River of Stars is the twelfth novel by Canadian fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay. It was published in April 2013 by Roc Hardcover. It is Kay's second work set in an alternate history of China, taking place 400 years after his previous novel, Under Heaven. The novel is a fictionalized account of the Disaster of Jingkang and the beginning of the Jin–Song Wars during the Song Dynasty. Plot The novel is set in the empire of Kitai, an analogue of twelfth-century Song dynasty China, and takes place approximately five hundred years following the events of Under Heaven. Kitai boasts of vast wealth and a rich civic culture centered on ci lyrical poetry, but the empire's military, intentionally weakened by the imperial civil service following the events of Under Heaven, has proven unable to resist incursions by tribes of the northern steppe. By the time of River of Stars, Kitai's borders have receded south of the long-abandoned Long Wall, and the empire has established an uneasy peace with the Xiaolu Empire on the steppe, which, despite its military superiority, has grown economically dependent on Kitai. The events of the novel closely parallel the historical Disaster of Jingkang and the defeat of the Kaifeng-based Song dynasty by the invading Jin dynasty. The novel follows two protagonists: Ren Daiyan, a self-taught archer and swordsman whose fortuitous encounters with an up-and-coming magistrate lead him to become first an outlaw of the marsh and then a military officer, and Lin Shan, a talented ci poet given a man's education by her father. After an encounter with the exiled poet Lu Chen thrusts her into the world of court intrigue in the imperial capital of Hanjin, Lin is introduced to Emperor Wenzong and eventually becomes a favored courtier. Ren and Lin intersect and become lovers amid various intrigues in the capital. They find themselves aligned with Hang Dejin, the emperor's aging prime minister, against Hang's deputy and eventual successor, Kai Zhen, who has risen to power by building the emperor a massive pleasure garden. The expansion of the garden requires a system of oppressive taxes and requisitions, leading to banditry and unrest in rural Kitai. Amid the unrest, the imperial court commits itself to a policy of military adventurism in the north, encouraging the restive Altai tribe to rebel against the Xiaolu. This strategy fails disastrously, and after easily conquering the Xiaolu, the Altai mount a