Tier Ranking Every Book by Guy Gavriel Kay (Spoiler Free)
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- Опубліковано 14 лип 2024
- And here it is, another tier list. I've been looking forward to this one.
0:00 start
1:35 The Fionavar Tapestry
5:16 Tigana
7:19 A Song For Arbonne
9:46 The Lions of Al-Rassan
12:26 Sailing to Sarantium
13:51 Lord of Emperors
15:28 The Last Light of the Sun
16:48 Ysabel
18:02 Under Heaven
19:04 River of Stars
21:13 Children of Earth and Sky
23:01 A Brightness Long Ago
25:24 All The Sea's of the World
Various GGK reviews from me if you would like more detailed thoughts on some of his other works
A Brightness Long Ago: • A Brightness Long Ago ...
Under Heaven: • Under Heaven by GGK Sp...
All The Sea's of the World: • All The Sea's of the W...
The Sarantine Mosaic: • The Sarantine Mosaic b...
A Song For Arbonne: • A Song For Arbonne Ano...
Lions of Al-Rassan: • Lions of Al-Rassan rev...
Tigana: • Tigana by Guy Gavriel ...
My goodreads : / truthless_of_shinovar
Intro music: Music is by Budapest BluesBoy
ccmixter.org/files/hepepe/25027
the music is is Creative Commons licensed for commercial use
#fantasy #books #reading #booktube - Розваги
Thank you for this, Jake! I've watched this and Library Ladder's. Can't wait to start on my Guy Gavriel Kay book journey, thanks to you.
I hope you enjoy them!
Love these kinds of tier lists! It was fun trying to predict where things would go based on your reviews-good discipline just putting 2 in the top tier!
Fortunately when I read Lord of Emperors I liked it clearly more than everything else, so for anything to be in the top tier, I knew it had to be close to Lord of Emperors.
Great list, always great to see more GGK appreciation
He's so good
This was awesome, Jake! Will keep referring to it as I make my way through GGK’s work!
Happy you enjoyed it
Nice. I started Tigana this week. Really enjoying it so far, can't wait to work through the rest of his works.
Missed this comment somehow, but hopefully Lower Corte ended up going well.
Awesome, thank you for this! I own 5 of his books but still haven't read any of them, hopefully I'll get to Lions in August, based on everything I've heard about GGK I'm fairly sure he'll become an all-time favorite, crazy excited about Sarantine Mosaic but want to save it for later
Lions is a fantastic choice. In my next video about where to start, it is one of my top picks
You and I aren't actually too far off. Here's my ranking and ratings of the Kay books I've read:
1) The Sarantine Mosaic - 10/10
2) The Fionavar Tapestry - 9.5/10
3) The Last Light of the Sun - 9/10
4) Tigana - 7.5/10
5) Children of Earth and Sky - 6.5/10
6) Ysabel - 2.5/10
Also, I don't know how I'm just finding your channel now! Cheers from a new subscriber in Ontario, Canada!
Thanks!
That is definitely an interesting ranking. Poor Ysabel
I'm starting GGK most likely this summer! I have Tigana, A Song for Arbonne and the Lions of al-Rassan on the shelf. I'll likely be starting with Lions. Thanks for the list!
I look forward to seeing what you think!
Called it! I knew you'd do this video soon. Have been looking forward to to it ever since you started your GGK journey. After having Tigana and Lions under mybelt, Arbonne is my next which I'm going to cycle in soon. Then Sarantine Mosaic after that.
Fantastic plan
go right for Sarantine Mosaic...
There are no wrong choices between A Song For Arbonne and The Sarantine Mosaic. Well, unless someone was only ever going to read one of them. Then Sarantine for sure.
Hey loved the video! I read Under Heaven when it first came out and haven't seen anyone talk about it ever. I thought it was a great book, but again... no discussion. You've inspired me to read Kay's oeuvre. So cheers to you, Jake Bishop.
I know right, the tiny of amount of talk GGK gets on booktube needs to change, and I am going to do my best to be one of the pebbles that start an avalanche.
Also good choice, because Under Heaven is a fantastic starting point.
Looking forward to your next video on starting points despite already starting lol. But to be fair, I did read it during release year. I’m thinking of doing Tigana first and then going through the oeuvre in publication order-reading Under Heaven when I get to it.
Thank you for this. I guess I'm just gonna have to go through the entire bibliography 💚🙌. All of em seem interesting enough to pick up.
