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Sailing to Sarantium (Sarantine Mosaic Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Guy Gavriel Kay (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 1,272 ratings

Book 1 of 2: Sarantine Mosaic

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Guy Gavriel Kay, the international bestselling and multiple award-winning author of The Fionavar Tapestry, brings his unique storytelling imagination to an alternate Byzantine world…

Sarantium is the golden city: holy to the faithful, exalted by the poets, jewel of the world and heart of an empire.

Caius Crispus, known as Crispin, is a master mosaicist, creating beautiful art with colored stones and glass. Still grieving the loss of his family, he lives only for his craft—until an imperial summons draws him east to the fabled city. Bearing with him a Queen’s secret mission and seductive promise, and a talisman from an alchemist,Crispin crosses a land of pagan ritual and mortal danger, confronting legends and dark magic.

Once in Sarantium, with its taverns and gilded sanctuaries, chariot races and palaces, intriguesand violence, Crispin must find his own source of power in order to survive.He finds it, unexpectedly,high on the scaffolding of his own greatest creation.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sailing to Sarantium is a small story. Its hero, Crispin, is unassuming as heroes go. He's a skilled mosaicist, an artist who makes pictures with decorative tiles, and responds to a request from a distant emperor to travel to the imperial capital and work on the new sanctuary there. Hardly the makings of high adventure. But then again, Guy Gavriel Kay could write about a peasant going to pick up a pail of water and you'd probably hang on every word.

If you don't know Kay, you should. His pedigree is impeccable, starting with a well-loved fantasy debut, the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy (The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road), and a compilation he did with Christopher Tolkien called The Silmarillion. Sailing to Sarantium, the first half of the Sarantine Mosaic series, evokes his other historical fantasy titles, such as A Song for Arbonne and The Lions of Al-Rassan, and is a well-researched analog to the Byzantine Empire and fifth-century Europe--with all its political and religious machinations.

Despite its seemingly prosaic cast and quest, Sailing to Sarantium is a charmer, another Kay classic. As usual, the character descriptions are subtle and precise--the mosaicist, Crispin, is a shrewd, irascible, and intensely likable man who is fiercely devoted to his art but troubled by guilt and loss. Reluctantly surrendering to events, he agrees to travel to Sarantium to work for the emperor. ("Sailing to Sarantium," we learn, is an expression synonymous with embracing great change.) As Crispin moves from roadside quarrels to palace intrigue, Kay gracefully shifts perspective from character to character, moving forward and backward in time and giving a rich sense of the world through the eyes of soldiers, slaves, and senators. --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly

