Written on the Dark
core novel 2025 The Lions of Al-Rassan / The Sarantine Mosaic
Record
| First published | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.02 (3,317 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 320 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780593953983 |
Synopsis
Written on the Dark is set in Orane, the capital of Ferrieres, Guy Gavriel Kay's fantasy analogue of France, during a period inspired by the Hundred Years' War. The novel opens with Thierry Villar, a tavern poet who also works as a petty burglar to settle gambling debts, attempting a break-in that instead draws him into far larger events. After a high-profile nobleman, Rollin, Duke de Montereau and brother to the mad king, is murdered, Thierry's street connections lead to him being recruited to help investigate the killing, bringing him into contact with the celebrated court poet Marina di Seressa and into the orbit of the royal court itself. As Thierry's inquiries suggest the murder was politically motivated rather than random, tensions within Ferrieres begin to edge toward civil war, even as a foreign king across the channel prepares an invasion of his own.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Lions of Al-Rassan / The Sarantine Mosaic
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: Guy Gavriel Kay
Notes
- Same world; the most recent entry as of the latest update.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within The Lions of Al-Rassan / The Sarantine Mosaic (standalone work): position 7 of 7: previous All the Seas of the World (2022)
Sources
← The Lions of Al-Rassan / The Sarantine Mosaic dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.