Sailing to Sarantium (Sarantine Mosaic, Book 1) [Hardcover]

Guy Gavriel Kay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 1999

Valerius the Trakesian has great ambition. Rumored to be responsible for the ascension of the previous Emperor, his uncle, amid fire and blood, Valerius himself has now risen to the Golden Throne of the vast empire ruled by the fabled city, Sarantium.

Valerius has a vision to match his ambition: a glittering dome that will proclaim his magnificence down through the ages. And so, in a ruined western city on the far distant edge of civilization, a not-so-humble artisan receives a call that will change his life forever.

Crispin is a mosaicist, a layer of bright tiles. Still grieving for the family he lost to the plague, he lives only for his arcane craft, and cares little for ambition, less for money, and for intrigue not at all. But an imperial summons to the most magnificent city in the world is a difficult call to resist.

In this world still half-wild and tangled with magic, no journey is simple; and a journey to Sarantium means a walk into destiny. Bearing with him a deadly secret, and a Queen's seductive promise; guarded only by his own wits and a bird soul talisman from an alchemist's treasury, Crispin sets out for the fabled city from which none return unaltered.

In the Aldwood he encounters a great beast from the mythic past, and in robbing the zubir of its prize he wins a woman's devotion and a man's loyalty--and loses a gift he didn't know he had until it was gone.

In Sarantium itself, where rival factions vie in the streets and palaces, and chariot racing is as sacred as prayer, Crispin will begin his life anew. In an empire ruled by intrigue and violence, he must find his own source of power. And he does: high on the scaffolding of the greatest art work ever imagined, while struggling to deal with the dangers--and the seductive lures--of the men and women around him.

Guy Gavriel Kay's magnificent historical fantasies draw from the twin springs of history and legend to create seamless worlds as vibrant as any in literature. Sailing to Sarantium begins The Sarantine Mosaic, a new and signal triumph by today's most esteemed master of high fantasy.

"To say of a man that he was Sailing to Sarantium was to say that his life was on the cusp of change, poised for emergent greatness, brilliance, fortune--or else at the very precipice of a final and absolute fall into chaos and ruin."

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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Harper Voyager; First U. S. Edition First Printing edition (February 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061051179
• ISBN-13: 978-0061051173
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (83 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,396,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Loved it, can't wait to read the next one, July 2, 2000

By 

Robin P. Flynn - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sailing to Sarantium (Sarantine Mosaic, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the third novel I've read by Kay. The first two were "Tigana" and "A Song for Arbonne" (which was one of the better books I've read in a long time, in any genre, not just fantasy). "Sailing to Sarantium" gave me no reason to doubt the impression I received from reading those two books, which is that Kay is a great novelist, not just a great writer technically. His characters are psychologically deep, his worlds politically complex; he does not shy away from such topics as a culture's religious philosophy and tolerance; his history is obviously well-researched, even if the reader is not familiar with the historical period or place. He makes his readers think. And the way in which he infuses his novels with his widsom about life makes him a rarity in today's literary world.

One of the things I liked best about this novel was Kay's theme of the artist wanting to have his name remembered in history in some way; though this is only one of several themes in the book. I also admired his knowledge of the visual artist's perception of the physical world; how he must learn to be conscious about seeing and observing everything. Kay's breathtaking depiction of a chariot race (the writing of which can't be an easy task) made me reflect on how little the gambling and gaming nature of man has changed over the centuries (yesterday chariots; today, the Daytona 500!). The unique idea of Zoticus's birds is a beautiful one; their characters provide some of the book's most poignant moments. And one other quality I admired, which seems to be a Kay trait, is the way he presents different view points of a single event through several characters' eyes. It is akin to the way a film camera revolves around an object to give an audience a 360 degree view of it, not just a straight-on, linear one. A very effective way to develop character. (The only concern I have about this technique is that it could potentially fragment a story too much.)

One other minor criticsm is the way in which Kay seems to overuse, a bit, a device of saying such things as, "later, so-and-so would realize that had things happened differently..." to create, perhaps, a sense of mystery and try to intrigue the reader into further interest. It is sometimes effective in that way, and in the sense that it proves Kay has the characters' futures, and the plot, mapped out, but was generally used too often, in my opinion. I also found myself wondering, in the final pages, what happened to the characters Carullus and Kasia. Was their absence deliberate, or just a loose thread?

By no means let these small flaws (if I may be so bold) stop you from immersing yourself in this detailed, beautifully-written historical fantasy. Kay is fast becoming a favorite of mine, and has already rated two places in my "favorite books" bookcase. I can't wait to read Lord of Emperors; it seems Kay just gets better with each book.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A strong beginning, February 23, 2000

By 

P. Ortman (Midwest) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sailing to Sarantium (Sarantine Mosaic, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

I found this book to be exceptional, because of what it was, and was not destracted by what it wasn't. Guy Gavriel Kay in Sailing to Sarantium creates a captivating story of an artist, without it flowing quietly into the depths of cliche. The characters are multifaceted, and he captivates you with the beauty, love, and power that flow from his writing. He takes a story that in most author's hands would have come across very boring, and the fact that Kay pulls it off is a testament to his ability. He even managed a rather frustrating cliffhanger at the end of the book, what a place to pause the story. It almost made me wish that I had waited until all the volumes were out, before I started reading them. In STS Kay's court intrigue is so complex that at times the monarchs seem almost psychic with their ability to reason out what is going on in the shadows of their palace. In most cases this would have made the story seem unrealistic. Guy Gavriel Kay manages it very well and to astonishing effect.Instead of a feeling of unreality, I was struck wondering how long Crispin could exist in such a hostile and duplicitous environment. This book is recommend to fans of Kay's past work. If you are new to Kay, however, start at the beginning with The Fionavar Tapestry, and work your way to the present.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Luscious language, lazy storyteller, May 30, 2000

By 

Paul Brown "Certified Massage Therapist" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sailing to Sarantium (Sarantine Mosaic, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have such mixed feelings about this book. It's language is intoxicating, subtle, and quite pleasurable to read. I wish there was as much a story to go with such gorgeous wordsmithing.

I picked up this book, Sailing to Sarantium, while visiting the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in May 2000, at an outlet mall near Ashland, Oregon. I had heard so much about Kay that I just had to find a book by him, so when I saw this book on the shelf, I picked it up.

Ah! the sights, sounds, and smells he describes are so real - Guy Kay is able to take you there to see what the characters see, smell what they smell. But I felt there was no there there. The characters barely move through this detailed world.

This book also didn't seem to stand alone: it's waiting for its sequel to be published (which of course has happened).

I must say, though, that I will buy the sequel, and hope that the story moves along a wee bit better than this one.