So I've finally completed Under Heaven. Here are my thoughts and ramblings on it.
As I'd read in other reviews, it takes a little while to get going. I didn't find this particularly problematic - while I didn't feel the compulsion to devour the book, there was enough happening to maintain my interest. GGK is a master of subtle exposition; I got to a point about 100 pages in where I realised that I knew huge chunks of the protagonist's history and motivation without remembering any obtrusive infodumps. He knows how to inhabit his characters and how to expose their souls to the reader with a few well-chosen words.
Though the action does kick off a bit after the initial sequence, for me I never felt the same involvement as I did with, say, Lord of Emperors or The Lions of Al-Rassan. I just never felt that the overarching events in the novel mattered much to me, or even to some of the characters. What GGK does, and does excellently, is write on change and loss: in Tigana these themes are immediately obvious; The Sarantine Mosaic, The Lions of Al-Rassan and A Song for Arbonne are all about the transience of even the brightest cultures. This is also explored in Under Heaven, where GGK sets up his Kitai Empire (based on Tang China) and its capital Xinan as the epitome of the beauty and glory of civilisation. Much is made of the idiosyncrasies of the Kitan people: their love of poetry (a staple of GGK; the good guys always appreciate art), their total subserviance to emperor and state, their ingrained concepts of honour and shame.
It wasn't until this morning, when I read some of the background on the novel, that I realised how extensive GGK's research has been. Many of the characters and events of Under Heaven are based very closely on historical characters, particularly in the royal family. He hasn't created a new plot so much as transplanted one from history to a parallel world. And that's not a bad thing - it's one of his trademarks. Examining reality through the lens of a constructed world allows GGK to approach a story with fresh eyes, to bridge the gaps in the history books and take us right into the thick of things. And, generally, he does this exceptionally well.
In this case I just didn't really care.
Oh, I liked the characters, and the roll of events kept me reading, but it was nothing I haven't seen from GGK before. All the same characters were there: the noble, dutiful protagonist; his intelligent, quick-witted lover; his estranged family member(s); the beautiful, wise, scheming and courageous consort of the emperor. Yep, well-drawn as the emperor's concubine Wen Jian is, she's essentially a rehash of Alixana from The Sarantine Mosaic, and generally a less effective one. Except for in one breathtaking scene where GGK's mastery comes to the fore.
Though in some instances I felt the book a repetition of his other works, there were some parts that, in true GGK style, exploded off the page at me and made me want to weep with pure awesomeness and sometimes sorrow. The shock of a few things that happened near the end of the book will stay with me for a very long time. I would gladly have ploughed through a lesser book if it contained only one of those heart-rending moments.
One other thing irritated me a bit. GGK has a habit, which previously has gone over my head (or that I've appreciated), of making sweeping philosophical statements to underscore that his characters are not just characters, they are everymen, representatives of the reader in this world, and their trials and tribulations are, like, hard. For some reason I found it very clumsy and obtrusive in Under Heaven. He'll often say things like, 'A man has a choice to make, sometimes.' Or, 'There were sorrows in this world.' When done subtly, this works really well for GGK, giving the reader a sense that the characters' actions have a broader significance and important consequences in the setting of the book. In Under Heaven, for me, it wasn't very effective, perhaps because I've read so many of his other books that now it's starting to seem overutilised.
Overall I did really enjoy the book, probably much more than this review makes out. It's certainly not up there with Tigana, Al-Rassan, Arbonne or the Sarantine Mosaic for me, but it is a bit better than The Last Light of the Sun and streaks ahead of Ysabel. I probably wouldn't recommend it to a first-time GGK reader, but it's a must-read for an established fan.
