Lord of Emperors

Even on rereading, this book is a really satisfying conclusion to the duology. I feel like the strongest theme of these books is really the question of "what is a legacy" (art? children? conquest? etc).

Even though the larger historical picture of this duology is the arc of one particular emperor and empress, it manages to give plenty of side characters enough time on page to each have their own arc, intersect with each other, and get their own development and resolution in a satisfying way.

One thing that I liked in this series (that I also think Tigana is a great example of as well) is that this book's plot is a small number of very dense events. For example, there's a wedding at some point, but there's multiple points of views leading up to it for why people are there, how they ended up there at all, how they're feeling during it, politics, posturing, a confrontation both during and then after it with lots of repercussions. I think it works really well as a narrative technique.

I read this a long while ago, but I really liked Jo Walton's review of these books if you want even more thoughts on this series: www.tor.com/2009/11/02/mosaics-and-charioteers-guy-gavriel-kays-sarantine-mosaic/

How does one explain these things? If words would do, I wouldn't be a mosaicist.

On one hand I'm happy to be done the book because the concentration and effort required to absorb all the words and layers of story was fatiguing. On the other I'm sad it's over because this was a truly immersive experience. Like all of Guy Gavriel Kay's books he has incredible prose that require me to approach at a slower pace so I can soak it all in.

It was beginning. Or, seen another way, it was ending.

Kay crafted a story that evoked a strong emotional response from me and I am struggling to put it in to words. The story was built deliberately and carried from one book to the other. Kay was meticulous with what was placed where and what character interacted with whom. Kay would focus on the micro level while working to a larger vision and only in the end did you see the macro view and appreciate what was made.

The parallels to create a lifetime masterpiece of mosaics are one of the many reasons why this was such a treat to read. There were times I felt confused, unsure which character I was following, or why this one character or interaction was necessary, but everything fit and it was marvellous.

Sarantium, he decided, was a stage for performances. No wonder an actress could command so much power here, induce such prominent people to grace.

The political makeup of Sarantium would welcome the likes of Littlefinger or Lord Varys in to their fold. There were unsaid remarks, hidden intentions behind an expression or action and all to achieve separate goals. I may not have understood or appreciated remarks from a previous chapter or previous book, but it all comes back and has significance.

But it was the women, he thought, who had shaped the story here, not the men with their armies and blades.

The story may be slow but it was never dull. Tension could exist without any sign of weapons but there was always the threat of a knife hidden in the dark. Heartache could occur in a single word and love acknowledged without saying anything.

It occurred to him that sometimes you didn't really arrive at a conclusion about your life, you just discovered that you already had.

Lord of Emperors was incredibly satisfying. However, the remarkable feat was that I didn't know how amazing the book was until the end and had time to reflect on the final mosaic that was made.

Guy Gavriel Kay might write the must fundamentally human fantasy there is. His stories are steeped in all the love, loss, ambition, and confusion that fills even the most mundane life, yet writ large on lives that echo through the history of this faux-Europe he draws with such deft strokes.

Lord of Emperors finishes the Sarantine Mosaic duology with all the inevitability of history, with triumph and defeat and pain and joy. It is not an easy end, nor one without tears, but it is a grand ending and one I could not stop reading.

One of the most compelling parts of any Kay book, and this one is no different, is how he cuts to the heart of those who do extraordinary things to find why and how they can accomplish such. The genius racer, the great artist, the emperor: all are still simply human, mortal and fallible, but some part of them transcends those limits, and this is what Kay so deftly examines.

In Lord of Emperors, we are shown the kind of will and drive that allows a man, a racer, to ignore near mortal injury and even his own chance at winning to create a perfect race for his team. The artist, Crispin, faced with a loss nearly as great as when plague took his family from him, can do nothing but what he has done, and creates. The emperor... Well, I will not spoil that.

Every book of Kay's I reads becomes another favorite. This is no exception.

Stories lie. That's a thought I've often had and have philosophised over. As the Story-telling Ape, Pan Narrans, we try to frame the world into narratives with a beginning and an end, with purpose and main characters, but reality is much messier.

Lord of Emperors contains a lot of reminders of this, both openly stated and between the lines. It's a weave of big stories, and small, the fate of the world, and the fate of the scullery boy, and stories with ends, and stories we just get hints of. Even with a whole other volume ahead of it it feels slow for a long time, but the last chapters were a roller coaster of emotions.

And for this I both love and hate it, but it loses a star mostly because it made me think too much about geography. The world is based on the late Roman or Byzantine empire and deals in imperial politics, so there are lots of nations and tribes to keep track of, and no map except that you make yourself from references to East, West, South and impression about how things map onto the real Byzantine world. And my brain is not all that good at that, as I proved to myself again and again by not even remembering the relative positions of the biggest pieces on the map.