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    Children of Earth and Sky
    Children of Earth and Sky
    Children of Earth and Sky
    Audiobook19 hours

    Children of Earth and Sky

    Written by Guy Gavriel Kay

    Narrated by Simon Vance

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The bestselling author of the ground breaking novels Under Heaven and River of Stars, Guy Gavriel Kay is back with a new novel, Children of Earth and Sky, set in a world inspired by the conflicts and dramas of Renaissance Europe. Against this tumultuous backdrop the lives of men and women unfold on the borderlands-where empires and faiths collide. From the small coastal town of Senjan, notorious for its pirates, a young woman sets out to find vengeance for her lost family. That same spring, from the wealthy city-state of Seressa, famous for its canals and lagoon, come two very different people: a young artist traveling to the dangerous east to paint the grand khalif at his request-and possibly to do more-and a fiercely intelligent, angry woman, posing as a doctor's wife, but sent by Seressa as a spy. The trading ship that carries them is commanded by the accomplished younger son of a merchant family, ambivalent about the life he's been born to live. And farther east a boy trains to become a soldier in the elite infantry of the khalif-to win glory in the war everyone knows is coming. As these lives entwine, their fates-and those of many others-will hang in the balance, when the khalif sends out his massive army to take the great fortress that is the gateway to the western world...
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMay 10, 2016
    ISBN9781501911477
    Children of Earth and Sky
    Author

    Guy Gavriel Kay

    GUY GAVRIEL KAY is acknowledged as one of the world’s foremost fantasy authors. He is the author of eleven novels, and his works have been translated into twenty-five languages. Kay lives in Toronto with his family. Visit him online at brightweavings.com.

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    Reviews for Children of Earth and Sky

    4/5

    188 ratings19 reviews

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    • 1/5
      A long, complex novel with too many characters.
      It’s difficult to remember who is who and feel for any of the characters. Apparently, all are extraordinarily subtle, cunning and sound alike. I’ve read all of Guy Gavriel Kay’s novels and this is the worst one so far. Tigana and the Lions of Alrassan are much better. Uninspiring. I couldn’t finish the book.
    • 5/5
      You could read the reviews that say there are too many characters, or this is too complex to follow. You can decide to pass on this novel, as I almost did. But if you do jump into this tale, it may also become one of your favorites.

      The way Kay is able to paint a rich and wide world, and fill it with sweeping, dramatic stories-- while also zooming in to create memorable characters we care about-- is astonishing. I felt that first in "The Last Light of the Sun," and this shows that was no fluke.

      I hope you do read this, and that you love it as much as I did
    • 4/5
      Set in Kay's alternate Earth, centuries after the Sarantine Mosaic series, this follows 4 people through a time of conflict. Danica Gradek, a pirate/hero, Marin Djivo a trader, Leonora, and Pero, an aspiring artist. The action moves from Kay's version of Venice, to city-states in what is our Balkans, to the former Sarantium/Istanbul. There is conflict and action and romance and politics, maybe a bit too much politics, but the characters make up for it. Like all Kay novels, this is very well written and slow moving and there isn't a world-changing plot, but this is about how people can do and be their best and make a difference, while being totally fascinating people. Quite good, just a bit slow in parts.
    • 2/5
      Too verbose. Slow to develop, and the payoff was small.
    • 5/5
      Kay's narrative style makes any of his books a true delight to read. This novel is set in the same universe as "Sarantium" and his latest "Brightness Falls from the Sky" but later in the timeline than both of those.

