{5\/5} “It would nourish my own desires to do so, to sit here and share learning as old age comes. Do not think I am not tempted. But I have tasks in the west. We Cyngael live where the farthest light of Jad falls. The last light of the sun. It needs attending to, my lord, lest it fail.”<\/p>\n
The Last Light of the Sun<\/strong> by Guy Gavriel Kay, published in 2004<\/p>\n Halldr, governor of Rabady, was dead. A key part of his funeral was his horse, which Bern had stolen. Bern took this small revenge because Halldr had made Bern a servant because of his father’s actions.<\/p>\n Dai and Alun are part of a raiding party, intent on stealing some cows. But first they have to rescue Gryffeth, who’s feen captured by the farmers. Just as they’re about to make a move, high cleric Ceinion appears, telling them whose farm it is and suggests a different plan.<\/p>\n This novel has truth in it — the truth of the way people lived a thousand years ago in difficult conditions.<\/p>\n It won’t make you wish you lived during that time, because it’s a bit too harsh. But it does illuminate the lives of (fictional) people who did live then in a beautiful way.<\/p>\n Kay is to fantasy what Neal Stephenson is to science fiction — an author who works slowly, doing lots of research, producing works of astonishing perfection.<\/p>\n