The fantasy novels of Canadian writer Guy Gavriel Kay have become bestsellers and have won critical acclaim for their appealing protagonists, lively pacing, and deft interweaving of complex plot lines. Best known for "The Fionavar Tapestry" trilogy from the mid-1980s, Kay has progressed from the pure fantasy genre into works of fiction that mine the treasures of medieval European history for inspiration. "Guy Kay creates complex psychological characters and a rich sense of ambience, place and time," declared Washington Post Book World writer John H. Riskind, who has also hailed Kay's novels as being "resonant and powerful, almost impossible to put down, satisfying the reader on multiple levels."

Kay was born in a small town in the prairie province of Saskatchewan in 1954, and he grew up in nearby Winnipeg, Manitoba. His father was a surgeon, and his mother an artist. Kay went on to pursue a degree...