      His forte is taking ordinary people and because of a summons by someone in power, makes those characters become more than they might ever been, and we get to be along for the ride. This is a wonderful book to read and, for once, I hardly found any bitter in the sweetness of the book's endings.
    • 3/5
      Just...not compelling.
    • 5/5
      If you love GGK, you'll love this book, it felt like peak Kay as I was reading it. It has historical fantasy, chapter cliff hangers, repeated "time running like a horse on the plain" phrases, women doing the best they can in a male world, lots of call backs to the Sarantine Mosaic and some references to the Lions of Al'Rassan, as well as a very very very subtle nod toward the Fionvar Tapestry. It took a while to figure out that it's set about 900 years after the Sarantine Mosaic, with Sarantium fallen to the Asharites and renamed. A portrait painter and a merchant travel there, at first accompanied by a doctor and his spy wife, but an encounter with pirates changes everything. One of the pirates travels with them for a while, and there's a side story about her brother. It feels like there are a few different books mashed up together, the point of view characters are scattered geographically and I didn't quite feel like I got enough time with any of them. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't recommend that a new to this author reader start here.
    • 4/5
      Children of Earth and Sky is classically Kay: four characters (a spy, an artist, a pirate and a Janissary) pass through and in various ways influence events following the fall of Sarantium to the Asharites (that world's analogue of the fall of Constantinople). Like Crispin in The Sarantine Mosaic, they are peripheral: their various actions just miss having an immediate major impact until the one whom one would think least likely - the artist - changes the course of events for the next couple of generations decisively.One obvious parallel is Dunnet's The Year of the Ram, set mainly in Trebizond in a similar time frame. Kay is not in a position to provide as close-grained an image of the life of the time and place as Dunnet is: he has to deal with the limitations as well as the advantages of a made-up world. But Dunnet can't alter the succession of events, and Niccolo remains a onlooker to a course of events he (by definition) can't really affect.This is not quite at Kay's very best, but it is rewarding reading and throws some interesting perspectives on some of his earlier novels.
    • 3/5
      The story is okay, but the writing is bad, bad, bad. One word sentences, two word sentences, and some sentences that don't make any ahh, sense.
    • 5/5
      Children of Earth and Sky tells the story of a number of disparate lives all intertwined in the voyage of a young Venetian artist commissioned to paint a Western-style portrait of the Ottoman Sultan in the newly-conquered city of Istanbul. This being Kay, of course, all the names are changed, but I'd still classify this as historical fiction. Kay does what he does best here--he creates fascinating characters, all of whom has fully fleshed-out motivations, and the reader can't help but begin to care for them. These characters sometimes come work together, sometimes come in conflict, and sometimes they go off and have their own story altogether, but it always kept me wanting to learn more of their fates. The 15th-century backdrop is incredibly rich and seemingly well-researched, and it encourages the reader to learn more about the era. The ending of the book was particularly solid, as it tied all the various plots together without seeming forced or unrealistic. Very enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      I describe Guy Gavriel Kay’s books as unhistorical fiction; he describes them as, “history with a quarter turn to the fantastic.” Either way, I find them compulsively enjoyable, full of vividly drawn characters—one of the most common quotes about him was that he never met a secondary character he didn’t like—with plenty of political intrigue and adventure thrown in.For me, though, his work is all about the first item…the characters. I’ve said before that even second rank Kay is better than most others out there but, judging solely within his oeuvre, where I rank each of his books largely depends upon whether I find those one or two people that make me love them. In that regard, this is one of his better ones. Perhaps it doesn’t displace my absolute favorites, such as The Last Light of the Sun, but it’s up there. There was a wealth of them I ended up caring about.As for the unhistory part: the place names might be different but there’s no trouble in discerning Renaissance Venice, Dubrovnik, Constatinople, Prague and Senj. I would say that, unlike most of his stories, I think there was quite a bit to be gained from having read some of his other books. So much of this book had the conquest of Constanti…err, Sarantium…as a backdrop that Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors made it much richer. Perhaps The Lions of Al-Rassan in the same vein, though less urgent.One of his better ones. If you’re at all inclined to this type of book, it’s definitely a recommend.
    • 5/5
