Review: 11th July 2009I've reviewed A Song for Arbonne before, but it was hardly adequate, and I need to review it again for it to count for my "read my own height in books" challenge, and I've come to like it so very much more since the first time I read it.As I pointed out before, I'm aware that technically this book is part of Guy Gavriel Kay's alternate history type books -- not sure how exactly to describe them, because I am still not familiar with the events the book is based on. Maybe one day I should find out, and then reread it to write a review with that in mind. For now, as before, I stuck to seeing it as pure fantasy and it didn't hurt any to do that. It doesn't matter what historical connections can be drawn, Guy Gavriel Kay still writes a fully realised world. It'd be surprising how little space he needs to do that, if I wasn't already aware of his skills. He sets up the conflicts easily, sets up the reasons, sets up the religions. I'm half in love with Arbonne myself.I do think that it's a bit of a poetical ideal, more that than a realistic place. It somehow doesn't bother me, though.Character-wise, I got to like the characters more this time round. Blaise and Ranald, especially. Their family is so broken and painful, and Kay does a good job in this book of showing how far small splits within and between families can carry -- as with Bertran and Urté. Blaise is a little irritating at first, but he does develop into a character worthy of being king. Ranald is... pathetic. But he redeems himself somewhat and I actually cried at his death. It's more pity for the opportunities lost than attachment to the character.Bertran... I liked him better from the beginning, knowing what I know about his past, because I knew what he was doing. Again, there's a good job of showing his wasted potential.The romance also didn't bother me as much this time. I still don't think it's Kay's strong point. A lot of it comes out of nowhere, and while love isn't rational, I'd like just a bit more explanation.I do have a couple of quibbles with the book. The writing is lovely -- tastes nice -- but sometimes it becomes just a bit too poetical and lyrical and faintly... old-fashioned. It suits the tone of the book, because the whole of Arbonne is like that. It has a kind of enchantment of its own, but I feel kind of wary about reccing this book to people I know in case it doesn't work for them and they cry purple prose. I think it walks a delicate line, and for me, it doesn't cross it. But I know for some people it definitely does. More so than his other books, maybe.Also, what the hell is with all the women wanting Blaise? Come on. One man is not all that attractive -- he isn't even given the nicest character at first, but there's all these women falling into bed with him! Ariane, Lucianna, Rosala, Lisseut...I would have liked more of the minor characters, like Rudel and Valery. Rudel would have been lots of fun, and Valery was just one of those characters that gets to me -- loyal and quiet and unflinching.Review: 30th August 2009 I'm aware that this book supposedly has connections to real history, but I read it as pure fantasy, and loved it as such. Guy Gavriel Kay is rapidly becoming one of my favourite fantasy writers. I love the way he can pack so much into just one book -- I felt as if as much was going on here as in the three books of the Fionavar tapestry, and I felt the same about Tigana. His world building is amazing, even if it does build on actual historical events. Even completely ignorant of those, I built up an incredibly rich picture of Arbonne in my mind.There were a few plot twists that I didn't expect, which is something I love in a book. I'm not sure Kay got it quite on the nose here: I saw foreshadowing for what happened to Aelis' child from about halfway through, but I didn't see any foreshadowing for who it would be, and nor did I really care about it when it was finally revealed.Characterwise... I didn't get as fond of Blaise as I have been of other Kay-protagonists. I'd have liked to see him as a person built up more -- perhaps through interaction with his best friend Rudel -- although I did like his slow growth into acceptance of the goddess. I also liked Ranald's little character arc -- I wouldn't say I was fond of him, but I was quite upset when he died at that moment. I was fond of Bertram, somewhat, mostly. Other times I wanted to hit him. The women characters didn't appeal to me so much, here, but overall the characters didn't disappoint me. I hold Kay to pretty high standards! It didn't match Fionavar or Tigana, but it did beat The Last Light Of The Sun and Ysabel. It's funny: I thought those were quite good when I first read them, but now I think Kay can write much better.In terms of handling romance, in some ways I thought Kay was better in this book than in others. I was sort of rooting for Lisseut, but I was quite glad that nothing explicit happened between her and Blaise at the end: I didn't see the build up for it on Blaise's end, or the cause of it on Lisseut's. Rosala and Bertran seemed a little out of the blue. Ariane and Blaise I kind of liked, though it could have done with more development.Overall, I liked A Song For Arbonne quite a lot. Not his worst work, but not his best, either.