Now waiting for Allen to make a tier list for K J Parker 🤞
I swear K.J Parker just always has another book, so that tier list may never happenm
Of his books I haven't read yet, which is most, I'm most looking forward to Saratine Mosaic and Under Heaven solely based off of your reviews.
Good choices. They are both so good!
Nice ranking! Mine would have Lions first and the Sarantine Mosaic as a whole second. Still have not read the most recent one! On my TBR. Be well, stay safe.
Definitely understandable. Lions is fantastic, and from what I have seen a common favorite. I think the last chapter is still my favorite GGK chapter, and one of my favorite chapters in fiction.
Very nice overview, Jake. Your evaluations of his books largely track my own. I’ll be interested to see what books you recommend as entry points to Kay, since there are so many good ones to choose from. :)
The answer is basically most of them. I don't think it would be useful for me to pick 1 or 2 "correct entry points", so instead I am going to try and outline the pro's and cons of all the viable entry points. My goal is for the video to not be 50 minutes longs
Kay is one of my favorites. I've got everything except Seas. Personally, I'd probably drop Arbonne a level, and I'd be tempted to put either Lions or Tigana above Lord of Emperors (but maybe not - I need to re-read). And on the horniness factor, don't forget Fionavar. There's nothing explicit (except the Liadon scene, I guess), but everybody sleeps with everybody, pretty much. Of course, there's also Jennifer, but that doesn't count as horny so much as triggering for some people. Brutal, but necessary for character development (and endgame, of course.)
I wouldn't be mad at Tigana or Lions at one, but I'm taking LoE.
Fionavar is indeed sneaky horny, and yes that scene you are mentioning does not count
Nice to see your tier list Jake. For me, I would add The Lions of Al-Rassan to the All Time Favourite, but would agree with the rest apart from the last 3 books I haven't read yet. I have just got started with Children of Earth and Sky (got interrupted for the last week when I came down with the lurgy). Should be picking it up again this weekend. It's been good to watch you progress through GGK's books. It's nice to see someone appreciate the craftsmanship that has clearly gone into the writing. More people really need to read GGK, I think he has slipped under the radar for a lot of people. Speaking of under the radar did you get round to Charles De Lint yet? Cheers Jake.
Thanks! I hope you enjoy the renaissance books. Charles De Lint is on the list since you last mentioned him, but the list is long, so it will probably be a while.
Really great video, thank you. I wish Lions of Al-Rassan had ended before the epilogue, I really enjoyed that ambiguous resolution to the climactic scene and felt it should have ended there.
Anyway, I've been looking to get back to Kay for some time and I will use this video to choose. I prefer his non-fantasy stuff, generally.
That is good news for you, because basically everything is his "non fantasy stuff". Technically it is all fantasy, but most of his career is more like Lions than it is Tigana.
I don't know if my heart could have taken the ending of lions being ambiguous, but not like it faired any better with it being less ambiguous. But I feel if it had stayed hidden I would have been more annoyed with the information being hidden from me
Nice. As a decades long Kay fan it's always fun to see some appreciation of our man's work; it deserves far more exposure than it's had.
Three points.
1. Yes, agreed, the Sarantine Mosaic is peak Kay and the Lord of Emperors is also my favourite amongst his works.
2. I personally like Ysabel a lot more than you. I enjoyed seeing Kay try something else and I think it... mostly works.
3. The 'Horny' remarks are... odd. I suspect that this is a generational thing. After all most literature, certainly most of the great books in the Western cannon are based on two concerns - sex and death. Maybe three quarters of Literature are about those two things. So it seems weird to me to be complaining that a book explorers the sexuality and particular desires of the characters. I mean I kind feel it's at least in part what you are meant to be doing as an author.
That said I have noticed that a number of younger booktubers hold this same aversion to this exploration. That sex and desire are now being treated not as an integral part of the human experience and one of the major drives to action, but as a distasteful addition to literature which is or should be about other things.
I don't know that I can say why this change has occurred, I have some thoughts but it still feels very strange to me that this aversion has become so prominent.
Still nice video, I hope that you long continue.
Good comment, and I agree that there does seem to be a slight generational gap there. In general I should note I tend to mention when books have more sexual content because often it seems to effect peoples experience, you may notice that the amount of sexual content had almost no correlation with how much I enjoyed the book. I try and mention how much sexual content a book has for the same reason I would mention how much action it had, some people just don't want to specifically read about it, and I am not here to judge what people want to read.
