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Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9780061051173 ISBN: 0061051179 Label: Eos Manufacturer: Eos Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 448 Publication Date: March 01, 1999 Publisher: Eos Release Date: February 03, 1999 Studio: Eos Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: Sailing to Sarantium is a small story. Its hero, Crispin, is unassuming as heroes go. He's a skilled mosaicist, an artist who makes pictures with decorative tiles, and responds to a request from a distant emperor to travel to the imperial capital and work on the new sanctuary there. Hardly the makings of high adventure. But then again, Guy Gavriel Kay could write about a peasant going to pick up a pail of water and you'd probably hang on every word. If you don't know Kay, you should. His pedigree is impeccable, starting with a well-loved fantasy debut, the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy (The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road), and a compilation he did with Christopher Tolkien called The Silmarillion. Sailing to Sarantium, the first half of the Sarantine Mosaic series, evokes his other historical fantasy titles, such as A Song for Arbonne and The Lions of Al-Rassan, and is a well-researched analog to the Byzantine Empire and fifth-century Europe--with all its political and religious machinations. Despite its seemingly prosaic cast and quest, Sailing to Sarantium is a charmer, another Kay classic. As usual, the character descriptions are subtle and precise--the mosaicist, Crispin, is a shrewd, irascible, and intensely likable man who is fiercely devoted to his art but troubled by guilt and loss. Reluctantly surrendering to events, he agrees to travel to Sarantium to work for the emperor. ("Sailing to Sarantium," we learn, is an expression synonymous with embracing great change.) As Crispin moves from roadside quarrels to palace intrigue, Kay gracefully shifts perspective from character to character, moving forward and backward in time and giving a rich sense of the world through the eyes of soldiers, slaves, and senators. --Paul Hughes Product Description: Valerius the Trakesian has great ambition. Rumored to be responsible for the ascension of the previous Emperor, his uncle, amid fire and blood, Valerius himself has now risen to the Golden Throne of the vast empire ruled by the fabled city, Sarantium. Valerius has a vision to match his ambition: a glittering dome that will proclaim his magnificence down through the ages. And so, in a ruined western city on the far distant edge of civilization, a not-so-humble artisan receives a call that will change his life forever. Crispin is a mosaicist, a layer of bright tiles. Still grieving for the family he lost to the plague, he lives only for his arcane craft, and cares little for ambition, less for money, and for intrigue not at all. But an imperial summons to the most magnificent city in the world is a difficult call to resist. In this world still half-wild and tangled with magic, no journey is simple; and a journey to Sarantium means a walk into destiny. Bearing with him a deadly secret, and a Queen's seductive promise; guarded only by his own wits and a bird soul talisman from an alchemist's treasury, Crispin sets out for the fabled city from which none return unaltered. In the Aldwood he encounters a great beast from the mythic past, and in robbing the zubir of its prize he wins a woman's devotion and a man's loyalty--and loses a gift he didn't know he had until it was gone. In Sarantium itself, where rival factions vie in the streets and palaces, and chariot racing is as sacred as prayer, Crispin will begin his life anew. In an empire ruled by intrigue and violence, he must find his own source of power. And he does: high on the scaffolding of the greatest art work ever imagined, while struggling to deal with the dangers--and the seductive lures--of the men and women around him. Guy Gavriel Kay's magnificent historical fantasies draw from the twin springs of history and legend to create seamless worlds as vibrant as any in literature. Sailing to Sarantium begins The Sarantine Mosaic, a new and signal triumph by today's most esteemed master of high fantasy. "To say of a man that he was Sailing to Sarantium was to say that his life was on the cusp of change, poised for emergent greatness, brilliance, fortune--or else at the very precipice of a final and absolute fall into chaos and ruin." Average Rating:
 Rating: - Novel as a mosaicSailing to Sarantium is a lush novel from Guy Kavriel Kay, whom I consider to be the finest modern writer of fantasy. I highly recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed Kay's other works. For readers who have not yet sampled Kay's vibrant fiction, first, shame on you, and second, read The Lions of Al-Rassan or Tigana before you read Sailing to Sarantium. They are more accessible and serve as a better introduction to Kay than Sailing. The most intriguing aspect of Sailing is its structure. ... Read More Rating:  - Rich and satisfyingIf you are looking for a thrill a page action/adventure, keep looking. Guy Gavriel Kay writes character driven novels of remarkable depth. His characters are complex, flawed and very, very real. That's not to say that the novel is slow or a simple character study. There is enough tension and plot twists to satisfy most, but the plot is driven more by political intrigue and by living, breathing characters than by blood and guts. Sarantium is a fantasy version of Constantinople and the Eastern ... Read More Rating: - Character Driven and BrilliantI've just re-read both volumes of The Sarantine Mosaic. The two taken together are deeply moving and memorable. A number of reviewers comment on the books' "slow pace" but this misses the point. Character is front and center here, brilliantly revealed and explored, from the first paragraph (which ends, unexpectedly, commenting on the character of historians!) to the last word. Surely Kay is accessing his own temperament to give us an artist-protagonist. When the mosaicist Crispin speaks of art, ... Read More Rating:  - Disappointed...Guy Gavriel Kay came very highly recommended, so I was quite excited about reading the first book in the duology. Doubly so because I've always been fascinated by the Roman and Byzantine Empires, and Sarantium is Byzantium with the serial numbers filed off. Others have mentioned the very long, and I have to say insufferable, introduction. It was exceedingly long and tedious, but I persevered as I have something very rare these days, an actual attention span. Even though the introduction becomes relevant ... Read More Rating: - Read the Sarantine Mosaic and You Will Not Be DisappointedI had suspected it before I picked up The Sarantine Mosaic but it was only after reading Sailing to Sarantium and the Lord of Emperors that my thoughts were confirmed. Guy Gavriel Kay is my absolute favourite author alive today. I've read every novel he's published to date and I think the two novels of this duology are his best ever. I admit I was hesitant at first. I asked myself how a novel about a mosaicist could possibly be intriguing. If it was any other author I may have even passed. But this was Guy Gavriel Kay ... Read More |
