The Past is Another Country, or Maybe A Fantasy - A Review of Children of Earth and Sky

Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When I think about what leads me to the books I choose to read (where it does not involve random discovery or a familiarity with the author’s previous work), the path tends to be relatively straightforward: a recommendation from a friend whose taste I trust, for example, or as part of the required reading list for a particular course. Other times, it can come from a somewhat more indirect source: when a book is mentioned in a book I am already reading, for instance. And sometimes, it can be because I am tracking down something with a similar style, a similar feel. Such instances are rare, since it is not a very accurate method of discovery, but it can lead to pleasant discoveries, as long as my luck holds.

That was the case when I discovered Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Lions of Al-Rassan. One of my poetry professors had introduced our class to Middle Eastern poetry - in particular, the ghazals of Hafiz and Rumi. The ghazal was new to me at the time, and I was enchanted by them - or rather, by the imagery used by the poets. Even when I was not actively reading the poetry, the images lingered: I daydreamed of courtyards filled with roses and pomegranate trees, and of stone-latticed windows casting tessellated shadows on multicoloured marble floors, the song of a lone nightingale echoing against a high, domed ceiling. The Lions of Al-Rassan evoked similar images, and though it was that imagery that first attracted me to the book, it was Kay’s storytelling and language that made me read it to the very end, and made me a fan of his writing.

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