Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay

February 22, 2026

Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay

Thierry Villar is a tavern poet. University educated, he prefers to spend his nights in Orane's shadowy underworld, drinking, improvising poems, and associating the city's less savory citizens. One night as he slips out to commit a minor robbery, he is picked up by the city's provost, who require's Thierry's specific skill set for a specific job.

Not sure if this should be called historical fantasy or alternate history. In this fantasy of medieval France, there is a strong Game of Thrones vibe, with many characters, political machinations, high born/low born worlds, and frequent crossing and double-crossing. The Henry V character is a brutal jerk and he loses at Agincourt. The author also saves Joan of Arc (here called Jeannette of Broche). He develops his characters really well - even brief characters get a backstory, even if only a few sentences long. The most heart wrenching is the woman who takes Jeannette's place of the pyre after Jeannette's brothers spirit her away. Other readers have complained that this novel doesn't measure up to the author's other books, but this is the first book by the author that I've read, so I don't have anything to compare it to, and I enjoyed it. A good read for a winter afternoon, a good escape.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.