{5\/5} “They were not travelers, the Kitan. The occasional exception, a far-farer who returned, was celebrated as a hero, his written record of the journey widely copied and read, pondered with fascination and disbelief. He was often regarded, privately, as more than slightly mad. Why would a sane man choose to leave the civilized world?”<\/p>\n
Under Heaven<\/strong> by Guy Gavriel Kay, published in 2010<\/p>\n Shen Tai had been just about to take his exams for imperial service in Xinan when his father died. With two and a half years of mourning, he decided to go to Kuala Nor, a lake in the mountains outside the empire. There he buries the bodies of the dead from both sides of a battle that left 40 000 dead. After 2 years of work, he fins out that he has been given a gift of 250 Sardian horses — horses that are so valuable that he will be killed for certain before he reaches home.<\/p>\n This story takes place in a land like China from several centuries ago.<\/p>\n There was one small flaw, in the speed that the main character switched his affections from one woman to another. The rest is brilliant, so I’m still counting it as a masterpiece.<\/p>\n It’s about what good people can do when they work together. It’s about friendship, love, poetry, and schemes.<\/p>\n