(no subject)

[skygiants]

Recently I decided it was time to reread Guy Gavriel Kay's The Lions of Al-Rassan, now and forever subtitled in my head A Tale of Three Sexy Religions.

Al-Rassan is basically Romanticized Fake Al-Andalus. Romanticized Fake Al-Andalus maintains an uneasy balance between Fake Christianity (Jaddite), Fake Islam (Asharite) and Fake Judaism (Kindath), so naturally we have a sexy protagonist from each of these three faiths.

Rodrigo Belmonte: Jaddite war leader and mercenary, so sexy that as soon as he comes home from a campaign his wife kidnaps him, ties him down in a shed, stabs him with an arrow and has her way with him

Jehane bet Ishak: Kindath doctor, so sexy that one look at her hot surgery skills is enough to cause naive young soldiers to fall madly in love with her and decide to center their entire lives around her

Ammar ibn Khairan: Asharite poet, assassin and statesman, so extremely super sexy that when he rides into a city to stop a massacre he immediately gathers a crowd of fangirls shouting "DO ME AMMAR"

A lot of politicking means that Rodrigo, Jehane and Ammar all end up working for the same ruler in one of the fake Islamic city-states. Jehane meets Rodrigo and Ammar independently and finds both of them extremely sexy, but that is nothing compared to what happens when Rodrigo and Ammar's eyes MEET ACROSS A CROWDED ROOM. Guy Gavriel Kay spends at least two pages describing them staring at each other in Instant Soulmate Recognition, and because I am a terrible person this is the point at which I started laughing out loud on the subway, because it is total Mercedes Lackey-style lifebond. (And, in fact, since Rodrigo and Ammar are both based on historical figures, you can make a fairly strong argument that this whole book is Guy Gavriel Kay's El Cid/Ibn Ammar mystical soulmate RPF.)

No, but it's very poignant! There is basically an epic doomed emotional threesome between Jehane, Rodrigo and Ammar (only an emotional threesome, though, because Rodrigo has a hot wife at home) set against the backdrop of the Tragic Fall of Beautiful Cosmopolitan Al-Rassan to the Forces of Fake Christian and Fake Islamic Religious Intolerance, Shame About Those Nasty Crusaders and Desert Fundamentalists. (There is no Fake Jewish religious intolerance, the fake Jews just spent a lot of time being intolerated at.) There is a lot of beautiful imagery and sad poetry and elaborate politics and dramatically noble sacrifices and it's all very Guy Gavriel Kay at his most Guy Gavriel Kay-ish.

I was kind of disappointed that no one ever told the tragically doomed threesome that if they were lucky they would all be together in the next life in Fionavar.

Comments

[silveraspen]

No, it's in there! The Fionavar analog/legend, I mean. I cannot for the life of me remember the exact location, but I do remember spotting it. It may be something Rodrigo broods over.

... which does not exactly narrow anything DOWN, I realize, but.

[skygiants]

Haha, I was totally looking for it! I think there's a point where someone mentions something about another world where things might be better, but it's not called out by name as Finvar/Finbar/Fionvar anywhere that I saw, although I could easily have missed it. I was expecting a sad poem about it!

[silveraspen]

It's in there as Fiñar! And it was Alvar who thought of it, when he saw Rodrigo and Ammar meet for the first time.

And the reference you're talking about I think was another reference - a Kindath remembrance?

Hat tip to Bright Weavings for the confirmatory listing, because otherwise I would have gone mad trying to recall.

[skygiants]

Oh, man, how did I miss that, I was just flipping through that EYES MEET ACROSS A CROWDED ROOM scene too! Probably because I wasn't expecting it from Alvar and so not paying as much attention. (Sorry, Alvar.)

[ladysingsthe]

now and forever subtitled in my head A Tale of Three Sexy Religions.

And that is how I officially resolved to start reading titles from Becca's Book Club.

Why doesn't that exist???

