Guy Gavriel Kay

Guy Gavriel Kay began his writing career working with J.R.R Tolkien’s youngest son and literary executor, Christopher Tolkien, on the editing of J.R.R Tolkien’s great central work of mythology, The Silmarillion, first published in 1978. Born and raised in Canada, Kay is still based in Toronto, although he now does most of his writing in Europe.

His first novel, The Summer Tree, was published in Canada in 1984 and was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Author. Its sequel The Wandering Fire (1986) was awarded the Casper Award as the Best Canadian Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel. These two, together with The Darkest Road (1987) make up the acclaimed Fionavar Tapestry Trilogy. His next book, Tigana (1990), winner of the Canadian Aurora Prize in Speculative Fiction, went on to become an international bestseller.

Guy Gavriel Kay is an author who transcends the limits of labels or genre. His books have increasingly blurred the boundaries between history and fantasy, creating fictional worlds that are unique and richly realized, yet at the same time draw recognizably on the resonances, culture and folklore of medieval and earlier times. The invented world of A Song for Arbonne (1992), for example, was based on the troubadours and the traditions of Courtly Love in medieval France, while The Lions of Al-Rassan (1995) was inspired by eleventh-century Moorish Spain, translating the historical Christians, Arabs and Jews into Jaddites, Asharites and Kindath.
In Sailing to Sarantium, his first novel since 1995, he takes the traditions of Byzantium and the Empire of the East and refashions them piece by piece to form an intricate tale of drama, adventure, politics and self-discovery.

His novels have regularly ranked in the Internet’s ‘Best 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books’ list (Tigana has been ranked as high as No.2, and on edition number 159 dated 11 July 1998, The Lions of Al-Rassan was No.4).

 
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THE FIONAVAR TAPESTRY
The Summer Tree
The Wandering Fire
The Darkest Road

THE SARANTINE MOSAIC
Sailing to Sarantium
Lord of Emperors

STAND ALONE NOVELS
A Song for Arbonne
The Lions of Al-Rassan
Tigana