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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
Un libro da 4 stelle con un finale da 5.
GGK è praticamente introvabile in italiano e questo mi dispiace. La storia, anche se un po' caotica è veramente interessante.
Kay anche con pochissime descrizioni sa farti vedere perfettamente il mondo e gli abitanti di Fionavar.
Per me è un grosso si e il finale lascia prevedere altri 2 libri scoppiettanti
GGK è praticamente introvabile in italiano e questo mi dispiace. La storia, anche se un po' caotica è veramente interessante.
Kay anche con pochissime descrizioni sa farti vedere perfettamente il mondo e gli abitanti di Fionavar.
Per me è un grosso si e il finale lascia prevedere altri 2 libri scoppiettanti
Posso affermare con totale convinzione che Kay, ora, è uno dei miei autori preferiti.
I had a hard time getting into this one at first. The 5 modern-day, Canadian college students were barely introduced and were never really fleshed out as individuals, so I had a hard time caring about how they reacted to the fantasy world into which they are transported (which seems to be no big deal to them somehow). However, the situation in the fantasy world gets exciting pretty quickly and introduces a fairly interesting set of characters. I ended up really enjoying the middle part of the book which takes place in a nomadic tribal area. I am also pretty curious about what will happen next and the outcome of the great war that is brewing at the end of the book, but the author chose to end the book with a brutal rape scene, which doesn't exactly make me want to hurry on to the next. If I come across the next book, I still might pick it up, but probably not if I have something else I'm looking forward to.
Jesus Christ this was a great book. Up there with the classics. Celtic inspired fantasy, with fantastic characters and as much said by implication as explicitly. It's a wonderful view of the light and the dark, as well as human nature.
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Paul touched and then twisted his mind away from a well of sorrow so deep he feared it would drown him. Whatever stood on the wall had endured and was still enduring a loss that spanned the worlds. It dwarfed him, appalled him. And it was calling him.
Guy Gavriel Kay takes on the portal fantasy tradition in his opener to the Fionavar Tapestry. The novel follows five Toronto college students invited to a fantastical world under the premise of being guests for a celebration. More - of course - is afoot.
Gavriel Kay is a gifted storyteller and as I fondly remember reading in someone else's description, he's also a "classy author." There's a certain gravitas to how he writes about almost every character — an intrinsic maturity that feels slightly out of vogue in some modern fantasy.
There are no flat characters here and with five central characters that speaks well of how Gavriel Kay juggled their stories. Dave, Jennifer, Kevin, Paul, and Kim are all very much their own characters and some of my favorite moments came when a character says something and then we immediately flit to the viewpoint of another character to add perspective to what was said.
The only critique I have is that you have to suspend your disbelief at the beginning because they all fall into Fionavar too easily. There's little to no grappling with the fact that magic is real, another world exists, or that the world is sometimes brutal. I suppose too much is happening around them to dwell on it, but the story would have been more believable for at least one of them to have some kind of break or at least really struggle to believe it was real.
And it is a fantastical world. Here you'll find a looming dark threat, gods, dwarves, elves and moments of heroism and sacrifice that define high fantasy.
All in all, a beautifully woven story. You won't regret your time in Fionavar. 4/5.
Guy Gavriel Kay takes on the portal fantasy tradition in his opener to the Fionavar Tapestry. The novel follows five Toronto college students invited to a fantastical world under the premise of being guests for a celebration. More - of course - is afoot.
Gavriel Kay is a gifted storyteller and as I fondly remember reading in someone else's description, he's also a "classy author." There's a certain gravitas to how he writes about almost every character — an intrinsic maturity that feels slightly out of vogue in some modern fantasy.
There are no flat characters here and with five central characters that speaks well of how Gavriel Kay juggled their stories. Dave, Jennifer, Kevin, Paul, and Kim are all very much their own characters and some of my favorite moments came when a character says something and then we immediately flit to the viewpoint of another character to add perspective to what was said.
