Drawing to a close, I think

Ninefox Gambit - Yoon Ha Lee
Continuing in the proud tradition of rad sci-fi that is incomprehensibly foreign to my waegukin-ass head, Ninefox Gambit fills both my love of sweet star empires and my need to be reminded of the massive cultural disparity in Asian power dynamics.
Let me sum this book up as best I can: This book is a Warhammer 40k fanfiction where the Cult of the Emperor has been replaced with the Chinese Zodiac.
It's phenomenal and crazy. Caste systems to the extreme. Strict adherence to calendrical observances generate unexplained supernatural phenomena that can be channeled via military formations? Space stations that act like beacons projecting Belief into the universe? Immortal souls implanted into people as hosts, in order to fight heretics? Weapons with names and effects that would make Mieville give them a high five.
This book is a genuinely ripping space opera and I was chuffed to read the ding dang thing from start to finish. I was also entirely out of my element pretty much the whole damn time, but unlike the Three Body Problem I was able to tread water enough to appreciate it. It requires a certain willing mindset, and shit goes out the window for the final fifth of the story in a MAJOR way but what space opera with intents to be a series doesn't?

The Sarantine Mosaic - Guy Gavriel Kay
Do you recognize this guys name yet? I goofed. That fuckin light space opera was me forcing myself to rip loose of this masterful man, so clearly the best course of action was to immediately follow it up with his two-book epic interpretation of 600 CE Byzantium, complete with chariot races and the slow descent of Rome-analogue into the sea.
Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors is a duology set in the same universe as the other two Kay books on here, albeit - since it's once again history turned slightly into the fantastic - hundreds of years in the past. This time we're in the Byzantine empire, what becomes Constantinople which becomes Istanbul. The capital of the western world for a thousand real years, the center of three empires, and just Roman as all hell. Sandals. Artisans. Decadence. Intrigue. Chariot racing.

Everything I have previously said about Kay remains true here. And indeed, is only reinforced now that I have enough of an education in his universe to see the connecting threads.
These books are heavy, weighty, appropriately so for the representation of the rise and fall of massive empires and the lives of those who live within them.
My previous weak comparisons to Game of Thrones continue. In style only, really. Shifting rapidly between interconnected characters views and storylines. Court(s) intrigue. People at all levels of power. The existence of power as an element.

Imagine game of thrones if you replaced the dragons with a heartbreaking examination of the injustices and simultaneous exultations of the human condition.
These books convey solemnity in the same way as stepping into a large, empty building. It carries weight.
It has no dragons, just (mostly) humans hopelessly tangled in each other, and yet I am here trying to get across that I read it as if it contained nothing but dragons. I devoured these books. I fucked my sleep schedule up for these books.

These books, this author, elicits in me very nearly the same feeling as first reading Dune did. I guess Dune is my metric for awe at the scope of a writer, which is why I keep going back to it.

These two books had more blatant fantastical elements than the others, which was a nice and appropriate change.
Like the others, it schooled the fuck out of my knowledge of the appropriate historical era.
More than the others, it demanded sacrifice.
But that is appropriate, for a city so grand.

Harder to do these in chunks now

The Lions of Al-Rassan - Guy Gavriel Kay
I loved this guys other book so ding dang much I went and tried to find the beginning, the first one in this shared symbiotic world of 16th-ish century betterEurope. If Earth and Sky was Adriatic merchant city-states and intimate humanities, this book was Moorish Spain and the impact of the Reconquista.

God damn this author doesn't half-ass anything. I should have realized doing two of these back to back would drain me significantly.

It was noticeable, the age difference of this version of Kay than the 16-years-older author I read beforehand. Subtle but there. It seems unbelievably pretentious for me to say 'less mature' but I am unable to find a better turn of phrase.
Everything I said about this guy (Guy) remains true. This is a masterful work of adapted historical fantasy. The characters are human, real, complex. Appropriate. Radical. Gripping?
Tragic. Shakespearean, at times, in its asking of emotional investment and mercilessly wielding the knife for dramatic gain.
More than anything I was reminded of Romance of the Three Kingdoms - mix history with fable with fantasy elements. Turn the drudgery into storytelling. Make people larger than life. Tell a truly tremendous story.
The world is equally fascinating in 10th century Andalusia as it was in the Adriatic coast. Educational! Heartbreaking, and unpleasant, as it always is when you dive into the real horrors people tend to get up to when you mix religion and warfare and culture and power.
Satisfying! A surprisingly excellent rivalry, a well done love triangle? A massive stable of full, growing, vibrant characters. I would kill to see this made into a show. It may be impossible, which is one of the truest signs of a uniquely good book.