A Brightness Long Ago

By: Guy Gavriel Kay

Narrated by: Simon Vance

In a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a maritime city, a man looks back on his youth and the people who shaped his life. Danio Cerra's intelligence won him entry to a renowned school even though he was only the son of a tailor. He took service at the court of a ruling count - and soon learned why that man was known as the Beast.

©2019 Guy Gavriel Kay (P)2019 Recorded Books

Good

Guy Gavriel Kay and Simon Vance are beautiful. But this book isn’t up to the level of under heaven or tigana.

Very fine

This latest of my favorite living author has been a fine read. The characters take a lot from earlier parts of the story. They are not as strong as many have been but the tale carries them as Kays characters have often taken the weight of a story line. Nothing approaches the keenness of my favorites, Tigana and Under Heaven, surely the best of the best.

A bit boring

The first two-thirds of the story are quite entertaining, but after the demise of (in my opinion) its best character, it goes steadily downhill. Battle scenes and commanders talking about strategizing and power, etc. I had to keep rewinding it because my mind would drift. I finally gave up with about two hours left.

Dissappointingly mediocre

Entertaining, but hardly up to level of Kay's typically epic storytelling.

There were a few moments of brilliance, interesting characters and perspective, but overall leaves me feeling more dissappointed than anything else.

Perhaps that's the curse of having authored so many amazing novels?

As good as I hoped it would be.

It's just as good as Kay's other works, though one of his characters here might be my favorite. I love that he continues to write about strong women in a meaningful way.

Small Choices

The setting is renaissance Italy, but the place names are changed enough to make it a fantasy with some attachment to real history. The main city names are easy enough to guess, Florence, Venice, and Constantinople (present day Istanbul). The book is woven together by the stories from the standpoint of the main characters, but the central character is Guidanio Cerra, nicknamed Danio. The book begins with Danio reminiscing in his old age going back to his youth. Danio is the son of a tailor, but his intellectual abilities are recognized by a clergyman and he is given a scholarship to an elite school. He intends to return to his home village and open a bookshop, but his teacher encourages him to enter public service for a time to pay society back for the privilege of education he has received. Unfortunately, the ruler of the city state to whose service he was assigned was nicknamed as “the Beast.” A series of young girls or sometimes young boys is taken to his room each night for his pleasure, and many of them leave as corpses. In the opening of the book, Danio sees a girl being taken to the room of the Beast and recognizes her as Adria, the daughter of a duke of one of the region’s wealthiest families, and he quickly realizes that she is there not by accident, but by choice. His silence makes him a participant in the Beast’s murder and his helping the wounded Adria escape further involves him. However, his part is not known by others. His story continues to be intertwined with Adria’s, along with a pagan healer named Jelena, Adria’s un­cle named Folco (who arranged the plot to kill the Beast), and mercenary leader Teobaldo (sworn enemies of each other), and several others of significance. Events are told and then retold from the standpoint of another character in parallel chapters. As you can imagine, Danio falls in love with Adria, though he knows that they could never marry, though they meet again by chance (or is it fate?) several more times throughout the book. The story is built on chance encounters but with an emphasis on the small choices that we make that set up those chance encounters. Any story is actually many stories, depending on who the teller is. Fortunately, we don’t have just Danio’s story and each of them put together build a much deeper and richer book.

Brilliant

Brilliant. As always. Thought provoking. Enlightening. Poetry and philosophy between the prose. Not for everyone, but nothing is. Stirs me and jars loose my own thoughts and poetry. Sailing to Sarantium reread might be in order. Guy Gavriel Kay is a perennial favorite, Simon Vance is a new one.

Just didn’t hold my attention

There was nothing in particular that I can point to—the writing wasn’t bad, several characters were interesting, but it was never hard to put it down. Don’t think I will read it again. Narration was fine.

Fantastic

This was my introduction to Guy Gavriel Kay. I loved it and have read everything else he has written.

A fine novel, well worth reading

This is a fine, enjoyable book and an exploration of the human condition. It is one of Guy Gabriel Kay's best and displays his talents in character development, sense of place, and realistic plotting fully. Simon Vance brings exactly the right tone to his portrayal of the main character and narrator. The book is set just before and during the fall of Byzantium and start of the Italian Renaissance. To get the most out of it, you should first read Kay's "Sailing to Sirantium" trilogy, set at the height of that great city and the construction of the Haggia Sophia. In a sense this is the conclusion of that series, although most of the references are subtle and this book can be read separately and should be seen on its own merits. Those who know the history and something of Italy may get amusement at identifying the cities, which he has renamed but otherwise left the same. Fiorenza, of course, is obvious, but clues are there for the identities of others as well. The main characters, of course, are fictional. Overall, this is among the finest of Kay's works, and I have read all but one, and well worth reading.