The Lions of Al-Rassan

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, non-traditional fantasy. A must-read !!
Review: Guy Gavriel Kay has created another utterly believable world in which you can immerse yourself. The characters as well as the setting are well-rendered and draw you into the story. One of Kay's greatest strengths is to include many of the elements of traditional fantasy, yet be innovative enough to maintain interest and excitement. There is very little black and white in Kay's worlds, but many shades of grey. Lions of Al-Rassan is no exception to this rule, and all of the characters face difficult choices, with few clear-cut answers. Kay is a master at evoking strong emotional response to his stories, and characters stay in your mind long after the book is finished. Lions is a welcome addition to Kay's other novels, and ranks with the very best of contemporary fantasy.

Rating:
Summary: Lions at my table.
Review: The Lions of Al-Rassan is what is usually defined, as a Fantasy book. But in my opinion is more than that. Kay has researched the historical period he reflects in this "alternate universe", and gives an accurate and sensible picture of it: the value of honor, the religious beliefs (even if disguised with other names and nuisances), the mixed loyalties (to country, king, family and religion), poetry and medicine among others.
The story is loosely based on the medieval poem The Song of Mio Cid, around year 1000 in the Iberic peninsula, three cultures mixing and interacting; a main character from each of them: the courageous Captain Belmonte, the sage and stubborn doctoress Jehane and the cunning warrior-poet-politic Ammar, the three of them draw a complex and absorbing tapestry.
Kay is masterful depicting scenes that lead the reader to jump to conclusions that are, astonishingly, proved wrong a couple of pages later, this keep you reading on tiptoes, expecting new surprises... and they show up even if you are warned.
The descriptions of cities, rural places, king's courts, markets have a distinctive flavor, without being boring. The different characters are fully human and interesting, not two dimensional stereotypes as may be expected in Fantasy story. The inner thoughts of most of them are shown, giving insight as to why they do what they do.
A book to enjoy by different audiences.

Rating:
Summary: Unutterably beautiful.
Review: I think that previous reviewers have summed the plot and the elements thereof quite nicely. I'd like to add the following:

Yes, Kay's characters are "perfect"--in some ways. One could make arguments about Rodrigo's pursuing the war, about Ammar's assassinations, and so on. But then, that's always been part of Kay's charm to me--he writes about *extraordinary* people. Like Diarmuid in the Fionavar Tapestry, these characters are gifted, are intelligent, are very good at many things.
They aren't so out of some pseudo-narcissism on Kay's part. They are symbols; they are larger than life, and it is that very extraordinariness that binds them to the story and enables it to be told. Like Kay's fantastical elements (say, the name-removing spell in Tigana), they aren't there for their own sake.

As for "excessive description," Kay writes beautifully, and when he fleshes out his world with description, it only brings me closer.

In regards to the portrayal of religion, I'd like to remind people that this is a portrayal of *eleventh century* religion--and the religion of the time WAS quite bloodthirsty, and if a man tried to follow both his religion and the more modern-day morality some of the main characters display, then he would find himself torn.

Then again, we like what we like--I enjoy extraordinary people in stories, for the keenness of emotion they can produce (if Diarmuid in Fionavar were other than he was, would his final scene be nearly as effetive, for example?) and I enjoy description of Kay's sort. Not everybody does, and not everybody, of course, "should".

To me, however, Kay's works are some of the most beautiful around. He's the only author I've encountered that can make me shed tears. Take it as a recommendation that whenever I remember that I have Kay's soon-to-be-released "Last Light of the Sun" on preorder, it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. Like kittens.

Rating:
Summary: Historical Fantasy is Kay's Forte
Review: The Lions of Al-Rassan is, yet again, a work of poetic prose. One point to recommend this book above some of his others is that it does not rely on "magic" as a centerpoint theme. The characters and plot, along with his incredible command of the English language, solely carry the reader to an alternate universe.

His characters are, in usual Kay style, poignant and alive. His plot twists, especially at the end, make for lively reading.

One of the advantages to writing about the medieval culture set in an "alternate" universe is that the author can play with variations on themes. It is very unlikely that a Jewish female physician would have been welcomed in a Moorish Andalusian court in our own world.