The only critique I have is that you have to suspend your disbelief at the beginning because they all fall into Fionavar too easily. There's little to no grappling with the fact that magic is real, another world exists, or that the world is sometimes brutal. I suppose too much is happening around them to dwell on it, but the story would have been more believable for at least one of them to have some kind of break or at least really struggle to believe it was real.
And it is a fantastical world. Here you'll find a looming dark threat, gods, dwarves, elves and moments of heroism and sacrifice that define high fantasy.
All in all, a beautifully woven story. You won't regret your time in Fionavar. 4/5.
The Summer Tree is competently written but crippled by tropes that the prose can't redeem. First: the excess of Tolkienistic references to places and people undefined and disconnected from the plot. Second: the needless portal fantasy - there is no sense of wonder, discovery, or confusion, so why did our protagonists need to be from the Real World? Third: Fantasy Wenches. The women are all gorgeous and sexually open, the men read like the four flavors of dashing and/or dreamy that come in a packet of Boy Band chips. That probably answers my previous question - this book is both Fantasy and "a fantasy." All the characters suffer from contextually inappropriate obfuscation, both externally in their dialogue and internally in their monologue. There's a rich world and a storied setting, but the author is unable to convey it in a compelling narrative without resorting to the cheap tricks I usually associate with rom-coms and soap operas.
This is a very well-written story. Even though there are traces of LOTR in the world that is built (and even in some characters), that recedes into the background in the face of well rounded characters and an exciting plot. The emotional and the almost poetic lines used to present to us the different story lines and the characters are excellent. We almost feel what the characters feel at each moment and that, to me, is rare.
The plot is about five characters who are taken by a mysterious duo to another world. We learn about the other world and the background to the story through their eyes and ears. This is a very good example of where the story and world building progress excellently with very little to no exposition (looking at you Brandon). There is the ever present evil lord. But this is also handled well.
The author's novels have tragedy but I've always found them to be uplifting in how the characters handle it. Even in Tigana, the story was set in the background of a lost country and we see that in everything that the prince does. But, there is a strange feeling of hope and joy that the reader never loses. Here too, the background of the looming rise of evil and the travails of our heroes evoke strong emotions, but there is always a string of hope and wonder. The one exception, to me, was towards the end in what happens to one of the original five characters. The heroes have no (or very little) shades of gray. This doesn't mean they are one-dimensional, just that in the day and age of the morally ambivalent hero (and heroine), it is refreshing to see well written morally unambiguous heroes (or heroines).
This book is one of the best works of fantasy I've read and is highly recommended.
The plot is about five characters who are taken by a mysterious duo to another world. We learn about the other world and the background to the story through their eyes and ears. This is a very good example of where the story and world building progress excellently with very little to no exposition (looking at you Brandon). There is the ever present evil lord
Spoiler
who has risen and whom the characters have to now figure out how to fightThe author's novels have tragedy but I've always found them to be uplifting in how the characters handle it. Even in Tigana, the story was set in the background of a lost country and we see that in everything that the prince does. But, there is a strange feeling of hope and joy that the reader never loses. Here too, the background of the looming rise of evil and the travails of our heroes evoke strong emotions, but there is always a string of hope and wonder. The one exception, to me, was towards the end in what happens to one of the original five characters
Spoiler
Jen. This was jarring and so out of place. But I guess it served to show the magnitude of hate that the villain carries and wants to spread. And maybe this is resolved in the later books.This book is one of the best works of fantasy I've read and is highly recommended.
This seemed a little goofy at the beginning. The writing not really as good as Kay's later books. Then again, this was Kay's first, published in 1984. The prose did improve in the final quarter of the book.
College students whisked away to Fionavar through some magic. Each of the five find their inner selves in the strange world. Character building is the theme. Misery for two. And surprise, surprise, evil has reared its ugly head. Will the good folk prevail? I'll continue with book two. I have a feeling the writing will be improving. Fingers crossed.
College students whisked away to Fionavar through some magic. Each of the five find their inner selves in the strange world. Character building is the theme. Misery for two. And surprise, surprise, evil has reared its ugly head. Will the good folk prevail? I'll continue with book two. I have a feeling the writing will be improving. Fingers crossed.