Craving more historical fantasy, especially of Viking flavor, I'd picked up this book with high hopes, for I'd heard good things about it. I'd read the Fionavar Tapestry over a year ago, and though that was somewhat rough-going, I was more optimistic for this one, given its much later publication.

I don't know anything about Guy Gavriel Kay's more recent works, but I think I can safely say now that I don't really like his prose. On one hand, there's no doubt that I favor for fantasy a more elevated, perhaps somewhat removed, kind of language---and that's not on Kay himself. Regardless, there's something very heavy-handed about his prose, for he spends too much time describing without much flavor the emotions of the characters, writing in circles about their 'sorrow' (he was prone to doing this in the Fionavar Tapestry, as well), and making protracted meta-narrative observations until little about which to ponder is left for the reader. None of the characters felt particularly remarkable, and the segments that explore the events of the story and their future consequences from the perspectives of common bystanders, while occasionally interesting, come off more often than not as terribly contrived. They add to the (already too numerous) number of perspectives throughout the book, diluting, in my experience, the depth of narration.

Nonetheless, there are things to appreciate. I thought Kay's calquing of the historical groups to create his Anglcyn, Cyngael, and Erlings, and Alfred the Great for Aeldred and Asser for Ceinon, among others, to be quite clever (maybe this is common in the world of historical fantasy---I wouldn't know). ( )

I can't really put into words what is lacking in this novel. This was my second time reading it - I read it when it initially came out and was dissapointed, but I think it was because I read it too fast and missed much of the subtlety that is usually present in Kay's works. Apparently that wasn't the issue.

I think its the characters - they aren't remarkable or interesting or even very real. I had no emotional connection to them. When a Kay character dies, I expect to feel some emotion, and with this book I got nothing.

I also had a very unique feeling while reading this book - that I just had to finish it. It was like pulling teeth to get through it, and I usually devour Kay books. ( )

Ah, I love Guy Gavriel Kay so much! He writes fantasy with the lyrical prose of a masterful author and the striking character insights of someone who understands the depth of the human spirit. I lost track of how many times I fell madly in love with one of his characters within a page or two of them being introduced. Now that's some masterful writing right there!

I also appreciated the pace of this book: slow without meandering, detailed without being bogged down in minutia. And the various glimpses into seemingly random people's whole lifespans were both unexpected and always welcome. Kay made me believe I was reading about real people: people who lived, died, and MATTERED.

I'm so glad to have picked this one up. ( )

I really wanted to like this book more. The good part of the novel is that there are asides into the lives of common folk that are quite interesting. The bad part is that these asides are sometimes more interesting than the main cast of characters.
It's never a good sign when an author spends a lot of prose on exploring meta-narrative. It becomes a bit of a navel-gazing exercise. Still Guy Kay is otherwise quite adept at setting and telling a tale that is relatively small in scale compared to his previous highlights. ( )

Yet another masterwork from Kay.

This time, Kay approaches the history of the British Isle, incorporating the Viking raids, the imagined history of Aelfred the Great, and the tension between pagan Britain and the
New religion from Europe.

Kay as always writes with grace, beauty and a deep understanding of the humanity behind the wars, duels and suffering of history.

An unreserved recommendation for fans of historical fiction, fantasy, or skilled writing in general. ( )