View our feature on Guy Gavriel Kay’s Under Heaven. In his latest innovative novel, the award-winning author evokes the dazzling Tang Dynasty of 8th-century China in a story of honor and power.Inspired by the glory and power of Tang dynasty China, Guy Gavriel Kay has created a masterpiece.It begins simply. Shen Tai, son of an illustrious general serving the Emperor of Kitai, has spent two years honoring the memory of his late father by burying the bones of the dead from both armies at the site of one of his father's last great battles.

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In recognition of his labors and his filial piety, an unlikely source has sent him a dangerous gift: 250 Sardian horses.You give a man one of the famed Sardian horses to reward him greatly. You give him four or five to exalt him above his fellows, propel him towards rank, and earn him jealousy, possibly mortal jealousy. Two hundred and fifty is an unthinkable gift, a gift to overwhelm an emperor.Wisely, the gift comes with the stipulation that Tai must claim the horses in person. Otherwise he would probably be dead already. Toronto, ON, Canada: Penguin Group (Canada), 2010. First Paperback Edition. Mass Market Paperback.

Near Fine/No Jacket. 12mo - over 6¾ - 7¾' tall. ALA BEST FANTASY NOVEL 2010, WASHINGTON POST BEST FICTION BOOK, GLOBE AND MAIL TOP 100 BOOK, Near fine black color pictorial trade paperback. Light edge wear.

(2011), 12mo, 20, 716pp. 2, 'For two years Shen Tai has mourned his father, living like a hermit beyond the borders of the Kitan Empire, by a mountain lake where terrible battles have long been fought between the Kitai and the neighbouring Tagurans, including one for which his father - a great general - was honoured.

But Tai's father never forgot the brutal slaughter involved. The bones of 100,000 soldiers still lie unburied by the lake and their wailing ghosts at night strike terror in the living, leaving the lake and meadow abandoned in its ring of mountains. To honour and redress his father's sorrow, Tai has journeyed west to the lake and has labored, alone, to bury the dead of both empires. His supplies are replenished by his own people from the nearest fort, and also - since peace has been bought with the bartering of an imperial princess - by the Tagurans, for his solitary honoring of their dead. The Tagurans soldiers one day bring an unexpected letter. It is from the bartered Kitan Princess Cheng-wan, and it contains a poisoned chalice: she has gifted Tai with two hundred and fifty Sardian horses, to reward him for his courage. The Sardians are legendary steeds from the far west, famed, highly-prized, long-coveted by the Kitans.'

London: Harper Voyager, 2010. 1st Edition 1st Printing. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾' tall. Uncorrected proof edition Book is tight clean and square. Boards sharp and clean, very light handling marks only, fine condition. This copy is not ex-lib, not priced clipped and has no inscriptions.

For grading accuracy books are photographed without a protective book cover. Note we do not use stock images, the book pictured is the book described. A very nice example of this Uncorrected Proof novel from the winner of the World Fantasy Award 2008.

Publication dateApril 2010Media typePrint Pages567Preceded byFollowed byUnder Heaven is a by author. It is his eleventh novel and was published in April 2010 by Viking Canada.

Set in a fantasied China, it is Kay's first work set outside of a fantasied or setting. The novel is based on a fictionalized version of the. Under Heaven takes place in a completely new world, as seen by it having only one moon as opposed to the two moons normally present in Guy Gavriel Kay's works.

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In 2013 he published a second novel, set approximately 400 years later in the same world.