One man's life changes drastically with one seemingly small decision to devote two years of his life to burying the dead at the site of a battle. With this book, his inspiration was the T'ang Dynasty from China circa 700 CE. And by that I mean he changes names so as not to write about anything real, but basically takes whole swathes of cultures from the past and writes novels about these new creations that have small elements of fantasy, but are otherwise political, familial, or revolutionary dramas. He writes fantasy-lite novels inspired by history and culture.
Not only does Tai now face the consequences of the Empress's gift, he must reckon with the fact that someone wanted him dead even before the gift of the horses was known.Guy Gavriel Kay writes historical fantasy. The second visitor is an assassin, trained in the ways of the Kanlin warriors, who nearly takes Tai's life hours later. You gave him four or five of those glories to exalt him above his fellows, propel him toward rank - and earn him the jealousy, possibly mortal, of those who rode the smaller horses of the steppes." The gift makes Tai a marked man, and thrusts him into the perilous intricacies of life from his silent observation of death. So precious that "you gave a man one … to reward him greatly. of courage and piety, and honour done the dead of Kuala Nor," has given him 250 Sardian horses, the most precious steeds known to man. The White Jade Empress, in "royal recognition. The first is a Taguran soldier, who brings him tidings from the court of the Kitan's traditional enemies.
Tai spends his mourning period burying the dead, putting their ghosts to rest, one grave, one body at a time, Kitan indistinguishable in death from Taguran, "tangled together, strewn or piled, skulls and white bones."Īs his mourning period comes to a close, Tai is brought back to the world by two visitors in the same day.
The ground there is littered with the remains of 40,000 men, equally split between Kitan and their perennial foes to the west, the Taguran Empire. Following his father's death, Tai spends the two years of his official mourning on the isolated shores of Kuala Nor, the site of one of his father's greatest triumphs 20 years before. Shen Tai is the second son of General Shen Gao, one of the most distinguished military leaders of the Kitan Empire.
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