Second in the Sarantine Mosaic duology, “Lord of Emperors” is a multifaceted masterpiece. I wasn’t expecting to be so incredibly moved by this book, but I found myself in complete awe of Kay’s command of his craft, of the enormous scope of this story, and of the quiet depth of feeling within each character. This is a book about emperors and artisans, religion and spirituality, dancers and charioteers, legacy and time. Kay takes inspiration from the Byzantine Empire and conjures an alternate history, an entirely different yet still familiar world interspersed with glimpses of a supernatural half-world. It is an astonishingly ambitious piece of writing that somehow still feels humble in its focus on the regular people on the margins of history. I inhaled the overlapping narratives that make up the plot, fascinated by Kay’s explorations of the transience of humans and art, and by the genre-defying style of writing; literary historical fantasy would be the closest label I could apply to this book, but it’s truly in a league all its own. An undeniable 5-star read for me!