In one sentence, The Sarantine Mosaic is the story of a group of competent and clever people, masters of their professions (be it mosaicist, doctor, emperor, cook or soldier) working against and with each other, and against the larger forces of the world, trying to break free of the shackles of their past and their cultures to leave their mark on the world, to make a difference, to ensure that their life and deeds would be remembered. Underneath the fantasy trappings, this is a powerful but ubiquitous story which has been played out ad infinitum in the past and will continue to do so in the future. What happens when a talented person is at the peak of his/her abilities and has conquered everyone else, but knows that time is the only enemy that will ever remain elusive, due to mortal lifespan of humans and history's tendency to distort and mangle events of the past?

While this is the main theme, the author also successfully explores other ideas related to religion and history. The prose is beautiful as expected, and all the characters are incredibly nuanced (some of them a little bit too much to be honest). One female character in particular is introduced in the beginning as an antagonist, and in spite of not changing or doing anything good throughout the story, and in fact causing many deaths, still becomes an incredibly conflicted and empathetic character towards the end, and is involved in a particularly heart-breaking scene in the climax.

The story does feels a bit bloated at times, and particularly the entire episode involving the zubir in Sailing to Sarantium feels disconnected from the main plot and could easily have been removed or shortened. It also feels a bit unreal how every beautiful female character throws herself to our protagonist mosaicist, but then that is also true about certain other characters. As usual, the casual violence can be a bit disturbing, and I do think that the author goes a bit overboard with all the sexual tension, and how it seems to perpetuate through almost every important event, but this really is nitpicking. The Sarantine mosaic is a beautiful, powerful story which in spite of its fantasy trappings and its larger-than-life characters will resonate with many readers.

Lord of Emperors (and The Sarantine Mosaic overall) lacks the dramatic rise and fall of Kay’s other works and doesn’t quite crescendo the way they do, but I felt it improved on Sailing to Sarantium. Over six-hundred compelling pages about an artist getting swept up in political machinations is a feat. And as with most of Kay’s work, I love his dialogue. Especially the way his characters say so much in what they don’t say. Some truly great moments just from one character talking to another.

The cast of characters in this book two of the The Sarantine Mosaic are as diverse as the tesserae used in the making of mosaics. Small pieces of glass or stone, which have a huge impact depending on where they are placed with other pieces of the puzzle. As in the book one, the stage setting is the Byzantine Empire with all the intrigue, back biting, and the dancers in the royal court playing one against the other. I thought the sexual interactions of the pieces on the game board were a bit over done, but in the end sets the arena for battles to come.

Excellent descriptions of what the chariot races of the day were. Foul play allowed, if discrete. And again the world of the god Jad with rulers and clerics alike making the religious rules as they see fit.

G. G. Kay has a new book coming out in May 2022. There is one other of his I have not read, but reading the reviews, I shall not risk it. The reviewers either liked it or hated it. No in between. So, for now, I am done with Mr. Kay.

See my review for "Sailing to Sarantium," book one of "The Sarantine Mosaic."

In Sailing to Sarantium, Guy Gavriel Kay sets you up. Then in Lord of Emperors, he rips your heart out and hands it back to you with love.

"One lived in the world. Sought what slender grace was to be found, however one defined such things, and accepted that Jad’s creation—or Ludan’s, the zubir’s, or that of any other worshipped power—was not a place where mortal men and women were meant to find tranquil ease. There might be other worlds—some taught as much—better than this, where such harmonies were possible, but he didn’t live in one and was not ever going to live in one."

Sort of slow getting going, but once it hit the back half I couldn't stop turning pages.

This has most of the same strengths and weaknesses as [b:Sailing to Sarantium|104097|Sailing to Sarantium (The Sarantine Mosaic, #1)|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328000207s/104097.jpg|1336666]. In fact they are really a single long novel split into two volumes -- you couldn't read this volume as a standalone novel.

Once again Kay draws vivid characters and realistic settings and spends a lot of time revealing what's going on in their heads. Halfway through, the plot went totally over the top, and most of the characters acted in a completely unbelievable way. After the major climax things calmed down and got back on track, but I was disappointed that he'd gone to such extremes to add drama. His prose is overly portentous and long-winded at times, and I wasn't too impressed by the final resolution; it simply didn't ring true based on what had gone before. I also couldn't see the point of the whole Sarantine fire thing. Again the best parts of the novel revolved around the mosaicist's feelings about his art, the doctor's vocation, and the desire of many characters to leave something of themselves behind when they were gone.

I mostly enjoyed it, but I probably won't read any more Kay for a while.