Rating: 
Summary: Another classic from one of the greats
Review: "Last Light" brings us the Guy Kay treatment of two cultures in particular: Celtic and Norse, and it's as evocative, thrilling, and fully realized as one would expect. The tonal shift is invigorating: after previous books that luxuriated in hot, seductive climes, this new tale brings us the harsh cold of the north, no less beautiful for its hard edges and stark majesty. But Kay hardly confines his gift to world-building: the characters are compelling, and the women in particular -- as always --- are memorable long after you've finished reading. Treat yourself to a new classic.
Rating: 
Summary: Had me enthralled right up to the end....
Review: A very nice and fun to read novel, involving just enough fantasy mixed with the history to keep things interesting. Nice to see Kay return to writing fantasy novels which actually include magic again.
The plot is rather hard to summarize, but as an overview, we are following three families from three different cultures as they interact through a year of war and peace. This happens in a location roughly parallel to the British Isles / Scandinavia at a time about 1000 years ago (see other reviews for more definite times).
I really enjoyed the writing, and I found that the story's constantly shifting viewpoint added to the telling (this seems to be a point of contention for reviewers). The fact that the viewpoint shifts across the political boundaries of the story keeps the reader from settling on one group as "the good guys" which would otherwise happen. Kay plays with an idea stolen from "The Neverending Story" (book, not movie) where he reminds us periodically that minor characters have lives of their own, which I thought was fun. I also enjoyed the almost total absence of the Heavy-handed Dark Foreshadowing device Kay has employed elsewhere.
I read the book in three days and really really enjoyed 80% of it.
The downside? The last 100 pages of the book built up to an end which was only partially satisfying. Not to include any spoilers, but while the overall conclusion to the main battle was satisfying, the conclusion to the "magical" story line was anything but, and felt as though Kay had slipped it in under duress from an editor. However, it is still a worthy read.
Rating: 
Summary: I have a tale for you
Review: After the lush and lyrical writing of Kay's stories of Sarantium, Al-Rassan, Tigana, and Arbonne, this latest story feels choppy and bluntly written. The style does reflect the different cultures of The Last Light of the Sun, with the Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic dark-age cultures being harsher, colder, less subtle and considerably less luxurious than Byzantium or medieval Italy, France and Spain. Kay alludes to British legends - King Alfred and the (burnt) cakes; the land of faerie; to the extent that I kept trying to find historical parallels between his universe and ours, which became an annoying distraction from the novel. Ibn Bakir, the convenient trader from Fezana plays the identical role as ibn Fadlan in Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead (who was based on an actual person and whose actual writings were used by Crichton to open his retelling of Beowulf). Sometimes I am amused by writers using the same conventions, but Kay is so much the better writer than Crichton that I found this disappointing coming from his pen.
Rating:
Summary: Harder-edged, sparser, bloodier, bleaker
Review: Among the many things he does well, Kay specializes in writing about a court - the intricacies, the intellegence, the glittering people, the poison behind the smiles, the price of ruling and the penalties of power. This book (although it still contains a small amount of this for one of the three groups of intermingling characters) reads very much like a Kay stripped of courtliness, artifice and glamor, and well it should. It is set, unlike his other books, in a place where people are still hacking out civilization from the surrounding forests. The courts we do see are precarious, new entities still fighting for their survival. Blood and death are much closer to the surface here, with no overlay of manners or graces to soften the blow. Kay's writing reflects this, by growing slightly choppier, cruder, more blunt. As an evocation of the timeperiod and the nature of the people that inhabit this world, it works marvelously. While not as bleak as George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books, this is probably the bleakest of Kay's works. I am writing this after only one read, and if there's anything I've learned, it's that Kay's writing deserves more than this. He is a master of nuance and subtlety, so I know that when I go back to the book I will discover new things. But as of this moment, it doesn't rank first among my personal hierarchy of Kay's work. The characters I grew most attatched to in the book did not have central roles, and I admit to finding Bern and Alun difficult characters to relate to. It is a good example of reading a book that you know, technically, is very good, but still have difficulty warming up to. This is all a long-winded way of saying that although I didn't enjoy the book as much as others by Kay (the Sarantine Mosaic duology and Song for Arbonne, specifically), saying you have a bad Kay is like saying you have a bad painting by Da Vinci. Such a beast is still head and shoulders above most other books written today.