Basically I treat sex scenes like I treat action scenes, or dialogue scenes. Does it add something to the narrative? If yes it is a good scene.
I could see liking Ysabel more, I didn't dislike it because it's GGK, and I think it might be partially me being bias and having expectation for an author I had already read 11 books by. I do slightly wonder what I would think if I read Ysabel earlier. I still think It would probably be my least favorite, but I do think that gap might narrow.
I reread Lord of Emperors and it was somehow even better.
I’m so glad someone is giving Kay his due. I believe he is one of our best contemporary novelists writing today. I have read 6 Kay novels: Sarantine Mosaic series, Ysabel, Children of Earth and Sky, A Brightness Long Ago, & All The Seas of the World. Children of Earth & Sky is my favorite Kay novel and All The Seas of the World is my least favorite of the ones I have read. I plan to reread Children of Earth & Sky in 2024 to see if it will join my all-time favorite novel list. I’m looking to reading Lions of Al-Rassan & Tigana as well. Thanks Jake for being an enthusiastic Kay fan. His work deserves it.
Can't wait for you to read them. Some of his best works. It'll be a great reading experience. Enjoy your time with the books sir!
So far I have read The Sarantine Mosaic - probably now my all time favourite book/s, Under Heaven, Tigana and The Last Light of the Sun. I now own all his books, most in hardcover.
I will be reading A Song for Arbonne starting today and continuing in publication order alternating with Tad William's Osten Ard books. I now also own all the books in this series :)
The last time I decided to buy all the books in a series based on the first book was three years ago when I accidentally found Gardens of the Moon which became my first book in the fantasy genre.
I guess you could say that these are now my three favourite authors. However, I would be remiss if I didn't include Richard Nell's Ash and Sand series of books. Easily in my top five fantasy reads.
Sorry for going off topic. Thank you for another well done and informative video!
I'm always very very happy to see Sarantine enthusiasm. A Song For Arbonne is also brilliant
@@BooksRebound I think that having never read fantasy before made it a bit easier because I had no preconceived expectations only that what I was reading had completely sucked me in. Took me 14 months to read all ten books and only those books. Reading it on Kindle helped a lot. Also, I would read and then listen to the same parts and listen and then read to the sanes parts, basically going through the pages of the books twice. I always picked up on things I missed during the reading and during the audio, which helped. I did this because I really, really enjoyed the books.
Based on reviews, I next picked up The Way of Kings - book, kindle and audio. Well that was a flop. It was what I had for 55 years expected fantasy to be like. I stopped at 37% and read the Kharkanas books - loved them, especially Forge of Darkness.
I read the sample for Vita Nostra and really enjoyed that as well. I also watched your review on the book and now have it on my Kindle. Haven't yet decided when to read it. As always, it depends how I feel when it's time to pick the next book. What I decide today, may change tomorrow.
I take it you are no longer doing book reviews on UA-cam?
I read them starting with Fionavar Tapestry round the time of publication and the others in publication order. The only one I've not read is the latest. I was fairly in tune with your tier choices.
Good to hear! It must have been interesting seing GGK's style change over the decades. Or was it less noticeable, because it was gradual?
Interesting video! Below are my humble opinions of the books I have read.
I have read five of GGK’s books (in the order I read them):
Tigana
Under Heaven
River of Stars
A Brightness Long Ago
All the Seas of the World
Soon, I will add a sixth to that, i.e. Children of Earth and Sky. Having said that, I find that my ranking is somewhat different to yours.
Yes, A Brightness Long Ago absolutely belongs as high as anyone can put it. The melancholy and enchanting nature of the narrative was something that just mesmerised me from the first page forward. This was a book that simply enthralled me. Its companion book, All the Seas of the World, was good, but felt somehow a bit forced sometimes. Nevertheless, I would certainly put it at least in the category “Really Good Book”, and, to be honest, its themes of home and personal freedom should in a way put it squarely in “Book Absolutely Rules”. The only problem really is its companion nature… TO EVERYONE: Do not start to read GGK from All the Seas of the World!
Under Heaven I found excellent and interesting - so nothing major against its place in the rankings. However, I found River of Stars to be “just good”, and would thus put it a tier below. To be honest, my biggest problem with these two books were that they (and especially the second one) sometimes felt more like studies in anthropology than works of literature. As such eminently interesting, but not as flowing or captivating. But certainly books for people tired of a typical European perspective.
