Song for Arbonne SPOILERS of a sort

[Zara]

> Carol responds:
> I guess I got the idea that he was fat from "huge" (cf. Dudley) and
> from his apparent self-indulgence, at least with regard to music.

zgirnius:
Hee. The comment about music was almost certainly sarcasm, another 
trait in common with Snape. Though I guess/interpret here, because 
the way this character is written shares something with the way Snape 
is written. We hear a lot about him, we see him in scenes in which 
the narrator shares the POV of other characters, but never his. (I am 
indebted to my HP addiction and posters here, notably you, Carol, for 
my ability to make this observation. I'd never thought in these terms 
before coming here).

And he is not just large, as Alla indicated - he is an accomplished, 
and even at 60, still dangerous, warrior. Another trait I'd say he 
shares with Snape, if in an entirely different style of fighting. <g>

Also like Snape, he is the antagonist of a mostly likable character.  
(Not of the main character, though - the main character is a third 
party).

The business of the dead musicians *is* a reflection, in part, of a 
real difference between his character and Snape's, in my opinion, 
which Alla may or may not share. Snape of DH would not in my view 
have reacted with deadly violence in response to a comparable 
provocation. But it also partly reflects the difference in time, 
place, and status of the characters. Urte is a feudal magnate in a 
medieval world, nearly the equal of his sovereign. His society does 
not view him as a murderer for his action. Nor would his society 
consider a duel to the death, a bad way to settle a personal matter.

> Alla:
> Guy Gavriel Kay " A Song for Arbonne"

zgirnius:
How to describe Kay? We really ought not to say more on the subject 
of Urte. Kay gets shelved with fantasy, but his books usually do not 
include a lot of showy magic. (This one has some magical owls that 
serve specially selected clergy, and a poison/healing approach that 
might be magical, or just fictional. That's about it, and I do not 
recall offhand that the magic matters much, in terms of being a deus 
ex machina or anything like that. It's more local color, for a world 
that is not ours). And his books have a flavor of being historical 
fiction, even though they are set in a fictional world. If the 
Albigensian Crusades had concerned doctrinal differences in a 
fictional religion, and had been contemplated in the days of Eleanor 
of Aquitaine, and impinged on her realms - the result might have 
borne some relation to this book. The details about the roles of 
noblemen and how they pass the time, and dress, and eat, and fight, 
and entertain one another, have the feeling of being well-researched 
rather than made up on the fly, and jive well with historical fiction 
I have read.

Kay was Christopher Tolkien's assistant in editing "The Silmarillion".

Anyway, I would heartily second the recommendation (obviously, since 
I'm the one who got Alla hooked).