Rating:
Summary: Echoes of Fionavar
Review: And how could there not be echoes of Fionavar with the novel set in the North? I have enjoyed GGK writing since the late 1980's, and at least once during each story, he makes me cry. The characters are always strong and vibrant and the stories are glorious. There are always just so many intricacies in his books that pull a reader in, and he uses words like a bard. His stories have always reminded me of songs of high deeds and adventures. I also like the way that he's tied his last three stories together (The Last Light of the Sun, Sarantine Mosaic, and The Lions of Al-Rassan). My favorites are still the Fionavar Tapestry, A Song for Arbonne, and Tigana, and for anyone who prefers pure Fantasy, I would start with them. But truthfully I love them all.
Rating:
Summary: Lack of goal weakens interesting story and world
Review: Erling (Viking) raiders have pillaged for generations but their day is finally passing. The Anglcyn (Saxons) under their powerful king Aeldred (Alfred the Great) have centralized their government, built strong fortifications, and even taken some Erling into their own kingdom. And the Cyngael (Welsh Celts) continue their squabbling while providing relatively little loot for the Erling. Three young men, Bern Thorkellson--an Erling, Athelbert--an Anglcyn prince, and Alun ab Owyn--a Cyngael prince are thrown together by fate in these last days of Erling raids. Because the grandson of the last great raider, Ivarr Ragnarson has sworn to recover his grandfather's lost sword and gain the glory and death that was once every Erling's destiny. Author Guy Gavriel Kay strays from history primarily by introducing the fair people--fairies and ancient gods, and by transforming historical Christianity into faith in the sun-god Jad. THE LAST LIGHT OF THE SUN delivers plenty of action as the Erling battle amongst themselves, and with both Anglycyn and Cyngael. Then again, the Cyngael and Anglycyn don't exactly see eye-to-eye and the greatest sport of the Cyngael is to raid one another. Occasionally, Kay escalates the action into true emotion. Kay's strong writing kept me hooked to the story even when he digressed into amusing sidetracks about the post-story lives of minor characters who would never be seen in the narrative again. The best story comes when a character has a goal that drives him/her forward, forces decisions, and transforms both the character and those around him/her. In LAST LIGHT, Ivarr Ragnarson comes closest to having such a story goal. Unfortunately, he is too minor of a character to be an effective anti-hero and is dealt with too easily. For me, this lack of story goal weakened the plot and held LAST LIGHT back from achieving its full potential. Still, LAST LIGHT draws strength from the fascinating period of history that it is derived from and makes for an interesting and worthwhile read.
Rating:
Summary: A more difficult realm for Kay, but still good.
Review: Every Kay novel is worth reading compared to much of the drivel that is formulaic fantasy. But The Last Light of the Sun seems to be typical of Kay's more recent efforts. It's brilliantly researched, well written, has intriguing characters - but unlike his earlier works like Tigana or the Fionavar Tapestry missing a truly compelling plot. Still, very much worth a read. The tapestry is set amid the decline of Viking influence in say 8th or 9th century England. The plot revolves around Vikings seeking vengance against the Welsh/Irish who scored the first victory against the Vikings in memory, and then moves to the English side of the border as a couple of Welsh principals ally with the first Anglo-Saxon king to both defeat and build his kingdom up against the Vikings before the main characters return to Wales for one final battle. Throw in a bit of Celtic myth as the magic/fantasy side of the plot and some interesting backplot on how the Viking raiders got to be where and who they are and you have the book. Kay does his usual great job in making all the characters, their culture, and their motivation extraordinarily well detailed and believable. Why only 4 stars? It's the plot. I think part of the problem is that for the first time since the Fionavar tapestry Kay is back on ground that most readers know well; part of the glory of Tigana and The Lions of Al-Rassan is that the average reader probably doesn't have a good grip on medieval Italy, Germany, France, and Spain, where Anglo-Saxon England has been rehashed in hundreds if not thousands of fantasy novels. Kay as usual does a brilliantly well researched job of getting the background more historically accurate than his peers, but you just don't get the same sense of the characters decisions putting their world on a knife edge as you do in his early novels. There are also a number of lookback perspectives by minor characters that somewhat spoil plot twists; a sentence or two is one thing, but several pages worth of describing how a minor participant ends up an old lady years after the events in the book gives you too much of an idea of how the novel will turn out. Another odd note is Kay's first attempt to fully include the rest of Europe and the Middle East and their religions that he's built up through his several historic novels. While other novels have the one reference or so to Fionavar, this one has Jaddite clerics, the Emperor in Sarantium, and so forth. If you've read the previous novels, you're ok - but part of the fun of reading Kay is watching him develop worlds, and it almost feels like you're not getting the full deal given he's incorporating previous concepts. Still, as usual if you care about character development and history, its worth a read. I nitpick here more than usual because Kay is much more of a writer than usual.
