend I’m in another world. ‘Under Heaven’ takes place in a medieval-era, alternate-universe China, where there are two provinces constantly in disagreement, sometimes even progressing into war. The main character lost many loved ones in the battles that took place between the provinces, and has put it upon himself to clear the battlefields of the corpses of the fallen; as a sort of tribute to his deceased loved ones. The cover of this book is a statue of a horse, with some faded text in the background. Considering the two warring provinces were constantly giving the main character gifts to make them seem better than the other province, I believe the horse on the cover to be a horse that was gifted to him by the Taguran province, and died while helping him work the battlefield. The story itself is very inviting; I found myself having a very difficult time putting the book down.

I think only one side is supposed to be Tang China while the other side is Tibet (or Tubuo as Chinese historians call them), then an independent empire & the major rival of Tang in central Asia.

I loved this book, I am not a fantasy reader usually, but this book had me riveted, it was in parts beautiful! I loved the ancestor worship aspect. recommend it anytime!

After reading The Fionever Tapestry and Ysabel, I picked up this book to check it out as well. It took longer to finish, but it was worth it!

I was underwhelmed by this one, probably because I had previously read a book called "Court of the Lion", a historical fiction novel about the real events Kay based this story on, and found that one to be the better of the two.

C.E. wrote: "I was underwhelmed by this one, probably because I had previously read a book called "Court of the Lion"..."

Thanks for Court of the Lion. Brilliant find I hadn't heard of before. Out on Kindle too.

I enjoyed this book. I have enjoyed every book I've read by Guy Gavriel Kay. I like fantasy as well as historical novels. The alternate history was nicely handled and it was much like reading a historical novel by Harold Lamb.

I liked this book, but something bothered me that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere online. Toward the end of the book I "realized" that the Tagurans had given Tai the horses so they would cause exactly what they did! The destabilization of Kitai which they could use to invade!

It seemed like this was set up from the beginning, with the long feuding between the empires and such. I thought the princess gifting them was just a front to make tai trust the horses were being given in good faith.

Maybe I missed something, but I felt the ending would have been much better if it had played out this way..