I wanted to love The Lions of Al-Rassan. I have always wanted to learn more about medieval cultures, especially Islamic and Jewish cultures of those periods. I was fascinated by how those cultures were the most learned and intellectual of the day, and yet we have been taught so much more about the mainstream — for lack of a better word — Europeans of that time. Guy Gavriel Kay has invented for this book a kind of replica of those cultures, calling them different names, and tweaking their traditions and beliefs a tiny bit, but not enough to disguise them in any way. So this seemed like a great opportunity for me to enjoy a thrilling and engrossing fictional narrative and learn about those societies at the same time. Unfortunately — and I am probably more to blame than Kay — that wasn’t my experience with this book.

Kay is a much-beloved Canadian fantasy writer — one of the first, and arguably the most successful one. I have friends who are devoted to his works, and almost everyone I know who’s read this book has really loved it. So, I think there was something wrong with my experience. From the beginning, almost immediately we are introduced to the core characters: Rodrigo Belmonte (a legendary heroic captain), Alvar de Pellino (a young soldier in his troop), Jehane bet Ishak (a female doctor), and Ammar ibn Khairan (a notorious court poet and assassin). They all inhabit a tense and fractured nation of warring kings and factions, which is a replica of the Iberian/Spanish peninsula in our world. They represent the different cultures that are clashing in this region (the Spanish, Muslim, and Jewish analogs) and yet events propel them together and they form a bit of a ragtag group who end up working for one of those warring kings.

However, I think I am overstating this by suggesting that it’s a military book or a story of civil strife and factions in conflict. While it is that in some ways, that doesn’t really feel like the foreground. Much of the book appeared to be various scenes of interaction between these core characters and a large cast of secondary ones — characters meeting in a market, say, having an encounter and a chat, and only later revealing that the conversation mattered. I’ll admit this is a difficult book to review, because even by the end I found it hard to pin down what it was really about. Was it meant to be more than a glimpse into the lives of all these characters during a somewhat turbulent time? Hopefully, but I must have missed it, unfortunately.

Adding to my difficulty was listening to this as an audiobook — I kept getting mixed up between character names (Ammar and Alvar — only two letters different, OK?) as well as the names of the ethnic groups (I kept having to remind myself which group represented which real-world culture). It didn’t get any easier as they also used the names of cities or the local kings as a way to identify various nations. In our world, regional shorthand is second nature — but in a brand new fictional world, that kind of talk loses me quickly.

While we follow a few main characters most of the time, I sadly did not feel very engaged with them, either. I liked them and was interested in them, but I never really got hooked into what they were about or why they were doing what they were doing. I didn’t get a sense of a story arc with any of them, and even though some fairly significant events arise during the story that affect their lives profoundly, they kind of felt like they came out of nowhere. Also, the interpersonal feelings — especially certain romances — didn’t feel earned to me, though other readers have clearly disagreed.

Kay’s prose style — distinct from his plotting — is something I really enjoyed. I think he’s got a great blend of poetic and descriptive language alongside clear, unencumbered language as well. When he wants to tell you some facts or describe what happens, that comes across nice and succinct. When he wants you to imagine a little and feel something at a piece of imagery, he can do that too. His prose genuinely works for me, but that said, we don’t yet connect on his world-building or plotting — I felt the same way about The Summer Tree — so perhaps Kay and I are simply a work in progress. I’m glad I read this book. I came hoping to love it, and while I didn’t, I can see why so many others do — and I haven’t given up on Kay yet.

3 stars

Since you’ve read my post to the end, please let me know what you thought by leaving a comment.

Or better yet, please join me on GoodReads and follow what I’m reading:  https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/78985113-alvin-ng

Or join me on Fable: https://fable.co/alvin-ng-324926061648