Heavy of character and light of plot, Kay's (The Lions of Al Rassan) new series opens with the heady scents of sex, horseflesh and power. In the Holy City of Sarantium, the wily, murderous new emperor, Valerius II, stiffs his soldiers of their pay in order to build a fabulous monument to immortalize his reign. To adorn his temple, he summons a renowned elder mosaicist, who entreats his brilliant, younger partner, Caius Crispus of Varena, to make the journey to Sarantium in his stead. Crispus, who lost his zest for life after his beloved wife and daughters died of the plague, makes the journey under protest. His besieged country's young queen forces him to carry a dangerous, private message to the emperor, the contents of which could cost him his life. En route to Sarantium, Crispus becomes involved with mystically souled mechanical birds created by the magician Zoticus; encounters an awe-inspiring pagan god; saves the life of a beautiful, enslaved prostitute; and demonstrates that decency brings out the best in hired workers. At his destination, he learns to trust his own instincts, especially where knife-wielding assassins and powerful women who use their sexuality as a weapon are concerned. Kay is at his best when describing the intertwining of art and religion or explicating the ancient craft of mosaic work. The slow pace of the novel and the sheer volume of its characters (if ever a book cried out for a listing of dramatis personae, this is it) are dismaying, however, and don't augur well for future installments in the series. Rights: Westwood Creative Artists.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Summoned to the court of the Emperor of Sarantium, Crispin, a mosaicist from faraway Varena, encounters a city filled with beauty and treachery beyond his wildest imaginations. Caught in a web of political intrigue and religious controversy, Crispin attempts to retain his artistic vision even as he lays to rest the ghosts of his embittered past. With consummate skill and a flair for leisurely storytelling, the author of The Lions of Al-Rassan (HarperCollins, 1995) begins a new series set in a fantasy version of the Byzantine Empire. This evocative tale of one man's rendezvous with his destiny is a priority purchase for fantasy collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The title page imparts that this is "Book One of the Sarantine Mosaic." Kay has embarked on yet another fantasy saga, set several centuries earlier in the same world as his masterpiece, The Lions of Al-Rassan (1995). The historically knowledgeable will recognize that Sarantium essentially equals Byzantium during the reign of Justinian and Theodora, who appear under other names, along with Belisarius, Procopius, Hagia Sophia, the Visigoths--the whole kit and caboodle. The protagonist is a mosaicist from Rhodius (Visigothic Rome) who travels to Sarantium to work on the Great Temple (i.e., Hagia Sophia) because he has lost his family in the plague and feels he has nothing more to lose should Sarantium change him. The characterization is up to Kay's usual high standard, and he has adapted real-world history so well for his world-building purposes that even those who know what he is borrowing will admire it. A good book that bodes very well for the series it inaugurates. Roland Green

Review

Praise for Sailing to Sarantium

“Kay at his finest. Sarantium itself is vast, sumptuous, and dangerous.”—Locus

“Once again, Guy Gavriel Kay has taken a period of history and transformed it into something magical.”—Lisa Goldstein, author of The Red Magician

“Sailing to Sarantium confirms, yet again, Kay’s status as one of our most accomplished and engaging storytellers.”—Toronto Star

“For some time now, Guy Gavriel Kay has been recognized as one of the finest writers of high fantasy in the world. Now, he has achieved one of the finest works of historical fantasy...in years. Kay has constructed his novel as a literary mosaic of great intricacy and delicacy.”—Edmonton Journal

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.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00452V3DC
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ace; Reprint edition (September 7, 2010)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 7, 2010
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2727 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 451 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #51,104 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #156 in Historical Thrillers (Kindle Store)
- #527 in Historical Thrillers (Books)
- #887 in Supernatural Thrillers (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 1,272 ratings

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Guy Gavriel Kay

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Guy Gavriel Kay is the internationally bestselling author of thirteen novels, including most recently Under Heaven and River of Stars. 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 honour. His works have been translated into more than twenty-five languages.

https://twitter.com/brightweavings The author lives in Toronto.

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C. D. Guthrie

Prose is a joy

Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2017

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I seem to be an unusual Kay reader in that I found his Fionavar Tapestry novels pastichey and not particularly engaging (I've certainly read my share of high fantasy, and more). But I loved Tigana and enjoyed A Song for Arbonne, and I was pleased by the Sarantium duology. If you're expecting more Fionavar, don't bother with this; you'll be disappointed. If you're expecting battles and fast-paced action, you'll be bored. Likewise, if you're a history buff and are likely to be annoyed by Kay's history-through-a-fantasy-lens focus, avoid.

As for me, I love the approach. I don't need every detail analogous and correct in my fictional retellings of history, as long as it's a ripping good story, and this one is. (I am also fond of Susan Howatch's fictional 20th-century treatment of the Plantagenets, The Wheel of Fortune, as well as Colleen McCullough's fictional Masters of Rome series.) And Kay's prose is just a joy to read. I very much enjoy the multiple viewpoints of major and minor characters, and I love seeing how these people's lives are woven together in unexpected ways.

