I Read Books: Lord Of Emperors
The Lord of Emperors is death. In this sequel to Sailing to Sarantium and conclusion to the Sarantine Mosaic duology, death is a frequent motif. Yet as I note in my review of the first book, Kay’s intention here is to give us a flavour of all of life in the city, and because the city is not separate, of all the world.
Which is why, the first novel having large sequences on/beyond the Western frontier of the Sarantine Empire, this one begins beyond the Eastern one as Rustem, a doctor in the Bassanid Empire, comes to the notice of the King of Kings and is dispatched to Sarantium. He arrives on the same day as two characters from Sailing to Sarantium are getting married. Thanks to an unlikely set of coincidences he finds himself introduced to Crispin, the mosaicist decorating the great sanctuary. Crispin is slightly surprised by this as Zoticus the alchemist had named Rustem as someone he should seek out in Sarantium, on a date long before the doctor set out.
The master of the senate finds himself in debt (of honour) to the doctor, immediately bringing him into the circles of aristocratic plotting. The bride is being married out of the house of Shirin, daughter of Zoticus, principal dancer of the Blues faction, and so links into the various rivalries between the two factions, especially as the chariot racing season, the greatest of the contests, is soon to begin.
Also Crispin’s queen Gisel of the Antae is in town, trying to forestall the inevitable war between her people and Sarantium, also any Antae civil war, and maybe even save her own life, probably by marrying the Emperor (who is already happily though childlessly married).
There’s a bunch of side stories as well.
Read This: Because Kay keeps a good tight hold of his sprawling, convoluted plots, diving off into the lives of characters that might get short shrift in another novel, yet not being self-indulgent because clearly this is his theme, that the ordinary lives in extraordinary times are just as important in their own right as great events, and may just influence them
Don’t Read This: If it sounds a bit too complicated.
Comments