Now we come to probably the biggest disagreement between us: Tigana. Although the book is good and the main theme interesting, I found that the division of the book is incredibly unbalanced, and that the motivations of especially one of the main characters is totally left hanging. Personally, I never understood the motivations of that person in the end. Thus, I would relegate Tigana to “Good Book”, nothing more.
Well, I am still so happy to know that I have the Sarantium duology to read, and I am so much looking forward to reading a book by GGK better that A Brightness a Long Ago!
Fortunately for you, the books you love are probably more similar to the rest of his career than Tigana is. So plenty of fantastic stuff ahead!
Just started Last Light of the Sun, so far so good
Woooo
For me I love the Fionavar Tapestry and have yet to complete any of his others :)
You have so many brilliant things ahead of you
great video jake! next time can you do a video killing people with a wrench
I would consider, but think it would work better as a collab.
Would you want to collaborate with me for that video?
@@jakebishop7822 if you fly me out to newfoundland or saskatchewan or wherever you live i'd been down
Finished Children of Earth & Sky and immediately picked up A Brightness Long Ago... sorry Howling Dark 😅
That's ok Brightness clears
So jake, buddy remember how I asked you for some light reading during olympiad. Well I'm about 70% through the 4th Alera book and games start today. Got anything else around the same complexity and pacing as alera, to pick up next?
uh, Dresden again?
Cinder Spires?
The Burning by Evan Winter
Faithful and the Fallen?
So hard to find and buy his books now (without spending $40-$60 AUD)! Secondhand booksellers are struggling to keep up with requests too. If anyone has any suggestions for a good place to buy, please let me know! I have lost my copies of Tigana, Lions and Under Heaven - which are my favourites.
I have heard multiple people in Australia struggle to get GGK books. It is annoying how that happens. At least e readers exist so they can be read, but not being able to buy them kinda sucks.
I can generally find them on bookstores. But thats cause I'm in Canada. And Indigo caries the Penguin Canada editions
I'm about 40.9% through Tigana at the moment, enjoying it so far even if I'd rather the tide start turning sooner rather than later against the villains. What would you say I should read next of his? Based on this I'm thinking The Sarantine Mosaic.
You have a lot of options TBH. A Song For Arbonne, Lions of Al-Rassan, Sailing to Sarantium, or Under Heaven. I am going to try and outline the pro's and cons of all of them in my next video, and you can also pick based on what setting you find more interesting
@@jakebishop7822 I remember you reviewing one of them based on dynastic China that sounded very interesting, but I can’t remember which one that was.
@@praetorxyn Under Heaven, fantastic book.
RIP Beyond This Dark House 😞
Meh
No sun, no moon, no stars under Al-Rassan.
The rain misses the clouds
why did you separated the sarantine mosaic? It's one book
You know I used to be on the it's 1 big book train, butI have moved to it's 2.
Sailing to Sarantium is it's own distinct book about traveling from 1 walled city to another.
Anyway, if you want The Sarantine Mosaic as 1 book it's still my favorite thing GGK has written
Now do one for K.J Parker
Still have quite a few books of his to read, mainly all of them
@@jakebishop7822 do that and you won't regret it. Try Purple and Black as a starter, it's a short novella, if you like it start with 16 Ways to Defend or Folding Knife. Kinda shocked that you haven't read him, they are very similar authors.
I agree with almost everything except I would just package Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors as the Sarantine Mosiac. They really are a part 1 and 2. Just Beautiful.
Agree with the Last Light of the Sun. Alun ap Owyn is your warrior poet for the artistic warrior presence.
I had Brightness Long Ago in my pantheon as well but I think All The Seas of the World dampened my enthusiasm so much for Brightness and Children that I would recommend not reading All the Seas of the World at all. This pains me to say. Just too random and too conveniently drawing previous characters into the story. This would be felt if you had read Children and Brightness chronologically. I still thought Brightness Long Ago was great on my first read and it certainly sent me on a research binge.
I would suggest Lions as a first go to anyone. Tigana is you're the type who likes a deeper dive...
I just got this notification a month late. Curse you youtube.
I am totally fine with combining Sarantine into one story, I kinda wish it was one book, even if it would be really long.
I definitely liked Sea's a lot less than Brightness(and most of Kay's books to be honest), but I don't think anything Kay does in any other book is going to make me love that less. It is my favorite stand alone novel ever.
Lions is my go to starting point as well
:D
;)