I could wish for stronger female characters, true. The women in this series often use their sexual appeal blatantly to get what they want, and seem quite restricted by the expectations of feminine behavior. On the other hand, since this IS a fictional retelling of history, I think I would find a modern attitude quite jarring, and I doubt I'd spoil any plot points by mentioning that sometimes they do get what they want and are more important to the flow of events than I'd have imagined.

I'm not sure why this series was released in two parts; I'd have combined it into a (massive) single novel. I'm reviewing it as such, in any case. A lovely read that will stay with me for a long time, I think.

4 people found this helpful

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Mad Professah

Starts Slow, But Hard To Get Out Off Your Head Afterwards...

Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2012

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Guy Gavriel Kay is a Canadian fantasy author who is probably best known for his Fionavr Tapestry trilogy, which I read a few years ago. That series is a relatively conventional entry in the genre which follows a group of five friends who move back and forth between our Earth and a parallel world where magic and other common fantasy tropes exist. However, most of his work is in a particular sub-genre which can best be described as "historical fantasy"; he sets his novels in fictionalized versions of actual historical periods populated by characters who are adopted from world-famous people of extreme significance such as the 8th Century Tang Dynasty in China, medieval Italy and medieval Spain.

The Sarantine Mosaic is the name given to his diptych of novels Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors. They are based in a world where the "Lord of Emperors" Valerius II and his beautiful empress Alixana rule in a fabled city called Sarantium where the populace is completely obsessed with chariot races and there are multiple competing religious beliefs, with worship of the Sun God Jad being the most prominent. This is a thinly veiled fictionalization of the 6th century Byzantine period in which Justinian II ruled with his queen Theodora in Constantinople as part of the Eastern edge of the Roman empire.

The main character we follow is Caius Crispus (who is better known as Crispin), a mosaicist who has recently lost his wife and child to the plague. His aging mentor is summoned to the capital of Trakesia (Sarantium) to create a mosaic for the Emperor but they agree to have Crispin go in his place, since he has nothing really tying him to his hometown of Varena, in the land of Batiara. The first book, Sailing to Sarantium, is primarily about his eventful journey from Batiara to Trakesia, but then it gets even more interesting when Crispin arrives in Sarantium and is immersed into the complex politics of the palace and the capital city. Another key aspect of the books is Kay's portrayal of the chariot races in the Hippodrome as well as the obsessive enthusiasm the city has for the two rival factions: the Blues and the Greens.

One of the strongest features of Kay's writing is his ability to incorporate many details and intricate backstory to construct and communicate a very clear picture of the culture of the fascinating time and place he sets his books. In fact, some would argue that he devotes so much of his text towards the atmospherics in The Sarantine Mosaic that the plot and story development suffers. There's no question that events sloooowly unfold, but the atmosphere generally hooks you so completely that even though I kept on putting the books down to read other more rapidly plotted books (such as Jack McDevitt's Alex Benedict novels), I repeatedly returned to Kay's work because I cared about Crispin and I wanted to return to Sarantium to find out what happened to him. It literally took me around 6 months to finish both books but I am glad that I did. I very rarely read more than one book at a time, but somehow I was able to do this with the The Sarantine Mosaic, which is a testament to Kay's clarity of exposition that even after returning to the books after a long break one can immediately be re-engrossed.

In the second book Lord of Emperors (which resumes right where the first book ends) story takes a central role as Kay starts deploying all the characters he has introduced to produce a gripping series of events which surprises and emotionally impacts the reader. Crispis is the main character, but there are at least four women in his orbit who are all extremely important in Sarantium: Alixana, the Empress of Sarantium; Gisele, the exiled Queen who escaped an assassination attempt back in their common hometown of Batiara and is now relatively powerless in her country's longtime enemy's capital city; Shirin, the daughter of Crispin's mentor who has become the most desired woman in Sarantium as the primary dancer aligned with the Greens (one of the city's two rival chariot racing cohorts); and Styliane, the blonde, beautiful wife of the commander of the Sarantine Army who is also daughter of the previous Emperor and is widely considered the second most important woman in the capital city, a sort of Empress-in-waiting. The ways in which the lives and stories of these women (and the men who love them) intersect and develop is quite affecting.

