A Brightness Long Ago
{5/5} “Since Mylasia, Adria thought, she was also someone who had killed a man. Uberto had been vicious, she kept telling herself. Had deserved his death. She was aware, however, that Folco might have wanted the count of Mylasia killed even had he been pious and benign.”
A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay, published in 2019
Adria kills the man called the Beast but he had stabbed her and she’s having difficulty making her escape.
Guidanio saw Adria from the shadows, knew who she was, and knew the Beast would soon be dead. He believed he should die, though, so he didn’t do anything to stop it. In fact, when the Beast’s death is discovered Guidanio spots drops of Adria’s blood pointing to her escape — he cleans them up before anyone can see them.
This novel is about people’s machinations to gain more power in a dangerous world. It’s about making the kind of life you want for yourself, and how a world that often goes to war could stop if it had a good enough reason.
As always, the way that Kay shows how choices and events affect our lives is masterful.
It takes place in the same world as Children of Earth and Sky.
I’ve read 14 of Kay’s books. I previously reviewed Children of Earth and Sky.