      In this historical fantasy, Kay captures a beautiful tale that is part coming of age, part espionage, part love story. In a world that closely resembles Renaissance Europe, a bevy of fascinating characters captured my attention and my heart. This was such a well-balanced story, having a great mix of conflict, truth-seeking, and stumbling upon greatness.My apologies for any misspelled names; I listened to the audio version. Pero Velarni is a painter in disgrace and he’s about to be tasked with traveling from the city-state of Seressa to the Grand Caliph of the Osmanli empire, where he is to paint the Caliph’s portrait and passively gather information, if he can. Along the way, he meets most our other main characters. There’s Danica (her dead grandfather Zadek still speaks to her) from the besieged city of Senjen. Marin Givo is a successful merchant from Dubrava. The Seressians have also tasked the disgraced lady Leonara to spy for them and she is traveling with her recently acquired husband, a physician named Yakavo Mucci. On the other side of the adventure serving the Osmanli empire is Damaz, a Jani warrior in training. The story switches often between these characters giving us a pretty good idea of the various politics and individual motivations.Danica was my favorite character. Her city has been under attack off and on for many years and surrounding cities tend to view Senjens as pirates. However, things aren’t that simple since no cities are allowed to trade with Senjen, forcing them to steal basic supplies when they can. She’s great with a bow, carries knives, has a loyal hunting dog named Tiko, and has her grandfather constantly feeding her advice from the great beyond. She hunts for her long-lost brother Neven who she believes was taken by the Osmanli empire during one of their regular expansions. She’s young, but she had to grow up quick. She’s got her weapons skills but she’s practical too and realizes that a lone woman in the world is always going to be in a fight. It’s a good thing she has Tiko.Pero was my second favorite character. He’s been forced into this task and he’s rather nervous about the whole thing. He is supposed to just go do the portrait painting and return with whatever passive info he was able to gather. He’s not supposed to try to be a spy because he’s totally untrained and not the right temperament for it. That’s not to say the Council or Seressa won’t be sending him with a man servant…. perhaps one that is trained in the arts of covertcy.There’s plenty of action scenes tossed in among the inner contemplation and love interests. I can’t outright call this an adventure story because there’s too much quiet time. I can’t label it a romance because there’s also espionage, quests, and raiding. I wouldn’t want to call this novel high literature because it’s simply to enjoyable to burden it with such a tag. In short, it is simply a well-rounded story with plenty to love about it. And, indeed, I did love this story.I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Audiobook Jukebox.Narration: Simon Vance has never let me down in his narration and he does a beautiful job with this book as well. I especially liked his voice for the dead yet grumpy Zadek. He used various real-world accents which added to the flavor of the book.
    • 5/5
      This book is classic Kay. If you like his other books (and I do), you'll like this one.Kay writes alternate/fantastical history. This novel is based on Renaissance Europe (Italy, Croatia, Constantinople). Like most Kay novels, there is political intrigue, changing alliances, a tricky balance of power, conflicting religious movements, and war. (I was reading this during several bombings in Europe and mass shootings in the US this summer, and all that fictional war was a little hard to take.)Like most Kay novels, there is a good range of characters. Kay can write a lot of them - and their swirling interactions - well, which takes some talent. He focuses on a broad range of people, not just the ruling classes or the wealthy (although they are there too), which I appreciate. There are kings and emperors, courtiers and ambassadors and spies, councilors and religious leaders, ambitious princes and concubines, soldiers and farmers, merchants and sailors, wives, nuns, and prostitutes.(Side note: Always the F-ing prostitutes. Kay writes strong female characters. He writes them well and they are not simpering ladies. In this novel, for example, we have a kick-ass archer who goes to war out of a burning sense of revenge, and ain't no one going to pull any hanky-panky she doesn't want on her. (Danica is awesome.) She's just one of several strong women in the story. However, in the worlds that Kay writes, there are always men using women for sex, and men have the power to treat women like chattel, and F that! I understand his novels are based on history and that's a historical truth but I don't like that women in general are so powerless in his worlds).Like most Kay novels, there are several disparate story lines that move people around and then somehow they all end up intertwining. Often in unexpected ways. His writing is gorgeous - so many beautiful phrases. He is a master at dropping a hint and then coming back to it chapters later, which is both delicious and aggravating but pure and classic Kay.A slightly spoilery inside note: those who were devastated by a certain cruel turn of events in Tigana (as I was) will find some vindication here.Final note: I have read all of Kay's novels and it is only with this one that I realized that his versions of Christianity, Islam, and Judiasm (the Jaddite, Asharite, and Kindath religions respectively) also appeared in earlier novels (The Sarantine Mosaic series, The Lions of Al-Rassan and The Last Light of the Sun for sure, maybe others?) Mind blown. In fact, Children of the Earth and Sky has a few references to places and characters from the Sarantine Mosaic duology, so I wish I had read those more recently to get those references better. Call this one a very distant sequel.
    • 2/5
      The Implausibility of Happenstance: "Children of Earth and Sky" by Guy Gavriel Kay Rick in Casablanca notices the vast implausibility of happenstance: “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” Is serendipity a good thing in fiction ever? For me, one of the precepts of good writing has always been that coincidences are only permissible when the writer is setting up the narrative. Indeed, they’re often necessary: Circumstances have to come together in some way to launch an extended action. A sudden hailstorm brings man and woman together under the same awning, creating the necessary meet, and things can build from there, as it happened with Rick and Ilse. But, in my Tomus Primus of Good Writing wisdom says: “don’t use a coincidence to develop or resolve the plot.” It seems Kay forgot this cardinal rule.