In fact, after I finished the books I really think that The Sarantine Mosaic is ripe for a filmic adaptation. I'm not sure it would work well as a television series (there's not enough plot for that) but as either a major motion picture or a "short" miniseries of 6-8 hours I think it would work very well; there's a lot of sex, politics, romance, betrayal and beauty which would be compelling to most viewers.

Title: Sailing to Sarantium.
Author: Guy Gavriel Kay.
Paperback: 560 pages.
Publisher: Harper Voyager.
Date: January 5, 2000.

OVERALL GRADE: A- (3.67/4.0).

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A-.

Title: Lord of Emperors.
Author: Guy Gavriel Kay.
Paperback: 576 pages.
Publisher: Harper Voyager.
Date: February 6, 2001.

OVERALL GRADE: A/A- (3.83/4.0).

PLOT: A.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A.
WRITING: A-.

12 people found this helpful

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Joseph A. Kraska

A Poetic Circle

Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2011

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This book (and its sequel, Lord of Emperors--the two books should be thought of as one novel in two parts) is set in an alternate universe version of Byzantium. As with Mr. Kay's other stories, this story features detailed, living, breathing characters, who make mistakes and have a very human side.

This story is something of a poetic circle. This is a character story of an artist, a maker of mosaics. The story begins with his life in a small town at the fringes of the Empire, the main character's entire family dead of the plague, and relatively little to live for. The story ends after a spectacular series of events with the main character back in the small town, at the fringes of the Empire, with a lot to live for. The ending is immensely satisfying, following naturally from a complex series of events in the story itself.

The story is the middle part of the above. It is the story of an interesting human being caught up in extraordinary events. He is summoned before the Emperor to help complete the greatest work of art of the time. From this relatively ordinary beginning, you will encounter richly developed characters intertwined by events, in a setting composed of past tragedies, primed on a razor's edge for an accounting. The unfolding of these events and the decisions of our main character all naturally lead to its poetic ending.

Read the novel to find out how. If you like good characterization, you can't possibly be disappointed.

The story is a work of low fantasy, which is always a good sign in a fantasy work. I have found that high fantasy often uses new and cliched fantastic elements like a crutch, at the expense of effective characterization. You'll find none of that here; Mr. Kay is a virtuoso of character development, and these two novels show him at the height of his art.

10 people found this helpful

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Daphne Derry

Book by Guy Gavriel Kay: Sailing to Sarantium

Reviewed in Canada on February 14, 2024

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Kay is an AMAZING author and wordsmith. I am now reading most of his books for the third time, and will buy them all.
Still looking for another comparable author!

Elliot

Good Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 1, 2023

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Great story, compelling and well written.

Plain Jane

Wonderful historical fantasy

Reviewed in Spain on March 7, 2021

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Beautifully written, I fell into G G Kay's world of Sarantium and lived and suffered with each of the main characters.

MRCE

Un pur bonheur !!

Reviewed in France on May 7, 2019

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Égal à lui-même, grande maitrise de l'intrigue, intelligence de situation et écriture fluide sans chichis. Une lecture pur plaisir.

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rferrario

Sempre di alto livello

Reviewed in Italy on July 28, 2018

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All'inizio ha fatto un po' fatica a prendermi, forse per l'ambientazione tardo romana che non è la mia preferita. Ma dopo una 50ina di pagine è uscito il solito G. G. Kay che non delude mai: personaggi realistici e molto approfonditi, ambientazione curata e quel mix di romanzo storico ed elementi fantasy non troppo marcati che è il suo stile inconfondibile. Purtroppo sempre e solo in inglese, ma se non avete problemi con la lingua lo consiglio assolutamente.

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Sailing to Sarantium (Sarantine Mosaic Book 1) Kindle Edition

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