Lord of Emperors
Guy Gavriel Kay
Wrapping Crispin’s story up
Lord of Emperors is the second and final novel of Guy Gavriel Kay's Sarantine Mosaic series. I find that I don't really have a lot to say about it, since I already expended most of what I have to say about the series in my review of the first novel, Sailing to Sarantium. Which is fine, since my reviews are usually too long, anyway.
Lord of Emperors continues (and mostly concludes) the story begun in Sailing to Sarantium. An author of Alternative Historical Fantasy has a luxury that a real historian does not have -- that of telling a story that wraps up nicely without dangling threads. In Lord of Emperors, GGK does himself and the reader this favor. It is not that all questions are answered. Indeed, some of what Lord of Emperors leaves unresolved will show up in The Lions of Al-Rassan. And of course Sarantium itself, the city that is GGK's version of Canstantinople, in a major presence through most of his European novels. But the Sarantine Mosaic is a mostly complete story, with the fates of the people we have come to care for mostly satisfactorily resolved.
GGK's writing is beautiful, as always, if also somewhat prolix. If you enjoyed Sailing to Sarantium, you will certainly want to read this.