The Last Light of the Sun

Authors: Guy Gavriel Kay

BOOK: The Last Light of the Sun

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Praise for
The Last Light of the Sun

“A tale of raids and blood feuds, told with a blunt relish worthy of any Icelandic saga-teller … Kay writes beautifully, as though he were composing a prose poem, creating memorable characters and telling a story that will stay with you long after you’ve finished the book.”

—Chronicle Herald
(Halifax)

“A master craftsman … Kay has staked out a marvelous territory somewhere between the historical realism of Dorothy Dunnett and the contemporary urban fantasy of Charles de Lint … An enchanted realm … in which the paranormal is just another dimension … [and] magical … intertwining storylines … add texture and richness.”

—
National Post

“Brings depth and texture to the ancient tales of the Norse lands … Consummate storytelling.”

—
Library Journal

“One of Kay’s finest achievements, an expert mélange of the
Eddas
and
The Mabinogion.
The characters are well developed and the story is as taut as a garrote.”

—
The Globe and Mail

“Richly drawn … stunning … Epic in scale and finely wrought, [Kay’s] latest offering hurtles across a landscape of hard-scrabble villages, warrior fortresses, and spirit-filled forests … Kay is an unerring architect, a nimble sculptor in crafting the harsh, coastal world of the ancient north. Opened gleefully, enjoyed with the satisfaction of hopes fulfilled,
The Last Light of the Sun
is a delight to be shared.”

—
Calgary Herald

“
The Last Light of the Sun
is more than a book: it’s a one-way ticket to another world so skillfully drawn, it’s wrenching to leave it behind.”

—January Magazine

“Kay has written some of the most intelligent and respected fantasy of the last twenty years … Together with George R. R Martin, he is one of the best two writers working in the epic fantasy field.”

—
SFX Magazine

“[Kay] has fashioned a tale as dark, terrifying, powerful, and full of passion as any epic … A complex, satisfying story.”

—
Edmonton Journal

“Chance, love, despair, yearning—Kay strikes in 600 fantastic pages all the many paths a person can hazard in this woeful thing called life, in these few failing, precious moments before the last light of the sun.”

—Georgia Straight

“What sets Kay apart from most other fantasy authors is his unwillingness to settle for convention or formula.”

—
Times Colonist
(Victoria)

“[Kay] has established himself as the primary voice of a genre—historical fantasy—which he created and pretty much occupies all on his own.”

—Vancouver Sun

“A moving saga of cultures at the brink of change.”

—
Quill & Quire

“A distinguished story that, for those so inclined, poses intriguing historical riddles.”

—
Booklist Reviews

“Kay takes the familiar elements of epic fantasy … and probes beneath the surface for what the old songs hide … [
The Last Light of the Sun]
steadfastly confront[s] us with the significant acts of insignificant people, the ironies of history, and both heroism and the fantastic stripped of accumulated myths and legends. Where we seek patterns, there is only surprise.”

—
Locus

“Literate, complex, unpredictable, and fascinating.”

—
Canadian Jewish News

“Another vivid, complex fantasy from Kay’s pen. There is the usual sense that there’s more, so much more, in the background of the story than the reader has been told—the sense of glimpsing a few shining threads in a larger tapestry. A book to savour.”

—
SF Site

PENGUIN CANADA

THE LAST LIGHT OF THE SUN

GUY GAVRIEL KAY
is the author of ten novels and a volume of poetry. He won the 2008 World Fantasy Award for
Ysabel,
has been awarded the International Goliardos Prize, and is a two-time winner of the Aurora Award. His works have been translated into more than twenty languages and have appeared on bestseller lists around the world.

Visit his Canadian website at
www.guygavrielkay.ca
and his international website at
www.brightweavings.com.

ALSO BY GUY GAVRIEL KAY

The Fionavar Tapestry:

The Summer Tree

The Wandering Fire

The Darkest Road

Tigana

A Song for Arbonne

The Lions of Al-Rassan

The Sarantine Mosaic:

Sailing to Sarantium

Lord of Emperors

Beyond This Dark House
(poetry)

Ysabel

Under Heaven

THE

L
AST
L
IGHT
OF
T
HE
S
UN
GUY
GAVRIEL
KAY

PENGUIN CANADA

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Canada Inc.)

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland
(a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
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Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
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New Delhi – 110 017, India
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(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank,
Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published in a Viking Canada hardcover by Penguin Group (Canada),
a division of Pearson Canada Inc., 2004
Published in Penguin Canada paperback by Penguin Group (Canada),
a division of Pearson Canada Inc., 2005
Published in this edition, 2010

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (OPM)

Author representation: Westwood Creative Artists
94 Harbord Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1G6

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both
the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Publisher’s note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents
either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance
to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Kay, Guy Gavriel
The last light of the sun / Guy Gavriel Kay.

ISBN 978-0-14-317451-6

I. Title.

PS8571.A935L38 2010 C813'.54 C2010-900613-5

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that
it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise
circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other
than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Visit the Penguin Group (Canada) website at
www.penguin.ca

Special and corporate bulk purchase rates available; please see
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or call 1-800-810-3104, ext. 2477 or 2474

for George Jonas

I have a tale for you:	a stag bells;
winter pours	summer has gone.
The wind is high, cold;	the sun is low;
its course is short	the sea is strong running.
The bracken is very red;	its shape has been hidden.
The cry of the barnacle goose	has become usual.
Cold has taken	the wings of birds.
Season of ice;	this is my tale.