Title: Under HeavenAuthor: Guy Gavriel Kay
Publisher: Roc
3/5
It's a bit like opera, really. Majestically overwrought melodrama, populated by breast-beating, scenery-chewing actors emoting their hearts out over their tragic loves and losses. It's also quite brainy beneath all that, but despite some nice interplay between the characters this book is weighted down with a leaden ending.
Did I mention to happen to like Mr Kay's books? I should, before we go too far. Been a fan since 1984's "Fionavar Tapestry", unfairly dismissed as "Tolkien lite" by critics who looked no further than the first line of Mr Kay's resume ("1974: Edited J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Silmarillion'--in your face, suckers!"). Despite some derivative story elements, Mr Kay displayed an aptitude for shamelessly playing your heart strings, most especially to the tunes of loves and losses.
After the pure fantasy of "Fionavar" Mr Kay has settled into a long run of works labelled "historical fantasy"--historical events with the names changed and a few magical notes added. Thus, "Tigana" was renaissance Italy, "A Song for Arbonne" medieval France, "Lions of Al-Rassan" reconquista Spain, and so on.
In "Under Heaven", Canadian author Guy Gavriel Kay swaps the familiar harmonies of Europe for the more exotic tones of China, but the leitmotif remains the same--the power of personal decisions to shape world-shaking events.
Tang Dynasty China is here thinly disguised as the land of Kitai, where an ageing emperor grows besotted with his newest concubine and a barbarian general and aristocratic chancellor vie for power in the ensuing vacuum. The story follows Shen Tai, second son of famous general Shen Gao, who as the novel opens is observing a two-year morning period for his father's death by burying the dead at the site of one of the late general's battlefields. For this deed, he is rewarded with 250 horses by the wife of the opposing king.
This lavish gift sends Tai into paroxysms of self-doubt, and into the maelstrom of power politics in the imperial capital. The set up for this is nicely paced and features some vintage Kay moments, mostly in the nuanced interplay between Tai, his new female bodyguard, and an alcoholic poet. The imperial intrigues also have some nice moments in the rivalry between chancellor Wen Zhou and general An Roshan, underscoring Mr Kay's belief (stated in earlier books, especially "Last Light of the Sun") in the power of on-the spot decisions to change the course of history.
This is, however, as good as it gets in "Under Heaven", as the resolution to all this conflict gets described in the stuffy terms of an academic textbook. "Three historians of a later dynasty expressed the view...", "historians agreed" "historians wrote" "almost universally accepted opinions among historians"... On no fewer than a dozen occasions, we are informed of what future "historians" will make of the action. Which is of course so much more exciting than actually showing us what happened, right? No, perhaps not.
The constant referral to historians is apt, as the last quarter of the book follows history's score to each and every note. For example, An Roshan (the book's stand-in for the historical An Lushan) rebels, just as he did in history. He wins a battle in exactly the same manner, captures the capital in the same manner, and gets murdered by his son in exactly the same manner as his historical counterpart. The ostensible main character does little but trot about the countryside, fail to rescue his lover and wring his hands a bit. There's an equally pointless sub plot involving his sister, who gets shipped off to marry some chieftain on the steppe, but who instead rides around a lot before disappearing for 50 pages or so.
At least opera ends when the fat lady sings, but alas this story hasn't the sense to stop even at the death of the emperor's consort (Tang Chinese standards of beauty were, er, Reubenesque). The end is overly long, and a bit of a chore to sit through.
"Tigana" and "Arbonne" in particular remain some of the best fantasy books ever written, but "Under Heaven" is not up to their standard. Let's hope Mr Kay changes his tune for his next novel.
