Ysabel
#6173.63 of 664 ranked universes · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 2007 Reading commitment Low Guy Gavriel Kay Last reviewed 2026-08-06
Overview
Guy Gavriel Kay's Ysabel (2007) is his first urban fantasy and his first book set outside a Europe-styled secondary world since The Fionavar Tapestry (1984–1986). Set in contemporary Provence, France, it follows a photographer's teenage son drawn into a centuries-old love triangle bound up in the region's Celtic and Roman past. Two characters from Fionavar (Dave Martyniuk, Kimberly Ford) recur as adults, but the story and setting are entirely its own, distinct from that trilogy's plot.
Urban fantasy, Mythic fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
Ysabel (2007) core · 3.63 (11,322 ratings); Kay's first urban fantasy and his first book set outside a Europe-styled secondary-world milieu since The Fionavar Tapestry (1984-1986). Two Fionavar characters (Dave Martyniuk, Kimberly Ford) recur, but Ysabel is a standalone story in a wholly different setting (contemporary Provence, France) with its own myth/history, not a continuation of that trilogy's plot -- the basis for excluding it from The Fionavar Tapestry and registering it here as its own single-work universe instead.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Ysabel? Ysabel's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is Ysabel finished? Complete (2007).
- How much reading does Ysabel take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book).
- How is Ysabel ranked? #617 of 664 ranked universes on this site, based on 11,322 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #617?
Ranked #617 of 664 ranked universes.
- Average reader rating of 3.63 across 1 core book.
- A smaller readership (11,322 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #616, Edinburgh Nights (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
- A single standalone novel: ranked on that one book alone.
Why explore this universe?
Modestly rated · 1 book · Complete · 11k ratings · Ranks #617 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment urban fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- World Fantasy Award (Best Novel), 2008: won: Ysabel
Related universes
- Crossover The Fionavar Tapestry: Two characters (Dave Martyniuk, Kimberly Ford) recur from The Fionavar Tapestry into Ysabel, which also references Fionavar's events; but Ysabel is a standalone novel in a wholly different (contemporary Provence) setting, deliberately NOT folded into Fionavar's own Core/Expanded canon.
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Suggestions computed from what Ysabel and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.63 across 11,322 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Ysabel admitted as a single-work universe accepted 2026-08-06
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Related universes: see the Related universes section above.
Last reviewed: 2026-08-06
Rule: Core = 1 work, the single continuous 2007 novel, registered as a single-work universe (same category as The Once and Future King, Uprooted, and Spinning Silver) since it is one continuous standalone story with no internal multi-book structure. No Expanded Canon: no sequels or companion works exist in this setting.