Chaos Reading discussion

I'd like to start a topic to discuss who I belive to be one of the best fantasy authors out there, Guy Gavriel Kay. His first book, Tigana, was fantastic and I've read all of his other books except for the Sailing to Sarantium series, his The Summer Tree series and his newest novel, Under Heaven. The Lions of al-Rassan is a novel that touched me deeply, and A Song for Arbonne was very close to replicating the effect. His method of mixing romance into the story is pure class, and he is one of the most under appreciated authors in the business today.

I must admit I hadn't heard of him before today.

Guy wrote: "I'd like to start a topic to discuss who I belive to be one of the best fantasy authors out there, Guy Gavriel Kay. His first book, Tigana, was fantastic and I've read all of his other books except..."

Tigana? His first was The Summer Tree (The series is "The Fionavar Tapestry), six years before Tigana. I loved the Fionavar Tapestry, but it was horribly derivative of Lord of the Rings. I much prefer his 'alternate-history historical fantasies'.

I guess not everybody thought that being derivative of LOTR was a bad thing, because he worked for years with Christopher Tolkien getting JRR's posthumous publications ready. He worked on The Silmarillion, and I think he worked on Unfinished Tales. otoh, he probably finished working with Tolkien before publishing The Summer Tree, so maybe CT wasn't that happy with it.

I apologize. I should have written "His first novel that I had read".

I'm a new fan. I really enjoyed Under Heaven. I also enjoyed The Fionavar Tapestry but it started "young" & choppy. Kay really started to come into his writing style throughout this trilogy. It started a bit poorly but I ended up really enjoying it.

I have quite a few of his books from when I went on a fantasy buying spree, but I haven't read any yet. Would people recommend starting with The Summer Tree and then moving on to his more alternate history fantasy? :)

Emy wrote: "I have quite a few of his books from when I went on a fantasy buying spree, but I haven't read any yet. Would people recommend starting with The Summer Tree and then moving on to his more alternate..."
I've never read any of them. I started with Tigana.

Emy wrote: "I have quite a few of his books from when I went on a fantasy buying spree, but I haven't read any yet. Would people recommend starting with The Summer Tree and then moving on to his more alternate..."

I would but. E prepared for choppy conversations & woody characters in the beginning. Kay's writing really improves as the story progresses. It's worth sticking out. It's a very good fantasy story.

Petra wrote: "I would but. E prepared for choppy conversations & woody characters in the beginning. Kay's writing really improves as the story progresses. It's worth sticking out. It's a very good fantasy story. "

Okay, thanks! I'll bear that in mind. :)