[skygiants]

YOU COULD MAKE IT EXIST. *waggles eyebrows*

[ceitfianna]

I've always been curious about this book, he's one of those authors that I keep meaning to read. Mainly thanks to Milliways and now I definitely want to read this.

Hee, Lackey's soulbonding, so true, her Elemental Masters series really are rather like romances which is why they work for me. Total brain candy books.

[skygiants]

It's definitely Essence of GGK, if you want to start there! This one, Tigana, and the Fionavar Tapestry are probably what he's best known for. I have a great fondness for the Fionavar books, personally, but that's a commitment to three as opposed to one . . .

[kate_nepveu]

Does _Lions_ have his Really Weird Ideas About Sex on display as much as _Tigana_? I didn't realize it at the time but I want to tell him now, honey, asserting that D/s (or anything remotely non-vanilla) is only a response to political oppression says more about your own kinks than any socio-political-sexual TRVTHS.

(Also: darn it, I am sure I have read OT3 fic, which must be in Yuletide because where else? But I don't have time to look now; and for all my complaints about Fionavar, I will always love it for resolving that OT3.)

[skygiants]

Not quite as much as Tigana! The D/s is not a Response To Political Oppression that I can remember. There is a lot of Beautiful Sex As Comfort For Grieving Persons though. I swear I have never read as much weepy sex as in GGK books. (See: every time Paul Schafer gets laid in Fionavar. EVERY TIME. This is probably funnier to me than it should be.) I mean, if my caliph husband had just been murdered I would not instantly go to his ex-boyfriend/murderer for hot grieving sex, but I think this just goes to show that I am not a Guy Gavriel Kay character . . .

There is also of course the standard GGK Anonymous Sex Festival. And I apologize for this infodump, which is all probably more than you wanted to know about Sex In Fake Al-Andalus!

[kate_nepveu]

No, no, it saves me from re-reading! I have within the last several years, when I beta'ed a Yuletide fic on the old archive, but obviously some of it fell out of my head (it was never my favorite).

Better not to be a GGK character if one identifies as a lady, really, all in all.

[holyschist]

This is the most accurate description of this book ever. (Hey, but wasn't Roderigo's hot wife okay with sharing, under certain circumstances? I haven't reread in years.)

GGK is so good at making idfiction sound like srs bzns.

(Also, is it just me, or is Jehane a thinly veiled version of Rebecca of York, I guess making it El Cid/Ibn Ammar/Rebecca of York OT3?)

[skygiants]

(No, I think that's a different GGK hot wife. Roderigo's wife is definitely anti-sharing, she makes a number of statements about how she will eviscerate him if he dreams of being unfaithful. And then she starts seriously side-eyeing him when he goes on and on and on and on about Amazing Ammar his Amazing Soulmate, which, to be fair, I probably would too.)

I love how unabashed he is about the fact that he's just writing history fanfic about whatever he wants. Or lit fanfic, sometimes! I crack up every time at the pieces of the Fionavar Tapestry that are all "just like Tolkien elves! EXCEPT THEN A MONSTER ATE THEM."

(. . . you are totally right, she is definitely inspired at least in part by Rebecca of York. OT3!)

[holyschist]

(I confuse them all, sigh.)

What I find bizarre about his history AU fanfic is that he claims it's more respectful than writing historical fiction...or something. I mean, you want to add in Mystical Whatevers and tweak history to suit your purposes, cool (in some ways I think his approach has the best aspects of both historical fiction and fantasy), but I am baffled by the Historical Fiction Is Wrong thing.

I am afraid I could not get through Fionavar.

[rymenhild]

I know, right? Why is it more respectful to rename the characters (leaving them TOTALLY RECOGNIZABLE) but not change them much, and then write about them?

...and then MARRY THE AUTHORIAL INSERT TO THE EMPRESS THEODORA ANALOGUE OMGWTF...

[holyschist]

Hee! I don't know, seriously.

[rachelmanija]

I will never stop laughing at the elves sailing off to the Grey Havens their home across the sea, only to be tragically ALL EATEN BY SURPrISE!SEA SERPENTS.