"The world could bring you poison in a jeweled cup, or surprising gifts. Sometimes you didn't know which of them it was... " Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay

Guy Gavriel Kay is still listed as a fantasy writer, but his books are really blends of historical and fantastic, with the trend toward less and less of the fantastic. The only real magical element in here is the involvement of ghosts. What Kay still is, regardless of genre label, is a marvelous storyteller who’s not afraid to thoroughly yank emotional chains and isn’t shy about pointing a direct finger at things such as the small turning points that really decide the future. I have friends who find him hard to get into because of such things and the length of his books, but it works otherwise for me. These are part of why I find him one of the best totally-lose-myself-in-the-story writers today. Reading one of his books I am about as engaged as fiction can make me and feel every emotional tug large and small that his characters go through, as if it was my own.

Under Heaven is set in an alternate version of 8th century Tang Dynasty China. To honor Kitan General Shen Gao, his recently deceased father, Shen Tai spends his two years of official mourning burying the innumerable dead of both sides at an isolated battlefield. The innumerable dead who were one of the unspoken great sorrows of his father’s life. Their ghosts moan around him at night. A Kitan princess sent to the Tagur Empire to help seal the post-battle peace decides to reward him for his courage and piety and impartiality in honoring the dead on both sides, with the gift of two hundred fifty Sardian horses.

"You gave a man one of the famed Sardian horses to reward him greatly. You gave him four or five to exalt him above his fellows, propel him towards rank, and earn him jealousy, possibly mortal jealousy. Two hundred and fifty is an unthinkable gift, a gift to overwhelm an emperor."

The resulting story is about Tai’s return to the world he left two years ago, the changes in it and in himself and the new changes to come, with his horses a constant factor in the dance around him—affecting who he is and how people treat him and what they expect of him. It’s a rich story full of interesting people in an even richer setting, sure to appeal to fans of straight historical fiction or fantasy plots involving court politics and political factions. I don’t know as I’d call it my favorite of his books but I loved reading it and once again losing myself in the tale Kay tells. Particularly his exploration of a culture that is totally different from the one I know but has enough recognizable elements of the China I know to resonate deeply. Recommended.