A Song For Arbonne is a lyrical portrayal of one tumultuous year in Arbonne, as its peace-loving people — aristocracy, mercenaries, troubadours, priests and priestesses — deal with the threat of invasion from their war-hungry neighbors to the north.Much to my astonishment, some folks don’t enjoy the works of Guy Kay as much as I do. That said, the overall ratings for A Song For Arbonne is well above four, which puts it in pretty rarified territory. Even the negative reviews of Kay usually agree that the characters are well developed, that the world is richly and lovingly detailed, and that the prose is lyrical. The negative consensus seems to be that not enough action drives the story, though.I can understand that. There’s a lot of talking, and a lot of introspection. The characters are trying to understand the motivations of others, so it is pretty psychological. That makes this book (and all of Kay’s that I’ve read so far) quite unusual in the universe of speculative fiction.There’s also a subset that dislike Kay’s portrayal of sex. It is definitely present here, although not too much in my opinion. Some of what is portrayed is somewhat kinky, too. Well, I guess to most of y’all it would be very kinky, but I’m a San Franciscan. But we’re talking maybe two or three scenes out of the five hundred pages. Trivial compared to George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, for example.In this standalone book, Kay actually has quite a bit in common with Martin’s mega opus. Both deal with dynastic wars, and the suspicious and manipulative psychology that entails. Magic plays a relatively minor background role — this is actually historical fantasy, and far from swords-and-sorcery stuff (more on that below). The “evil” characters aren’t Sauron/Voldemort analogs, imbued with the myth of pure evil, but mere humans with the same banal incentives and passions we all share.It is worthwhile to recall Kay’s pedigree as an author, since that also illuminates important aspects of his work. While studying philosophy in college, he was asked to help family friends — the Tolkiens — compile and edit The Silmarillion. After moving to Oxford for that project, he met Dorothy Dunnett, author of epic historical fiction set in the sixteenth century.Kay’s trajectory as an author bridges those two influences, starting with a fairly ahistorical fantasy (The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy, which nevertheless draws on myths and legends), but soon, with Tigana, shifting to historical fantasy. Tigana is set in an other-world analog of medieval Italy. A Song For Arbonne is set in an other-world analog of medieval Languedoc and Provence. His later “analogs” have moved closer to our world’s history.Knowing that there is some real history behind A Song For Arbonne might be of interest. The Languedoc/Provence portion of France was, in the middle ages, independent of Rome, and developed a distinctive culture. One important aspect was the evolution of courtly love, which led to notions of chivalry that are now deeply embedded in western culture, history and mythology, as well as the troubadours that propagated and memorialized this. This is transferred into A Song For Arbonne without significant modification.The other important development in Languedoc/Provence was a divergent theology. The Cathar Heresy isn’t replicated directly. Cathar beliefs invoked a dual god — a good God of the spiritual realm, and an evil God (Satan) who created and ruled the material world. But Kay did create an analogous heretical dualism, which is central to the action. The bellicose north worships only the masculine god Corannos, whereas Arbonne elevates the feminine Rian to be his peer. The predictable result is a misogynistic religious crusade to cleanse the south of this heresy — what in our history was the Albigensian Crusade. Even if you don’t want to remember any of the foregoing, it is interesting to note that this is possibly the first invocation of the bumpersticker “Kill them all and let God sort them out”: Arnaud Amalric, the papal legate and inquisitor was asked how to tell the good Catholics from the evil Cathars, and he responded “Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt emus” (“Kill them all. For the Lord knoweth them that are His.”)But, honestly, these parallels aren’t really brought up in the book. That Eleanor of Aquitaine was probably the role model for Signe de Barbentain might mean something to aficionados of medieval history, but not most of us. (Trying to decode the parallels of other characters, events, and locales might be a distraction or a further pleasure, of course.)Perhaps A Song For Arbonne is too lyrical and meandering for some, but that is their loss. For most of us, this is a gorgeous tale.
What do You think about A Song For Arbonne (2002)?
This was my first Guy Gavriel Kay, and I was not disappointed. I would recommend this book for any fans of emotional, historical epics. There's really not too much fantasy here, besides that the story takes place in a fictional world with two moons. This story centers around Gorhaut, a God-worshipping, male dominated nation that recently went through an upheaval in leadership, and Arbonne, it's neighbor. Arbonne is a Goddess worshipping nation in which troubadours are greatly admired and women hold positions of power. Blaise of Gorhaut is currently serving in Arbonne, although the reasons behind this are not revealed until well into the book. We get to see Arbonne through his eyes first - the "courtly love" of the troubadours which seems to make buffoons of everyone involved, the weak men of the nation who allow their wives to run around with whoever they please, and the weak monarchy, after the count has died leaving the frail, elderly countess in charge. But is Arbonne really that weak? I think that at the heart of this story is a study of the nature of women and men - what makes us strong, and what can make us fanatical and oppressive to each other. The characters are compelling and I found myself excited to hear about almost all of them - even the villains. There's some great plot twists here at the end too! A great read.