About the only element I would like to see more of is characterization of the "villian" in Kay's work. In many of his works he does a good job, but I feel there could have been more exploration in Lions.

All and all an exceptional read, and I think this would be a good introduction to fantasy for the novice "fiction" reader wanting to try something new.

Rating:
Summary: Who cares if it doesn't fit a genre - it's good!
Review: It doesn't have magic, so it's not fantasy. It's not set in this world, so it's not historical. I don't care if I can't assign it a genre, why do people get so annoyed over that? For me, it fits into a genre: books that make me cry.

I'd had a bad day, so I went into a second-hand bookshop to buy a book. I'd heard of GGK, and thought, I really don't need a new addiction to yet another author, but LoA-L fit my criteria, so I went ahead. I read it in one sitting, squinting through tears for the last several chapters, rushing as fast as I could because I cared so deeply about the characters and what happened to them that I was in a big hurry to find out. As I raced through the Epilogue I was cursing GGK for playing tricks on me, but I forgive him now. I'm looking forward to the reread, where I'll follow all the twists with the benefit of foreknowledge. His trickery was a novelty, and when you're reading your three thousandth fantasy book you can forgive a lot for the sake of novelty.

Oh, sure, it had faults. For one thing, I felt the pacing a bit off. The first three-quarters or so dealt with events slowly, and then we suddenly jumped into a summary of the next few years' worth of plot. I would have felt more comfortable with a more even treatment. We are told the fates of lesser characters we came to care about when we would have preferred to actually see them. A solution would have been to end somewhere and have a second volume that dealt with the religious war in more detail.

I will probably find more criticisms during future readings, but I wasn't reading critically that first time. Some books reach heights. This one hits what _Tigana_ misses. I shall be reading the Fionavar Tapestry as soon as I can.

Rating:
Summary: Unutterably beautiful.
Review: I think that previous reviewers have summed the plot and the elements thereof quite nicely. I'd like to add the following:

Yes, Kay's characters are "perfect"--in some ways. One could make arguments about Rodrigo's pursuing the war, about Ammar's assassinations, and so on. But then, that's always been part of Kay's charm to me--he writes about *extraordinary* people. Like Diarmuid in the Fionavar Tapestry, these characters are gifted, are intelligent, are very good at many things.
They aren't so out of some pseudo-narcissism on Kay's part. They are symbols; they are larger than life, and it is that very extraordinariness that binds them to the story and enables it to be told. Like Kay's fantastical elements (say, the name-removing spell in Tigana), they aren't there for their own sake.

As for "excessive description," Kay writes beautifully, and when he fleshes out his world with description, it only brings me closer.

In regards to the portrayal of religion, I'd like to remind people that this is a portrayal of *eleventh century* religion--and the religion of the time WAS quite bloodthirsty, and if a man tried to follow both his religion and the more modern-day morality some of the main characters display, then he would find himself torn.

Then again, we like what we like--I enjoy extraordinary people in stories, for the keenness of emotion they can produce (if Diarmuid in Fionavar were other than he was, would his final scene be nearly as effetive, for example?) and I enjoy description of Kay's sort. Not everybody does, and not everybody, of course, "should".

To me, however, Kay's works are some of the most beautiful around. He's the only author I've encountered that can make me shed tears. Take it as a recommendation that whenever I remember that I have Kay's soon-to-be-released "Last Light of the Sun" on preorder, it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. Like kittens.

