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River of Stars
Guy Gavriel Kay
In his critically acclaimed novel Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay told a vivid and powerful story inspired by China’s Tang Dynasty. Now, the international bestselling and multiple award-winning author revisits that invented setting four centuries later – a world inspired this time by the glittering, decadent Song Dynasty.
Ren Daiyan was still just a boy when he took the lives of seven men while guarding an imperial magistrate of Kitai. That moment on a lonely road changed his life—in entirely unexpected ways, sending him into the forests of Kitai among the outlaws. From there he emerges years later—and his life changes again, dramatically, as he circles towards the court and emperor, while war approaches Kitai from the north.
Lin Shan is the daughter of a scholar, his beloved only child. Educated by him in ways young women never are, gifted as a songwriter and calligrapher, she finds herself living a life suspended between two worlds. Her intelligence captivates an emperor—and alienates women at the court. But when her father’s life is endangered by the savage politics of the day, Shan must act in ways no woman ever has.
In an empire divided by bitter factions circling an exquisitely cultured emperor who loves his gardens and his art far more than the burdens of governing, dramatic events on the northern steppe alter the balance of power in the world, leading to events no one could have foretold, under the river of stars.
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
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Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2013
Copyright © Guy Gavriel Kay 2013
Map copyright © Martin Springett 2013
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2014
Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com
Guy Gavriel Kay asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Source TPB ISBN: 9780007521913
Source HB ISBN: 9780007521906
Ebook Edition © 2013 ISBN: 9780007521920
This novel is entirely a work of fiction.
The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Version: 2014-06-23
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
for Leonard and Alice Cohen
Table of Contents
Title Page (#uc0f92af6-4aa3-5a96-b39f-11ae66e20c70)
Copyright (#ue3f22a19-50ea-55b0-a385-dc8ef120e3c6)
Dedication (#u5ea2481d-ea3a-5802-b6ef-24affe49acc7)
Map (#u0722ad09-36be-5a72-bba3-55277fbaa5cb)
Principal Characters (#uf6b75bba-edba-5630-9f4c-2edb614e6949)
Part One (#ubd142b69-4375-5c86-8fcd-8e0cd6b6e661)
Chapter I (#u3a97a87b-45a0-5830-a529-82432e552a80)
Chapter II (#u268373ea-8a5e-5de6-8dbd-a4e63ebc13f2)
Chapter III (#uf57e3d95-63fe-5ebf-9563-f364816575a6)
Chapter IV (#u77495979-515d-5628-8430-06473b29b39b)
Chapter V (#u3eec6f84-a637-52e1-82d5-21b1df83745e)
Chapter VI (#u6ecb515b-703b-5064-a059-9fd604ab5946)
Part Two (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter VII (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter VIII (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter IX (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter X (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XI (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XII (#litres_trial_promo)
Part Three (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XIII (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XIV (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XV (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XVI (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XVII (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XVIII (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XIX (#litres_trial_promo)
Part Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XX (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XXI (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XXII (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XXIII (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XXIV (#litres_trial_promo)
Part Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XXV (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XXVI (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XXVII (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XXVIII (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XXIX (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter XXX (#litres_trial_promo)
Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)
Also by Guy Gavriel Kay (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
(A partial list, characters generally identified by their role when first appearing)
Associated with the court
Emperor Wenzong of Kitai
Chizu, his son and heir
Zhizeng (“Prince Jen”), his ninth son
Hang Dejin, prime minister of Kitai
Hang Hsien, his son
Kai Zhen, deputy prime minister of Kitai
Yu-lan, his wife
Tan Ming, one of his concubines
Wu Tong, a eunuch, Kai Zhen’s ally, a military commander
Sun Shiwei, an assassin
Elsewhere in Kitai
Ren Yuan, a clerk in the western village of Shengdu
Ren Daiyan, his younger son
Wang Fuyin, sub-prefect in Shengdu
Tuan Lung (“Teacher Tuan”), founder of an academy in Shengdu
Zhao Ziji, a military officer
Lin Kuo, a court gentleman
Lin Shan, his daughter and only child
Qi Wai, husband to Shan
Xi Wengao (“Master Xi”), formerly prime minister, a historian
Lu Chen, friend to Xi Wengao, a poet, exiled
Lu Chao, Chen’s brother, also exiled
Lu Mah, Chen’s son
Shao Bian, a young woman in the Great River town of Chunyu
Shao Pan, her younger brother
Sima Peng, a woman in Gongzhu, a hamlet near the Great River
Zhi-li, her daughter
Ming Dun, a soldier