      If you're into SF, read the rest of the review on my blog.

      SF = Speculative Fiction.
    • 2/5
      Much-beloved fantasy author, Guy Gavriel Kay's newest offering builds on the world he's crafted based upon Medieval Europe at the height of Venice's dominance over trade throughout the Mediterranean. All of the novels are ambitious in their scope.This reader, however, found Kay's prodigious talent creeping toward bloated and pretentious writing in Children of Earth and Sky. The writing aspires to wit and culture, but instead stutters along through pages of exposition, and passages bracketed by endless commas and phrases. The characters are the same models used throughout all his novels, different in name, but familiar in the beautiful, graceful femme fatals (I would be charmed if Kay were to consider a heroine who was not sexy, young, or beautiful), the handsome, scintillating rogues who are always susceptible to sexual play, and the spider-like machinations of politically motivated nemesis. Once again we deal with people who are dispossessed or used by governments without conscience, and with religion which blinds and yokes the populace.There is nothing new here. It's Kay's same old story about beautiful underdogs making good, or trying to. If that's your thing, you will love this latest offering from Kay.
    • 5/5
      Life turns on a dime, shatters in an instant. A word spoken, or not spoken; a decision made or deferred. A decision made by someone else, someone in power, in another part of the city or in a city in another country. Rain or sunlight on a given day. Everything is precarious … but joy can still be found … There is an immediacy to Kay's writing I haven't encountered … anywhere. There's no other author who can make my stomach knot up at a word, or an isolated sentence. An inopportune word, or a word forgotten. A character's decision to take this turn instead of that. A moment's inattention. If a stair creaks in one chapter, it will be important before long. And then he says something like "Then the big, red-bearded one said, changing her life, changing many lives …" and something's about to hit a really big fan. Foreshadowing in Kay's world is a heart-sinking thing, leaving me on edge with a knot in my stomach, because it's not going to be pretty when it comes to pass. Not. At all. And the humor in the writing – so much of it, so unexpected still, wry and dry and bawdy and crude. It would be so predictable for a book featuring such drama to be weighty, but GGK makes me laugh as ofen as he makes me anxious. He's one of the best. Children of Earth and Sky> features, like Tigana, another brother and sister, long separated. There are in fact echoes of several of Kay's other books, and oblique references – showing that his work all inhabits the same universe. ...Words of wisdom from GGK: Doing the right thing doesn't always save you.andLegends, if you crossed their path, could get you killed.
    • 4/5
      I am not sure how to review this book. I am a huge fan of Mr Kay but he seems to have lost his touch a little. I enjoyed the novel especially once the main characters came together in the middle and I stayed up too late to finish it. But he always used to be able to make me cry but his recent novels just don't seem to involve me with his characters as they used to. He's still a fabulously poetic writer with a very distinct style. I'd know it was GGK just from reading the prose. It just seems to have become very detached - everyone dies in the end, lives and history turn on single decisions of your self and others and history will soon forget you. Well, all those things are true but it can make a rather depressing read. If you are already a fan then you will enjoy this novel. But if you are a novice, I wouldn't start here - go back to his first novels.
    • 5/5
