Warp and Weft: The Brightweavings Newsletter

May 2010
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It has been a lively few months for Brightweavings. UNDER HEAVEN is receiving absolutely rave reviews - some highlights are below - and the forums have been busy as readers have begun to share their own reactions and thoughts to the latest novel. GGK has been on tour abroad and now at home, and is posting frequently to the tour journal. And we have excellent news for those who didn't have an opportunity to chat with GGK on the tour... so read on!

GGK News
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>A live e-chat with GGK!

Next Wednesday, June 2nd, at 3pm EDT, SUVUDU's Shawn Speakman will host a one hour moderated e-chat with GGK. For the first 20 minutes or so Guy will answer questions about UNDER HEAVEN. For the remainder of the chat, questions will be open topic.

Click here for details and to sign up - http://www.suvudu.com/2010/05/forthcoming-chat-guy-gavriel-kay.html

>A few tour dates left for UNDER HEAVEN

Though it's in the winding down stages, there are still a few opportunities to meet GGK on tour:

May 26, 2010 - Words Worth Books, hosting event at the Twin Cinema on King St., Waterloo, ON - http://www.wordsworthbooks.com/Guy%20Gavriel%20Kay.htm

June 1, 2010 - Different Drummer Books, Author Series; LaSalle Pavilion, Burlington, ON - 9:00AM (open to series subscribers only)

June 3, 2010 - TYPE Books inaugural Book Club event, TYPE Books Forest Hill, 427 Spadina Road - 7:00PM (Free, open to the public)

> Rave reviews for UNDER HEAVEN

UNDER HEAVEN has been on Macleans' bestseller list in Canada nearly two months. Penguin Canada and Roc in the United States increased its print run by more than 35% in anticipation of more sales based on the rave reviews it has been receiving. Here are some highlights from those:

--Nancy Pearl, book commentator for NPR's Morning Edition: "I loved, loved, loved Under Heaven. It had everything in it that made me such a fan of Guy Kay in the first place. I thought the new one was perfect."

--Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW: "Kay delivers an exquisitely detailed vision of a land much like Tang Dynasty China...the complex intrigues of poets, prostitutes, ministers and soldiers evolve into a fascinating, sometimes bloody, and entirely believable tale."

--Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW: "Meticulously researched yet seamlessly envisioned, the characters and culture present a timeless tale of filial piety and personal integrity."

--Globe and Mail: "Under Heaven is virtually everything a reader could want in a book: a thrilling adventure, a love story, a coming-of-age tale, a military chronicle, a court-intrigue drama, a tragedy and on and on. It is a sumptuous feast of storytelling, a beautifully written tale with a beating, breaking heart at its core that will have readers in tears by its final pages." http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-under-heaven-by-guy-gavrielkay/article1520411/

--Walrus Magazine: "Simply put, Under Heaven is one of the most exhilarating novels I've read. a novel so beautiful, so carefully imagined, so elegantly constructed as to dwarf any efforts to explicate, expound, or analyze - a book that has given me a tremendous amount, but of a nature that I find very hard to explain. But that's a feeble excuse, for my difficulties are nothing compared to the challenge Guy Gavriel Kay sets himself again and again; if we cease to strive after the seemingly impossible, books of this ambition and grandeur would no longer be written." http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2010/04/12/guy-gavriel-kays-history-lesson/

--Huffington Post: "...A magnificent epic, flawlessly crafted, that draws the reader in like a whirlwind and doesn't let go. " http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilana-teitelbaum/an-epic-of-tang-dynastyc_b_552960.html

--Historical Novel Society, Editor's Choice Title: "Richly imagined, this is an epic story of a complex and advanced civilization, an intimate look at the life of one man, and a fascinating meditation on free will, destiny and fate, coincidence and consequence. Highly recommended." http://www.historicalnovelsociety.org/ec-may-2010.htm#kay

--Locus magazine: "Guy Gavriel Kay, hunting in the twilight zone between fact and dream, has written a shimmering novel, a fantasia on T'ang China, the epitome of Chinese civilization, as beautiful and as alien as the rings of Saturn... a beautiful, compulsive read..."

--SF Reviews.net, 5 Star Review: "Under Heaven is a magisterial work, the rare kind of story that absorbs you completely into itself. Under Heaven is literary and supremely entertaining, and it may be Kay's very best." http://www.sfreviews.net/ggkay_under_heaven.html

--Speculative Book Review: "One of the things that Kay's books have in common is their way to leave the reader breathless. There is so much emotion in some parts of Under Heaven that it's almost like his signature for me to read it with my heart at my throat. But the myriad of emotions, honour, pride, love, lust, loss, sorrow, are not merely told covered by shiny paints to be seen, they are distilled in the words, in the phrases. . . Under Heaven may well be Kay's best book ever . . [and] is, without a doubt, one of the best books of 2010." http://speculativebookreview.blogspot.com/2010/04/review-under-heaven-by-guygavriel-kay.html

>Highlights from the tour

Interested in what inspired GGK to write UNDER HEAVEN? So were many excellent interviewers, who asked numerous other intriguing questions during the book tour. Here are links to a few, and to an essay GGK wrote on the seven year creative journey to his latest novel:

http://shanghai.urbanatomy.com/index.php/arts/why-i-write/3359-why-i-write-guy-gavriel-kay

http://readingthepast.blogspot.com/2010/05/interview-with-guy-gavriel-kay.html

http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/specialinterests/scifi/2010/kay-essay.html

GGK was also gave a reading and interview, including a live-audience Q&A, on CBC Studio Radio One while on tour, which is now available as a podcast:

http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/bcnxnw_20100525_32851.mp3

>SARANTINE MOSAIC in the Concert Hall - and now on YouTube

Composer Paul Frehner, whose Sarantine Polyphony was inspired by GGK's Sarantine Mosaic, has made the exquisitely haunting second movement, Shirin's Dance, performed by the McGill University Chamber Orchestra, available for listening on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GxFoppv8Y0

New on Brightweavings
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>GGK's Words

An Author's Letter was included with the Advanced Reading Copies that were sent to reviewers, and we have it available on the site: http://www.brightweavings.com/ggkswords/underheavenauthorsletter.htm

>New Cover Art

Two gorgeous new covers for the forthcoming US editions of SAILING TO SARANTIUM and LORD OF EMPERORS have been added to the art gallery:

http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/usnewsailing.htm

http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/usnewemperors.htm

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And of course, there is always something new on the Brightweavings Forums - especially when a new and long-awaited novel is finally out on store shelves... and then quickly in readers' eager hands. Drop in and share your own thoughts and reactions - what did you enjoy most about it, or not enjoy, and why or why not? Have a favourite line or character, a complaint, a query? Every input is welcome, so please come join in the discussions - or better yet, start a new one!

http://www.brightweavings.com/forums/home.htm

Elizabeth

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Deborah Meghnagi
Site Owner
Bright Weavings: The Worlds of Guy Gavriel Kay
http://www.brightweavings.com