—Catie
I really wanted to give this five stars. In many ways it was a perfect book - a great story of a country fighting for its very survival, some truly compelling and heroic characters, emotional resonance and an ending that was true to all of those elements and entirely fitting. And to start with, yes, I got swept up in it and in Kay’s wonderful writing. But somewhere around the midpoint it got sticky for me. It was just too over-the-top melodramatic in the worst kind of eye-rolling way. I did my best, but maybe I was just in the wrong mood for it, because it was all a bit much.I’ve only read two of Kay’s other books, ‘Tigana’ and ‘The Lions of al-Rassan’, but that’s enough to put him up there with my favourite authors. However, they’re not light reading, with their nuanced world building, deeply compelling characters and emotional intensity, so I tend to keep them for a time when I have the leisure to savour them. Kay favours settings which are only lightly disguised real-world historical places, and this is no exception, being analogous to medieval southern Europe. Arbonne is a place of troubadours singing of courtly love for unattainable married women, and is ruled by a woman, in contrast to northern Gorhaut, a deeply unpleasant patriarchal society. Although this is clearly a fantasy world, and the real world inspiration never intruded, there isn’t much magic involved; it’s there, and very obviously so, but it’s added to the mixture with a very light hand. One plus point: the author’s somewhat overwrought writing style can be a bit much in some contexts, but it actually works well in this setting, and enhances the atmosphere.Of the characters, I loved both Blaise and Bertran, and Valery too. They don’t feel like particularly original characters, but they worked for me. In fact, there were a surprising number of these complicated, deep-thinking men - macho warriors who are also in touch with their feminine side. The women have their good points, and they are all strong, independent-minded and sensible, if teetering a little on the edge of fearsome, sometimes, especially the goddess’s high priestess, who can be seriously spooky. But really, these families are so dysfunctional, they make the average soap characters look like paragons of normality. I found it quite hard to believe that Blaise would turn out so rational and honourable, given the father and brother he was blessed with. But then Ademar, the northern king, is the opposite - the weak, foolish and dissolute son of an honourable father.The plot is one of those teetering-on-the-cusp-of-war affairs. You know it’s going to happen and all the moves are laid out well ahead of time, so it isn’t a surprise, although there are lots of twists and turns along the way. Many of the twists are excellent - dramatic, exciting, unpredictable and not at all contrived. And some of them just fall off a cliff into grandiose melodrama, and become almost eye-rollingly bad. Kay’s writing rescues things from complete idiocy, but really, sometimes I just despair of him. The story’s got a driving pace of its own, there’s no need for the totally over-the-top flourishes. (view spoiler)[ I’m thinking here of Blaise being tied to the bed by Lucianna, about to be gutted by the Arimondan, and one by one major characters leap out from behind the arras to say ‘wait a moment...!’. And then Blaise challenges the guy to a duel, for heaven’s sake! Talk about stupidly contrived plot twists. As if the hero’s going to die at this point anyway... grumble, grumble. Pah! (hide spoiler)]
—Pauline Ross
My fourth book by GGK and once again I liked the the world, story and the characters created by him. This is a beautiful story of love, loyalty, honor, family, courage, sacrifice, betrayal and survival. First I must confess I was not impressed in first five chapters but after that I was unable to put it down. It took me a little time to understand the plot. Arbonne a land famous for its troubadours which is ruled by a woman and worship a goddess. Their passion for their country is remarkable. It is a total contrast to the land of Gorhaut which has a patriarchal society. the high priest of Gorhaut, who hates women and despised the matriarchy in Arbonne, wants to destroy Arbonne and rule it. It is his hatred that bring these two nations on the cusp of the war and whole story revolve around this impending war.Kay is famous for using historical places. He used southeastern France for this one. The world that he has portrayed in this book is beautiful, unforgettable and very resonant. Characters are very good and their narrative describe the different events of past for us. Kay’s writing is very gorgeous, the way he describe people’s emotions is simply breathtaking. His writing is a reader’s delight. And again I couldn’t stop myself marveling upon how much strength he gives to his female characters. this was an enjoyable read for me but still it didn’t touched me like Tigana, didn’t made me cry like The Lions of Al-Rassan or kept me on the edge the whole time due its political drama like Under Heaven. A man whose hatred inspired him to end a country because they worship a Goddess and respect women did not settled well with me. my most favorite character is Rosala. She is an extremely intelligent and clever woman. Her courage when she faced the most feared man in country was truly awesome. & then taking the most difficult decision of her life, putting herself and a country in a dangerous situation was very brave. Not GGK's best work but still an admirable read.
—Manju