      I heard the author read from this book and talk about his motivation for writing it this spring. I knew that it was going to be good. Among other things Kay said he had been thinking about doing a book like this for over 20 years. It shows.If you ignore the fact that the planet of this story has two moons you would think it was set around the Mediterranean Sea during the Renaissance. The Jaddites are quite obviously similar to Christians and the Osmanlis, who wrested the city of Sarantium from the Jaddites twenty-five years before this book begins, equate to the Ottoman Empire who conquered Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul. The Osmanlis wish to expand west and take over more of the Jaddite territory but there is also a thriving trade between the two. Seressa (a port city with canals that could be Venice) does a lot of trade with everyone and also has spies everywhere. The smaller port city of Dubrova (Dubrovnik) is not quite as successful on the scale of wealth but the merchant families do quite well. The people of Dubrova have learned how to exist without angering any of their neighbours and so they have never been invaded. Further up the coast from Dubrova is the small city of Senjan. The Senjanis are fearless fighters and masterful sailors and mostly make a living by piracy. That is the broad picture of this book but the really interesting part is the individuals who come to life through Kay's writing. There is the artist Pero who has been commissioned to do a portrait of the Grand Khalif in Asharias (as Sarantium has been renamed) and Leonora, a woman disgraced by having a child out of wedlock, who is going to Dubrova as the wife of a doctor. In Dubrova the second son of a merchant family, Marin, has been bedding many of the women of that city but feels unsatisfied with his life. The three of them are on a ship sailing from Seressa to Dubrova when they are boarded by Senjani pirates. One of the pirates is the girl Danica who is an expert archer. She, her mother and her grandfather had escaped from their small village when it was attacked by Osmanlis and her one wish is to get vengeance by killing as many Osmanlis as she can. Events on board ship affect all of these characters taking some of them into very dangerous spots.Although this book is almost 600 pages long it is such a compelling story that I read it in less time than I have taken to read some books half that long. Very satisfying.
    • 5/5
      Kay is known for his fantasies set in an analogue of our world but based on recognizable pieces of our history. After two books set in not-China, he returns to not-Europe in the late 15th century. Twenty-five years after the fall of Sarantium (Constantinople), three great powers and a number of minor cities vie with one another for supremacy and trade. The mercantile power Seressa, wants help from the Holy Jaddite Empire in destroying the town of Senjan, home of pirates and fierce warriors for Jad. The conquering Osmanlis seek to expand their empire by taking the great Jaddite fortress of Woberg. And the independent city of Dubrava just wants to prosper undisturbed.Children of Earth and Sky follows a number of characters, mostly fairly young. An artist from Seressa is sent east to Asharia, formerly Sarantium, to paint the Osmanli ruler. On the same ship, Seressa sends a disgraced woman to Dubrava as a spy. There paths cross with that of a gifted archer from Senjan on her first raid, who desperate wants to avenge her family's destruction in an Asharite raid. Her brother, kidnapped as a young child in the raid, has become an Osmanli warrior, eager to prove himself war. And a young merchant from Dubrava becomes entangled with all of them.Kay's writing is deceptively simple, the style quite formal, but underneath there is a deep well of emotion. Very affecting and highly recommended.