Written On The Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay (book review).

< Tavern poet Thierry Villar owes money to some bad people. Money that a tavern poet spouting witty, ego popping poems cannot get quickly enough. That was why he agreed to the robbery of a Sanctuary, a genuine holy place of all things in the middle of the coldest winter anyone in the city could remember in years. But shivering in the cobbled street, Thierry finds a greater threat to his life waiting for him, the king’s provost. The provost who wants a favour in exchange for forgetting why Thierry was out in the night. A favour that would bring Thierry into the dangerous waters of the nobility and politics. The provost needs someone who can talk to people in the taverns and the shops to the common people. Someone who can get into places. Someone keen to avoid being taken to the Châtelet prison for questioning because a body has been found by the river. The king’s brother and ruler of the country during the king’s madness has been cut down in the street. Thierry doesn’t want to be curious. No matter what he finds there’s going to be a target on his back. I’ve seen the name Guy Gavriel Kay around for years and never read him as I though he wrote alternate history which is not my favourite. Instead, having been offered ‘Written On The Dark’, I find that he writes fantasy set in almost but not quite historical settings. Kay has taken his writings to setting such as medieval Spain, Renaissance Italy and the Viking invasions of early England. So perhaps I was a little too hasty. After all, wasn’t ‘A Game Of Thrones’ loosely based on Britain’s War of the Roses? So, I got to meet Thierry Villar and follow along with his adventures. Thierry is a nice guy. He’s the kind of guy that greets everyone by name during a night out and is always ready to be among people. He’s intelligence gets him invited everywhere because of that degree that he got but doesn’t use. He’s a genial wastrel full of unutilised potential to the sorrow of his mother. Thierry is a great guy to follow on an adventure. I don’t think I’d be able to deal with him in person, I’m too introverted for that, but as someone who is active and social with enough intelligence to notice things and curious enough to go looking without considering the consequences you just know he’s going to find something interesting. Or, as with this story, something finds him. Thierry makes this book for me. Thierry and his city, Orane, which is the ‘I can’t believe it’s not Paris’ city where much of the plot takes place. Kay’s wonderful writing brings them both to life for me. I felt the chill of winter, the mist rising from the cobbles. ‘Written On The Dark’ fell down in the second half of the novel for me. Once we met the analogue of Joan of Arc things had fully drifted from a politically charged murder mystery into a progression of quasi-historical facts that weren’t as interesting to me. Sure, armies were defeated and a Sanctuary saved. What interested me was the murder. Even after it was solved, the murder was the beginning of everything. Like how the ownership of a dagger in ‘Game Of Thrones’ pulls multiple families into blood feuds. This part of the story wraps up somewhat nearly and the second half of the novel feels like drawn out denouement and ‘what our characters did next’. The expansion of perspective from Thierry and the provost to the broader world is just so large, I cared less. I wanted more of the twists and turns of the bloody political drama and the effects on the everyday people of Orane. I did not get them. Guy Gavriel Kay is going on my authors to read more of pile. His writing is wonderfully engaging. There is clearly a reason they are a bestselling author. However, it will be a while. Early on in my reading of ‘Written In The Dark’, I was putting some of his other works into my to read list, but by the end I was thinking of culling most of them off again. His writing will lure me back, but the second half just didn’t grab me. I wanted something more. If you like history and fantasy and want a mash up that isn’t time travel, this is really good. I’m not sure to recommend it if you actually know history. I don’t know history. This might follow a real-world plotline in a dull way. I couldn’t tell you. This is not a rewriting of historical events like in Philip K Dick’s ‘The Man In The High Castle,’ it is a fantasy based on history. Readers of classic high fantasy like Patrick Rothfuss’ ‘In The Name Of The Wind’ or George R. R. Martin’s ‘A Game Of Thrones’ might enjoy this shorter and therefore lighter novel but such ease of transportation does come at the cost of intricate world-building. LK Richardson July 2025 (pub: Ace/Penguin, 2025. 320 page hardback. Price: $29,00 (US). ISBN: 978-0-59395-398-3) check out website: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/783078/written-on-the-dark-by-guy-gavriel-kay/