Michael Dirda
Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven isn't quite historical fiction, nor is it quite fantasy. It's set in a slightly reimagined Tang dynasty China, sometimes seems reminiscent of films like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and depicts the unimaginable consequences of a single generous gift. Most important of all, it is the novel you'll want for your summer vacation…Kay has chosen a spare, slightly courtly style, but nonetheless moves his plot along at a rapid clip. At the same time, he continually thickens his novel with appealing minor characters, thus adding to the story's overall richness as well as suggesting that much else is going on just outside our narrative field of vision.
—The Washington Post
From the Publisher
Praise for Under Heaven
“Guy Gavriel Kay’s Under Heaven isn’t quite historical fiction, nor is it quite fantasy. It’s set in a slightly reimagined Tang dynasty China, sometimes seems reminiscent of films like “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and depicts the unimaginable consequences of a single generous gift. Most important of all, it is the novel you’ll want for your summer vacation.” —The Washington Post
“Guy Gavriel Kay is peerless in plucking elements from history and using them to weave a wholly fantastical tale that feels like a translation of some freshly unearthed scroll from a time we have yet to discover.”—The Miami Herald
“A magnificent epic, flawlessly crafted, that draws the reader in like a whirlwind and doesn’t let go.”—The Huffington Post
“Completely transporting...combines the best of historical and fantasy novels to create a great read where you don't know what could happen next.”—Laura Miller, Salon Book Reviewer
“Guy Gavriel Kay, hunting in the twilight zone between fact and dream, has written a shimmering novel, a fantasia on T’ang China, the epitome of Chinese civilization...a beautiful, compulsive read.”—Locus
More Praise for the Novels of Guy Gavriel Kay
“[Read] anything by Guy Gavriel Kay...His strengths are strong characters and fantastic set pieces.”—The New Yorker
“History and fantasy rarely come together as gracefully or readably as they do in the novels of Guy Gavriel Kay.”—The Washington Post Book World
“Kay shows why he’s the heir to Tolkien’s tradition.”—Booklist
“Kay is a genius. I've read him all my life and am always inspired by his work.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson
“A storyteller on the grandest scale.”—Time Magazine, Canada
Salon.com
"Completely transporting." --(SALON.com's Laura Miller, on NPR's Weekend Edition)
The Huffington Post
"A magnificent epic, flawlessly crafted, that draws the reader in like a whirlwind and doesn't let go."
Miami Herald
"Kay is peerless in plucking elements from history and using them to weave a wholly fantastical tale that feels like a translation of some freshly unearthed scroll from a time we have yet to discover…Lovers of historical fiction should also give Under Heaven a try."
Locus
"A shimmering novel...a beautiful, compulsive read."