Rating:
Summary: Grand, epic historical fantasy
Review: The land of Al-Rassan is ruled by King Almarik, whose advisor Ammar ibn Khairan is legendary as an assassin. When the King assigns Ammar a gruesome duty, he sets in motion a chain of events that culminate in his own death, thus leaving Al-Rassan weakened in the eyes of its enemies. In the north, in Valledo, the celebrated military leader Rodrigo Belmonte is exiled by his own king, and journeys to Ragosa, where he and Ammar end up in the service of the same king. Jehane left Al-Rassan due in part to the atrocities attributed to Ammar ibn Khairan, and brings her skills as a physician to Ragosa. The three form a strange alliance, coming from three different religions, and a strong bond of love develops, although only two of the three are available to this passion. Their relationship with each other is the backdrop to the grand political intrigues and rumblings of holy war that soon engulf Al-Rassan and the lands surrounding it. Inspired by medieval Spain, "The Lions of Al-Rassan" is a historical fantasy with an epic scope. The focus shifts towards the end from the triad to the land of Al-Rassan itself, which I found unsettling and distracting. The story might've been better expanded into two books or so, and thus would have better encompassed the themes Guy Gavriel Kay addresses here. Overall, the book is quite enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: One Lion for the Sun, one for the Stars and one for the Moon
Review: In the 8th century the Arabs swept through North Africa, crossed the straits of Gibraltar and entered Western Europe. At Tours in what is now France in 732, in one of the most important battles of history, they were finally stopped by Charles Martel, but not before they had conquered most of Spain. The Arab culture of Spain was one of the peaks of Medieval civilization.
Guy Gavriel Kay's The Lions Of Al-Rassan is set in a world remarkably similar to 11th century Spain. It is the struggle between the Jaddites (Christians) and Asharites (Muslims) with the Kindath (Jews) caught in the middle. The Asharite kingdoms are greater in wealth and culture than the Jaddites to the north, but they are becoming militarily weaker. Only the disunity of the Jaddite kingdoms prevents them from overwhelming the Asharite kingdoms.
The story revolves around three individuals, one Asharite, one Jaddite and one Kindath as they find common cause, for a while, as war and intrigue rage around them.

The strength of The Lions of Al-Rassan is its evocation of Medieval Spain, especially the grandeur of the Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba. Its weakness is its characters. Everyone is just so wonderful; not just the three lead characters but almost all the secondary characters. They're all brave, charismatic, romantic, and so on ad nauseum. There isn't a real person in the bunch.
However the novel is worth reading for its depiction of a lost civilization, squeezed between the Christians of the north and the Moors across the straits.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning plot, great prose, poor characterization
Review: I've read nearly all of Kay's novels. This one and The Fionavar Tapestry are my favorites. The Lions of Al-Rassan shows Kay at his best in terms of plot construction and narrative beauty. The plot is tightly woven, and Kay deftly strikes the right balance between suspenseful unpredictability and a sense of inevitability as the story unfolds--the characters are constantly being surprised by particulars but are fatalistically aware of general patterns.

Nonetheless, I felt compelled to subtract one star for poor characterization and another for ineffective moralism. Kay is very good at drawing noble, infallible characters who are unerringly clever and infuriatingly superlative in just about everything. Enter Rodrigo, unsurpassable warrior-general, genius diplomat, incorruptible husband and landowner, blindingly handsome. Enter also Khammar, genius poet, assassin extraordinaire, unsurpassable warrior-general, irresistible Casanova. Finally, enter Jehane, genius doctor, irresistibly beautiful, always willing to share her bed, inerrant observer of politics, also the perfect bridge between cultures. Kay simply can't resist the urge to draw characters whose sheer perfection must only heighten dramatic tension to a hopeless tragic pitch. This is the worst of Kay's narrative tics; he demonstrates it to a lesser degree in all his novels, but here it grates simply because there are too many flawless characters running around.

Finally, the moralism of the book--i.e., that all religions promote fanaticism, and wisdom lies only in irreligion--is too heavy-handed to be effective. Kay's perspective is hopelessly facile and ahistorical.

Rating:
Summary: Intelligence and beauty.
Review: I won't attempt to add to the descriptions of this particular book that others have written: my only comment is that Kay consistently writes fine, challenging stories that are fiercely intelligent, logically constructed, yet still lyrically beautiful.

Do not expect traditional fantasy. Magical elements appear, but are, for the most part, secondary to the story arc and the cultures that Mr. Kay builds in prodigious, original detail...and the true magic is most often apparent in the focused intellect of the fully developed characters.

The best compliment I can offer is that, once you reach the end of one of his books, you find yourself wishing for another chapter, or a sequel, but you'll be able to accept the knowledge that none will be forthcoming--albeit a little sadly--because Mr. Kay has spun his tale perfectly and in its entirety.