I don't really know how to classify this book apart from calling it historical fantasy. The setting, its geography and the broad strokes of the story are based on historical events; but the names and details are changed and the characters are largely fictional, as is much of the plot. The author, Guy Gavriel Kay, does this in most of his books, in this case basing the novel on Medieval Spain and one of the principal characters on El Cid. I can sort of see why people might have a problem with basing a fantasy world so explicitly on a real-world nation, but I actually really like it. All fantasy nations are based on historical ones at least to some extent – the Rohirrim are Vikings, the Dothraki are Mongols and so on – and the way I see it, all Kay is doing here is making better use of the history than most.
It allows for some wonderful meditations on real-world problems as well. This fictional Spain is divided among Jaddites (Christians) in the three northern kingdoms of Esperana, Asharites (Muslims) ruling most of the peninsula in the country called Al-Rassan, and the wandering Kindath (Jews) living as subjects on both sides. The main characters are the Jaddites Rodrigo Belmonte – loosely based on El Cid – and Alvar de Pellino; the Kindath physician Jehane bet Ishak; and the Asharite poet/diplomat/soldier Ammar ibn Khairan. The plot charts how their lives are interwoven and ultimately sundered by the demands of their different faiths as Al-Rassan is pushed over the brink of holy war.
It really made me think, more than anything else, about how bloody stupid and pointless organised religion is. All it really serves to do in the novel is propagate suffering and unhappiness, while spelling the doom of culture and civilisation. The people of Al-Rassan are condemned for their luxurious and pampered way of living by both the Jaddites in the harsh north and the Muwardis – fanatical zealots utterly devoted to Ashar – in the deserts to the south. The city of Ragosa, ruled by the largely secular, wine-drinking King Badir and his Kindath chancellor, seems like by far the nicest place to live in the peninsula, and both Jaddites and Muwardis would prefer it to be destroyed. Where they see excessive luxury, I see the march of civilisation. The Kindath are hated by everyone, only tolerated because they have to pay more taxes, and this book really made me think about how much, and how unjustly, Jews have suffered over the centuries. I won't get into spoilers, but the amount of pain the Kindath go through in this novel, when they and they alone are uninvolved in the conflict, is nothing short of appalling when you consider that this happened to real people.
It's on the small scale is where it really hurts, though. Rodrigo and Ammar, the titular Lions, the two best men in Al-Rassan, become friends while exiled in Ragosa. Despite different faiths, different cultures, different sides, they grow to love each other, recognising each other's extraordinariness. And when war comes to Al-Rassan, they are forced to part – and if that sounds like a spoiler, I assure you it's not hard to see coming. This is what religious hatred does: it doesn't just end lives, it ends wonderful, life-affirming friendships. Practically everything good that is accomplished is when Jaddite, Asharite and Kindath work together, disdaining their differences. Hatred, the natural offspring of religion, achieves nothing but death and destruction.
Jehane's father Ishak deserves his own mention, actually, because the idea of doctor as hero is another big theme of the book. Despite the punishment inflicted upon him by his king after performing a particularly remarkable surgery on his wife, he is adamant that he would do it again, because that's what doctors are supposed to do. Even in the scenes of blood and battle, Kay is very clear that true heroism lies not in ending lives, but in saving them.
Apart from anything else, The Lions of Al-Rassan is a spectacular example of what can be done with fantasy when the author is willing to do something completely different from everyone else – which is pretty much the point of fantasy, to be honest. It's a truly wonderful story, and one that I really can't recommend enough. Both a brilliant adventure and a genuinely thoughtful meditation on the triumphs and follies of mankind, it uses the prism of fiction to look at real issues and examine the human condition in stunning depth, just like fantasy should. It's a novel of friendship and love, brutality and beauty, humour and heartbreak. It moved me to tears on several occasions. Read it.
EXCITED EDIT: Guy Gavriel Kay himself tweeted this blog. A promising new beginning, I think.
On LIONS. 'a brilliant adventure & a genuinely thoughtful meditation on the triumphs and follies of mankind' http://t.co/kyIFArn9sB
— Guy Gavriel Kay (@guygavrielkay) February 13, 2014
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