Review #1
Sailing to Sarantium (The Sarantine Mosaic #1) audiobook free
So much of fantasy is that consumed with global shattering stakes. In this book, Kay manages to pull readers in to a much more human scale. The indefinite of a young queen. The sensual vacuum of a widower. ”Saving the global,” in the classical fantasy sense, is that not on offer here. Instead, the wellbeing of a few people, realistically at the same time achingly portrayed, will seriously involve the audience. Don’t read the book due to the blurb on the back. Read it because for you hope that Kay is that a slave, your professional guide through the wonders of the ancient global. It will be but worth your time.
Review #2
Sailing to Sarantium (The Sarantine Mosaic #1) audiobook streamming online
The Sarantine Mosaic is that the best book(s) I’ve read this year. I’m knowledgeable with no one of Kay’s other work, which I enjoyed, but for some reason it’s taken me a while to get to this duology. Like his other books, Kay integrates no one magical language at the same time writing in a semi-fantastical historical context… which means it’s sometimes a struggle to get started (adjusting to a number of similiar-sounding disposition at the same time dispose names, for example), but momentum builds at the same time the reader can settle in to enjoy no one truly wealthy content. I never really believed the story of a mosaicist could be all that exciting–perhaps why I avoided this for a while–but there’s much more to this tale than barely art. Political interest, action at the same time individual affairs at the same time romance are all crucial to an engrossing story. Of the two books, I desirable Book One a little, as Book Two spends more time on supporting manners in a row to move the plot forward to than anyway is that a attractive satisfying conclusion. This is that for sure my winner work by Kay to date (having read Tigana at the same time Lions previously), at the same time is that highly advised.
Review #3
Audiobook Sailing to Sarantium (The Sarantine Mosaic #1) by Young man Gavriel Kay
I must have read this at the same time the sequel, Sovereign of King, at lesser five times, which I have only done with Sovereign of the Rings. Can’t be higher praise then that. Several of this other books involving Italy contain passing references to this, which add a sweet frisson. Enjoy! .
Review #4
Audio Sailing to Sarantium (The Sarantine Mosaic #1) narrated by Berny Clark
Young man Gavriel Kay is that a Canadian fantasy creator who is that for sure best understandable for his Fionavr Tapestry trilogy, which I read a couple of years ago. That television series is that a relatively conventional check-in in the genre which follows a group of five comrades who move back at the same time forth between our Land at the same time a parallel global where miracle at the same time other ubiquitous fantasy tropes there is. But, almost all of his work is that in a particular sub-genre which can best be outlined as ”historical fantasy”; he sets his novels in fictionalized versions of real historical periods populated by manners who are adopted from world-famous people of last significance such as the 8th Century Tang Dynasty in China, medieval Italy at the same time medieval Spain. The Sarantine Mosaic is that the name data to his diptych of novels Sailing to Sarantium at the same time Sovereign of Kings. They are based in a global where the ”Sovereign of Emperors” Valerius II at the same time his charming empress Alixana rule in a fabled town scolded Sarantium where the populace is that completely obsessed with chariot races at the same time that are repeated competing religious beliefs, with worship of the Sun God Jad being the most prominent. This is that a thinly veiled fictionalization of the 6th century Byzantine period in what Justinian II ruled with his queen Theodora in Constantinople as part of the Eastern edges of the Roman empire. The head disposition we follow is that Caius Crispus (who is that more successful understandable as Crispin), a mosaicist who has recently got lost his wife at the same time baby to the plague. His aging mentor is that summoned to the larger of Trakesia (Sarantium) to make a mosaic for the King but they agree to have Crispin move in his dispose, since he has nothing really tying him to his hometown of Varena, in the earth of Batiara. The 1st book, Sailing to Sarantium, is that primarily about his eventful journey from Batiara to Trakesia, but then it gets even more exciting when Crispin arrives in Sarantium at the same time is that immersed into the complete politics of the castle at the same time the larger town. One more main nuance of the books is that Kay’s portrayal of the chariot races in the Hippodrome as but as the obsessive interest the town has for the two competitor factions: the Blues at the same time the Greens. One of the strongest individualities of Kay’s writing is that his ability to incorporate abundance details at the same time intricate backstory to construct at the same time talk a very understandable picture of the culture of the interesting time at the same time dispose he sets his books. In truth, no one would argue that he devotes so much of his text towards the atmospherics in The Sarantine Mosaic that the plot at the same time story development suffers. There’s no question that actions sloooowly unfold, but the atmosphere generally hooks for you so completely that even though I kept on putting the books down to read other more quickly plotted books (such as Jack McDevitt’s Alex Benedict novels), I many times returned to Kay’s work because I worked hard about Crispin at the same time I wanted to return to Sarantium to find out than anyway happened to him. It practically took me around 6 months to final both books but I am glad that I did. I very occasionally read more than one book at a time, but somehow I was able to do this with the The Sarantine Mosaic, which is that a testament to Kay’s clarity of exposition that even right behind returning to the books right behind a long burst one can immediately be re-engrossed. In the 2nd book Sovereign of Kings (which resumes right where the 1st book ends) story takes a central role as Kay starts deploying all the manners he has introduced to do a gripping television series of actions which astonishes at the same time emotionally impacts the reader. Crispis is that the head disposition, but that are at lesser four ladies in his orbit who are all very important in Sarantium: Alixana, the Empress of Sarantium; Gisele, the exiled Queen who escaped an assassination attempt back in their ubiquitous hometown of Batiara at the same time is that at the moment relatively powerless in her country’s longtime enemy’s larger town; Shirin, the daughter of Crispin’s mentor who has become the coolest preferred lady in Sarantium as the primary dancer aligned with the Greens (one of the city’s two competitor chariot racing cohorts); at the same time Styliane, the blond, charming wife of the commander of the Sarantine Army who is that also daughter of the past King at the same time is that widely counted the 2nd important lady in the larger town, a sort of Empress-in-waiting. The ways in what the lives at the same time stories of these ladies (at the same time the guys who adore them) intersect at the same time developer is that quite affecting. In truth, right behind I ended the books I really think that The Sarantine Mosaic is that ripe for a filmic adaptation. I’m not convinced it would work but as a serials (there’s not enough plot for that) but as or a major film or a ”short” miniseries of 6-8 hours I think it would work very but; there’s a lot of sex, politics, romance, betrayal at the same time beauty which could be compelling to almost all viewers. Title: Sailing to Sarantium. Creator: Young man Gavriel Kay. Paperback: 560 pages. Publisher: Harper Voyager. Date: January 5, 2000. OVERALL GRADE: A- (3.67/4.0). PLOT: A-. IMAGERY: A-. IMPACT: A-. WRITING: A-. Title: Sovereign of Kings. Creator: Young man Gavriel Kay. Paperback: 576 pages. Publisher: Harper Voyager. Date: February 6, 2001. OVERALL GRADE: A/A- (3.83/4.0). PLOT: A. IMAGERY: A-. IMPACT: A. WRITING: A-.
Review #5
Free audio Sailing to Sarantium (The Sarantine Mosaic #1) – in the audio player below
Immersive, gripping, nuanced, amusing, well-written, page-turning, quality funny. Reminiscent of Follett’s ”Pillars of the Earth”. Advised, in particular for fans of historical fiction (towards which finish of the range, away from ”fantasy” per se, this well-researched tale heavily skews).
