Series
Under Heaven
Guy Gavriel Kay · 2 novels · 2010–2013
Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven follows Shen Tai, a general's son who provokes a political crisis simply by accepting an extraordinary gift of 250 rare horses in gratitude for burying the dead of an old battlefield, while his sister Li-Mei's forced marriage into a northern people opens a second thread on the empire's edges. Set in Kitai, a fantasy analogue of Tang-dynasty China centered on the capital Xinan, it is a story of court intrigue and personal survival rather than epic-fantasy world-war. Its companion novel, River of Stars, returns to the same world some four centuries later with an independent story rather than a direct sequel.
Summary by Loreful, from public sources
The order the books came out.
Map
Under Heaven at the centre, its books fanned around what holds them. Pick anything for its details, and zoom out for similar series in orbit — the reading order above lists the same books as text.
Stats
By decade
- 2010s2
Shape
Mood
Grim and calm: 100% of this series' placed works, the catalog's 5%.
this series · the catalog · one dot = one book2 of 2 works carry a tone
Edges of the map
- Under Heavendarkest · brightest · calmest · most intense