The White Jade Princess Cheng-wan, 17th daughter of the Emperor of Kitai, presents him with two hundred and fifty Sardian horses. It is during a routine supply visit led by a Taguran officer who has reluctantly come to befriend him that Tai learns that others, much more powerful, have taken note of his vigil. The dead by the lake are equally Kitan and their Taguran foes there is no way to tell the bones apart, and he buries them all with honour. Sometimes he realizes that a given voice has ceased its crying, and he knows that is one he has laid to rest. At night he can hear the ghosts moan and stir, terrifying voices of anger and lament. Each day he digs graves in hard ground to bury the bones of the dead. To honour his father's memory, Tai spends two years in official mourning alone at the battle site by the blue waters of Kuala Nor. General Shen Gao himself has died recently, having spoken to his son in later years about his sadness in the matter of this terrible battle. Forty thousand men, on both sides, were slain by a remote mountain lake. In the novel, Shen Tai is the son of a general who led the forces of imperial Kitai in the empire's last great war against its western enemies, twenty years before. UNDER HEAVEN will be published in April 2010, and takes place in a world inspired by the glory and power of Tang Dynasty China in the 8th century, a world in which history and the fantastic meld into something both memorable and emotionally compelling. And with Under Heaven, Kay came up with his best work thus far. Of course, I should have known better than to think that Kay had already reached his peak. To be honest, I doubted that Kay could ever produce a work that would surpass Tigana and The Lions of Al-Rassan. No stranger to quality books and memorable reads that remain with you long after you've reached their ending, the author has set the bar rather high throughout his career.

Indeed, Under Heaven showcases a Guy Gavriel Kay at the top of his game.

Simply put, this is one of the very best novels I have ever read. And yet, though I've given this much thought, I'm woefully aware that this pathetic review can never do justice to just how grandiose Under Heaven truly is.

I needed time to gather my thoughts to come up with something that would fully encompass how I felt when I reached the last page of Guy Gavriel Kay's latest. It doesn't habitually take this long for me to write a review, but I needed time to let Under Heaven sink in properly before doing so.

Under heaven kay