Watch 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, Man Gavriel Kay has generated a masterpiece.

It begins basically. Shen Tai, kid of an illustrious general offering the Emperor of Kitai, offers spent 2 yrs honoring the memory of his past due father by burying the bones of the useless from both about Under Heaven armies at the site of 1 of his father’s last great fights. In recognition of his labors and his filial piety, an improbable source has delivered him an unhealthy gift: 250 Sardian horses.

You provide a man one of the famed Sardian horses to praise him greatly. You give him 4 or 5 to exalt him above his fellows, propel him towards rank, and earn him jealousy, probably mortal jealousy. Two hundred and fifty is an unthinkable present, something special to overwhelm an emperor.

Wisely, the gift comes with the stipulation that Tai must claim the horses in person. Otherwise he’d probably be deceased already…