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The Last Light of the Sun

by Guy Gavriel Kay

With his ninth novel, Toronto author Guy Gavriel Kay brings readers to the times when Vikings roamed the Anglo-Saxon and Welsh shores. The Last Light of the Sun is a moving saga of cultures at the brink of change, of Vikings and kings and faeries and battles, yet the aim of the book is not so much story-driven narrative as it is an exploration of how people’s lives entwine with one another.

At the centre of the story is a young, self-exiled Viking who joins a Viking mercenary band. Set against the band are rival Welsh clans and their relations with Anglo-Saxon royalty. A fantastic element is woven throughout the novel in the form of a faerie queen who claims the soul of a fallen prince. The twisting and turning of intersecting lives becomes complex as the three cultures meet, clash, and realign themselves.

Kay introduces a myriad of characters, and the reader must follow, to the very end, the lives of even those who pass fleetingly through the tale. No character is too small, and as their actions affect the main host of characters, so too are they affected, and we are shown the repercussions, dreams, and regrets felt by each minor player.

All of this makes for some very heady reading, but unfortunately Kay’s in-depth examination of so many characters slows the tale down. There are no stories left to be imagined, or tales to be told another time. The end of the novel does more than just sum things up – it packages them in a neat parcel, with every question answered, every pairing considered, and little left to wonder about. It is, in a way, too much of a good thing.

 

Reviewer: Cori Dusmann

Publisher: Viking Canada

DETAILS

Price: $37

Page Count: 464 pp

Format: Cloth

ISBN: 0-670-04319-2

Released: Mar.

Issue Date: 2004-3

Categories: Fiction: Novels