Kay published these as Book One (1998) and Book Two (2000), but I would argue they are one story in two volumes, not a story and a sequel. I hadn’t realized there were two and came to the end of Sailing to Sarantium and thought, “What? That’s it?” It’s much more like the non-trilogy The Lord of the Rings, which is really one story broken into three parts, primarily due to limitations on binding all of that into one massive book. So, for The Sarantium Mosaic, like LOTR, you need to read both volumes.
I’m learning that my brain has a difficult time with historical fantasy. Reading regular fantasy, I just roll with whatever the writer gives me. With historical fantasy it takes about 100 pages for my brain to settle down and stop searching for the real historical connections. Is it just me?
The first book I read by Kay was Tigana, apparently his most acclaimed work. Set in an Italian Renaissance-like context, I came to it with zero knowledge of the political context he’d used as his model, but still couldn’t shut down the loud semi-conscious static of trying to align it with something “real”. I also wasn’t crazy about the story. It did not move me the way it obviously affected so many thousands of readers. (Goodreads: 4.08 stars w/52,000+ ratings!)
However, being fascinated with Byzantine history and finding so few novels in that context, I committed to reading the Byzantine-like Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors, even with my doubts.
I finished the first book a year or two ago. The premise and characters were fantastical enough, and the context generic and micro enough that I didn’t have a lot of mental distraction. The structure was a journey, character’s meeting each other along the way and developing relationships within the hardships of travel and change. There wasn’t sufficient direct involvement with macro issues to make my subconscious go in search of connections. Then came what felt like an unresolved ending.
I just finished the second volume. Here I did struggle to quiet the background noise of wanting to attach characters and plot to what I know of Emperor Justinian’s period, (see my last post) especially now that the story was set in Sarantium (the stand-in for Constantinople). I did finally come to an equilibrium: oh, he is like him, she is like her, but also this one is like her, and none of them are really like the historical people and the plot is definitely not anything like what happened… oof.
By then, I’d read about 75% of the two volumes. There were so many people, so many plotlines, all so—Byzantine (there, I said it)—that I wasn’t sure who the protagonist was, who I was supposed to care most for. However, the characters were well-constructed, and since I will slog through a lot just to stay adjacent to things Byzantine, I pushed on.
Midway through this volume, the pace suddenly ramped up. First, a night of partner-swapping. I guess there were plot and character reasons for all of that, but it didn’t feel like it. I could go back and have a closer look at the web of relationships, but I’m convinced most of that was unnecessary, came out of nowhere, and stretched plausibility even in a fantasy world. It all felt “dangerous”, but why?
However, from that point, the story runs headlong into an intense series of events, full of twists to the very end. So, the last 25% is unputdownable. There is the main story climax, a strong “final complication”, and a long denouement that wraps up with more surprises.
Now if I were twenty years old, I’d consider going back to the beginning to read everything again. There would be a lot of dopamine hits from recognizing the setups, the connections, and understanding more of what was happening along the way. On the first read, it’s such a tangled mass, it’s hard to follow every thread. A second read would be like a treasure hunt.
These are popular and successful books. (4.2 and 4.3 stars with 15-17K ratings on Goodreads). But my TBR pile is way too high for a second read. I must move on.
Have any of you read The Sarantine Mosaic? I’d be super interested to know if you had a similar experience. Also, do you read much historical fantasy? If so, do you struggle to relax into the story? Do your thoughts go on their own quest like mine? I love the idea of historical fantasy and never have any trouble reading stories around King Arthur tales, but for some reason other historical fantasy does a number on my brain.
Thanks for reading!
Lausanne
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