A Song For Arbonne

A book that's powerful in the beauty of its lyrical prose, the powerful descriptions, and the deep characters. This is a book that has more in common with pure historical fiction rather than historical fantasy as there is little magic present in the story threads. But there is another magic present in the novel: the magic of Kay's writing. Kay always basis his works around a real, historical location, and loving paints the world of his books with broad strokes of real world influence. Italy was the home to his Fionavar Tapestry books. In A Song for Arbonne, medieval France and the court of love is the setting this time around. Kay does what he does best: craft a fully realized world that borrows from the real so that it feels familiar yet strangely different. It's a better, more fantastical version of reality, is Kay's work.Picking up a Kay book makes me want to book the nearest flight to somewhere exotic and revel in a rich foreign culture, if only to capture a sliver of the emotions his books stir up. Do read this book. You wont be disappointed.Kay has written a number of wonder books (you'll see four of them listed on the Top 100 list alone!). It's not as impacting and tragic as Tigana, or as mythological and epic as The Fionavar books, nor it is richly sweeping in kingdom and plot as Under Heaven. But it's the most personal of his narratives -- that of a journey into soul and spirit.A Song for Arbonne is a powerful human drama. It's the story of love and loyalty and honor shown to a country, to a family, and of course the strongest of all, true love. There is a song of nostalgia and sadness that rings beneath the tale, I suspect there may be a few tears to shed by the end of the book. A powerful book and a powerful story.