With his lean uncomplicated style Kaye brings this vision of remote Chinese history to life, basing it broadly on the events of the late Song Dynasty in the 13th century. Referred to in the book as The Kitan Empire, Kaye builds it into a complex world of both luxury and poverty, beauty and fear. One of the most impressive things about River of Stars is the way the author creates a sense of inhabiting an alien culture. His descriptions are rendered in a form and cadence that evoke Chinese sensibility and he describes character motivations from a complexly unique cultural perspective, communicating their importance without seeming to be giving a sociology lecture.
There are grand memorable images, like the moving of a giant rock to decorate the emperor's garden, destroying everything in its path as it is moved at the expense of land, homes and lives. The desolation of an army as it is ambushed at a river crossing and the intimacies between a boundary defying female poet and the military hero who might save the empire.
The adventure element is also pretty stunning. Small confrontations in the wooded marsh and battles of thousands arrive in clear exciting bursts. In all Guy Gavriel Kaye puts his stamp as both a top tier fantasist, evoking ghosts, spirits and mystical destiny, as well as a talented historical re-constructionist, providing a clear and plausible image of a long vanished history.
