A Brightness Long Ago
Ratings37
Average rating4.2
I'm in awe. Absolutely gorgeous. I love Danio, I love Adria, I love Jelena, Antenami, Folco, Teobaldo, Ginerva. I'm touched, my soul feels heavy.
This is my first Guy Gavriel Kay book and I am so grateful. So looking forward to reading more of his work.
Definitely a new favourite.
Minkäs teet, fani mikä fani. Kay ei ole vielä pettänyt. On suuri harmi, että suomennokset ovat jääneet Fionavarin kuvakudokseen – joka ei tosiaankaan ole parasta Kayta – ja Tiganaan. Tiganan tapaan A Brightness Long Ago muistuttaa renessanssin Italiaa; maailma on tuttu Kayn muista kirjoista. On Venetsiaa suuresti muistuttava Seressa, Firenzeä vastaa Firenta, Roomaa Rhodias ja niin edelleen. Kaupunkivaltiot sotivat keskenään palkkasoturiarmeijoilla ja kaupunkeja hallitsevat rikkaat suvut.
Kirjan keskiössä on räätälin poika Guidanio Cerra, joka on isänsä hyvien suhteiden avulla päässyt opiskelemaan aatelin poikien kanssa arvostettuun Avegnan kouluun. Sieltä tie on vienyt hänet Mylasiaan, jota hallitsee kreivi Uberto, julma sadisti, joka viihteekseen raiskaa ja murhaa nuoria naisia ja poikia. Eräs tällainen uhri ei kuitenkaan ole viaton uhri, vaan Maceran herttuan tytär Adria Ripoli, jonka palkkasoturien komentaja Folco Cino d'Acorsi (jonka vaimo on Adrian täti) on lähettänyt salaiseen tehtävään murhaamaan Uberton. Folcon kotikaupungilla Acorsilla ei ole satamaa, Mylasialla on, ja tavoitteena on valloittaa Mylasia kreivin kuoleman aiheuttamassa sekasorrossa.
Adria onnistuu tehtävässä, mutta haavoittuu pahasti. Guidanio tekee tiettyjä valintoja, joiden seurauksena hän päätyy pelastamaan Adrian ja sotkeutuu siten tahmeaan juonittelujen verkostoon. Teobaldo Monticola di Remigio, toinen palkkasoturikomentaja, Remigion kaupungin hallitsija ja Folcon pahin kilpailija, onnistuu estämään Mylasian valloitussuunnitelman ja Guidanion tiet sattuvat risteämään myös Teobaldon kanssa. Näiden kahden miehen välinen konflikti on yksi kirjan suurista ajavista voimista ja Guidanio pääsee tarkastelemaan sitä eri kanteilta.
A Brightness Long Ago on Kayn tapaan kauniisti rakennettu ja viittailee elegantisti toisaalta henkilöidensä tuleviin käänteisiin ja toisaalta aikaisempiin samaan maailmaan sijoittuviin kirjoihin. En muista enää tarkkaan, mutta useammastakin kohdasta tuli mieleen, että olikohan tämä mainittu Sailing to Sarantiumissa... Kay kuvaa hienosti kahden palkkasoturikomentajan välistä kaunaa ja Guidanion sattuman ohjaamaa nousua valtaan ja vaurauteen.
Myös naisten asemaa kuvataan kiinnostavalla tavalla, kuten tätä edeltäneessä Children of Earth and Skyssä. Adria Ripolin pyristely aatelisnaisen roolin kahleita vastaan ja halu tehdä asiat omalla tavallaan, paikkaansa hakeva parantaja Jelena ja Teobaldon rakastajatar Ginevra della Valle ovat kaikki omanlaisiaan naisia ja erilaisessa roolissa miesten hallitsemassa maailmassa.
Upea kirja, jälleen kerran.
convoluted, overwritten, too wordy, too slow, not imaginative enough, trying too hard to be more mainstream.
Not the Kay I knew, not nearly the Kay I expected.
As usual Kay made me cry. Several times. This is not, I think, my absolute favourite of Kay's novels, but I did love it. The environment, atmosphere and characters were all wonderful.
An exceptionally well written book. A story of love, life, intrigue and war, and how seemingly random choices impact life. Probably the best book I've read this year.
3.75 out of 5 stars
I spent the first few months of 2019 reading Guy Gavriel Kay's early works (for the first time) as a primer to this book's release. I polished off his first six novels and thought I was ready to dive in here until I saw the world map that features “Sarantium” quite prominently – I closed the booked and jumped back and read Kay's Sarantine Mosaic as final preparation. I'm glad I did, because that duology enhanced my understanding of this world and there are several callbacks within Brightness to the events in those books. Here, Kay is exploring the ripples of time, how small actions have an impact on the world at large and how our memory of the past shapes our understanding of our future.
Much like Kay's previous work, A Brightness Long Ago is beautifully composed, emotionally engaging, and it features compelling characters with depth. I really loved being introduced to minor, seemingly inconsequential characters who, once they had played their part in this specific narrative, have the remainder of their lives described to us and how consequential they end up being in their own right.
As much as I enjoy Kay's writing, I hit a wall about midway through here and really limped my way to the end over several weeks. Whether a result of my own disjointed pacing or the book's, I was never quite hooked. That kept it from full 4-star territory, but I will gladly continue on with GGK's oeuvre.
This is the latest of Guy Gavriel Kay's historical fantasy novels set in his slightly alternative Europe. It shares the same not quite Venice and other Italian city states as his previous book, Children Of Earth And Sky, and actually slyly leads directly into that book if you're paying attention. You don't need to have read the others, but there'll be a few nice touches like this you'll miss out on if you haven't. There's no overarching plot as such, more a study of several characters as they orbit each other around a series of set pieces. One of his favourite motifs is the mosaic, and that's how this book works - something going on here, then something else over there, all combining to form one overall picture. It's exquisitely written, as you'd expect from Kay, and never less than completely believable or evocative, with some wonderful characterisation. I've long held that GGK is the best contemporary fantasy writer, and while this is perhaps not quite up there with The Lions of Al-Rassan or the Sarantium books, it's still head and shoulders above pretty much every other fantasy novel that'll be published this year.
Merged review:
This is the latest of Guy Gavriel Kay's historical fantasy novels set in his slightly alternative Europe. It shares the same not quite Venice and other Italian city states as his previous book, Children Of Earth And Sky, and actually slyly leads directly into that book if you're paying attention. You don't need to have read the others, but there'll be a few nice touches like this you'll miss out on if you haven't. There's no overarching plot as such, more a study of several characters as they orbit each other around a series of set pieces. One of his favourite motifs is the mosaic, and that's how this book works - something going on here, then something else over there, all combining to form one overall picture. It's exquisitely written, as you'd expect from Kay, and never less than completely believable or evocative, with some wonderful characterisation. I've long held that GGK is the best contemporary fantasy writer, and while this is perhaps not quite up there with The Lions of Al-Rassan or the Sarantium books, it's still head and shoulders above pretty much every other fantasy novel that'll be published this year.