The Last Light of the Sun

[dagibbs]

I have just finished reading The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay. Unfortunately, I did not find this one as good as the others he has written -- it seemed slower moving, with too many diversions, sidesteps, and wanderings into philosophy. It may be that this was an echoing of a particular style, and done for reasons of that style, but they detracted from the story for me, and made it far less engaging than I had expected. Rather than being difficult to put down, as I've found his previous books, I found this one easy to put down, and did so several times. I think it failed the "show, don't tell", that is rather than showing us the twisting strands of fate, he spent too much time telling us that this or that was fated, or this or that was bravery that was unimportant, spent too much time telling us what we should see in a particular scene or event.

(Also, many thanks to carynb for the loan of the book. Are you in Ottawa this weekend as you said, and are you going to give me a call about picking it up?)

Comments

[mycrazyhair.livejournal.com]

Hmm. It's interesting. I had much the same reaction as you did: I thought Kay was too blatant and the themes were just hammered home instead of subtly woven into the fabric of the book. But that still didn't spoil things for me. I loved the book. I loved the characters and the use of language and the twists and turns.

And I really enjoyed the way it made me think about fate and chance and cause and effect and consequences. Even if Kay's approach to these themes was more than slightly obvious.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

And I really enjoyed the way it made me think about fate and chance and cause and effect and consequences.

Those have been strong themes in Kay's work for a while now, maybe even from the beginning. Well, maybe sacrifice was the primary theme of the Fionavar Tapestry, but of most of his books since. Think of the Rusalka in Tigana, and if 3 men see it.