Sailing To Sarantium

Author:

Guy Gavriel Kay

Release Date: 1998

Summary

"A "half-world" of supernatural beings is broadly acknowledged by the people of the novel. Though magic is not frequently seen, it is nevertheless important: an encounter with the half-world in the middle of the book will resonate backwards and forwards throughout the story. Both the mundane and the supernatural worlds are built carefully; chariot races at the Hippodrome and sacrifices to pagan gods are rendered equally vividly and precisely.

Against this fascinating world is set the story of Caius Crispus, a mosaicist summoned from Batiara to Sarantium to work on the rebuilding of the Great Sanctuary. Crispin is a contrary, irritable, passionate man who loved his work and his family greatly; after plague took his entire family, work was the only thing that engaged him even slightly. The core of the story is Crispin's movement from "following his family into a living death" to accepting that he wants to live, work, and leave a mark on the world he is inextricably engaged with."

http://www.steelypips.org/reviews/sarantium.html

Reviews

"deft characterization, vivid worldbuilding, and a continuing tribute to civilization and culture"

http://www.steelypips.org/reviews/sarantium.html

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