Rating: 
Summary: Dull and uneventful
Review: First, I usually love Guy Kay's work and have read everything he's written. And this book is Kay--it puts you in the past, makes you feel the world as it was believed to be, the magic and gods truly living and influencing the world. But, unfortunately, not much is happening in that world. Too many characters are introduced it's hard to keep track of people, and takes longer to get to like anyone. I'd say if you liked all his work, in particular if you found A Song for Arbonne "gripping", then you may like this one. Otherwise, find something else.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely stunning!
Review: GGK is a North American Treasure, and each work lets the reader look through one facet of the gem which is his World. <Last Light of the Sun> is challenging, no dispute there. The general reader is not versed in the Norse/Anglo-Saxon/Welsh worldview or literature to find this work an easy read. It is Kay's most demanding work to date--and that just begins with keeping up with the names of characters. What it demands most of the reader, however, is the patience and trust to allow Kay to build, thought by thought, the lens which allows entry not only into the heart of the book, but into the readers' own heart, and the honesty and courage to look inside.
Other reviews found the work choppy and blunt--like the battleaxes of the Vikings. Some found the plot too complex--like the intertwined tendrils of Celtic knotwork. Kay make the point more than once that 'life in the North is hard' and that is reflected throughout the work: it is the book's locale, after all.
It was with difficulty that I put the book down, while reading it, and also delayed flipping it over to begin reading again. The plot, the characters, are so rich and saturated with meaning it will take me more than a couple of readings to tease out the threads so skillfully woven in this work. Absolutely stunning, another masterwork from Kay.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent Fantasy Saga in Viking/Anglo-Saxon/Celtic Times
Review: Guy Gavriel Kay is a master storyteller whose stories evoke ancient European cultures, but with elements of fantasy. Of Kay's previous novels, my favorites are "Tigana" (Italian Renaissance) and "The Lions of Al-Rassan" (Andalusian and Moorish), in that order. His newest novel, "The Last Light of the Sun," is equal to his best work so far, and is a truly magnificent novel. Unlike Kay's last two novels (referred to collectively as "The Sarantine Mosaic"), this new novel stands alone, although it does make reference to previous works, specifically mentioning both Sarantium and Al-Rassan. "The Last Light of the Sun" spans a year in the life of many major and minor characters of several different cultures, from the Erlings and Jornsvikings (Scandinavians and Vikings) in the northeast to the Cyngael (Celts/Welsh) in the northwest, whose lands, because of their location at the western edge of the known world, receive "the last light of the sun." There are multiple interlocking plot lines and multiple endings. Some plot lines span the entire novel, but a few marvelous little stories span only a couple of pages. Major characters include kings and queens, princes and princesses, Viking raiders, priests, bards, hounds, faeries, and other mythical woodland creatures. Many plot lines involve deep affection, between man and woman, father and son, or brother and brother, and the reader will encounter surprises involving these affections. There were moments while reading this book, upon reaching the end of a chapter, where I just had to sit back and smile in sorrow, joy, and deep satisfaction at the story that had just unfolded. And when I reached the end of the book, I was surprised that only a year had passed during the telling of the multi-faceted tale. In my opinion, "The Last Light of the Sun" is a truly magnificent novel!
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