The Last Light of the Sun - by Guy Gavriel Kay (Paperback)

About the Book

The multiple award-winning author of the three-book Fionavar Tapestry that "can only be compared to Tolkien's masterpiece" ("Star-Phoenix") leaves behind the decadent, sophisticated courts of his most recent works to shape a powerful, moving saga evoking the Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse cultures of a thousand years ago.

Book Synopsis

A powerful, moving saga evoking the Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Norse cultures of a thousand years ago from the acclaimed author of The Fionavar Tapestry.

"A historical fantasy of the highest order, the work of a man who may well be the reigning master of the form."--The Washington Post Book World

Bern Thorkellson, punished for his father's sins, denied his heritage and home, commits an act of vengeance and desperation that brings him face-to-face with a past he's been trying to leave behind...

In the Anglcyn lands of King Aeldred, the shrewd king, battling inner demons all the while, shores up his defenses with alliances and diplomacy--and with swords and arrows. Meanwhile his exceptional, unpredictable sons and daughters give shape to their own desires when battle comes and darkness falls in the spirit wood...

And in the valleys and shrouded hills of the Cyngael, whose voices carry music even as they feud and raid amongst each other, violence and love become deeply interwoven when the dragon ships come and Alun ab Owyn, pursuing an enemy in the night, glimpses strange lights gleaming above forest pools...

Making brilliant use of motifs from saga and song and chronicle, Guy Gavriel Kay conjures a work of subtle, intricate richness, bringing to life an unforgettable world balanced on the knife-edge of change.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Last Light of the Sun

"An ambitious entertainment that transcends the historical record, offering cogent observations on fathers and sons, on the power of grief, on faith, courage, loyalty and the inevitability of change."--The Washington Post Book World

"Kay has written a modern saga, a story of song and heroes and of the end of days."--The Toronto Star

"[A] wonderfully imaginative historical fantasy...the pieces come together to weave a dazzling tapestry."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"If you take Stephen King's attention to detail, Stephen Lawhead's Byzantium, a near Shakespearean plot, and the best narration and storytelling in a while, you have The Last Light of the Sun."--SF Revu

"The Last Light of the Sun steadfastly confront[s] us with the significant acts of insignificant people, the ironies of history, and both heroism and the fantastic stripped of accumulated myths and legends."--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

About the Author

Guy Gavriel Kay is the international bestselling author of numerous fantasy novels including The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy, Tigana, The Last Light of the Sun, Under Heaven, River of Stars, and Children of Earth and Sky. He has been awarded the International Goliardos Prize for his work in the literature of the fantastic, and won the World Fantasy Award for Ysabel in 2008. In 2014 he was named to the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honor. His works have been translated into more than twenty-five languages.