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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Re-reading an old favorite. This is not this author's best work (which is to say, still quite good), and I generally don't love high fantasy. But this trilogy is the best of the Lord of the Rings, Mists of Avalon, and the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe all in one. Worthwhile read, even as I acknowledge it's flaws.
I feel that this book, while interesting and beautifully written, is much more immature than the other Kay books I have read. (It is his first.) The strangers coming to save another world idea has been done to death, and the second and third books become even more trite with the introduction of a King Arthur and Queen Guinevere plot, which I find tiresome. The five main characters are relatively uninteresting, and some of the male characters, particularly, are a little juvenile. Finally, the entire trilogy seems dated, particularly in the behavior and attitudes of the characters.
See my complete review here:
http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/tag/the-summer-tree/
See my complete review here:
http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/tag/the-summer-tree/
Tiene un comienzo medio arrebatado y un poco ridículo, pero después te metes en la historia y es imposible de soltar. ¿Hay cosas que me hicieron ruido? Pues si, pero es un libro escrito por un señor hace 40 años. Seguramente si Netflix hace una serie actualizaría muchas situaciones al concepto de fantasía que tenemos hoy. Igual es una gran historia. Una relectura que vale cada página.
The Fionavar Tapestry (and Tigana - less so for the rest of Kay's stuff) is a sort of fluffy but really enjoyable, interesting twist on the standard Celtic-inspired Fantasy shtick. Where would the sword-and-sorcery novel be if there were no Arthurian legends to riff off of?
Near the very end, there is a terrible scene with one of the characters who was largely ignored throughout the book up until then. A horrible, and it seemed to me, unnecessary rape scene that the author did everything to make it as terrible and awful as he could. It was not explicit, but psychologically, it was messed up. To me, it took away from everything else in the book. I hated it, and it was one of the worst scenes I've ever read in a book, purely because of how intentionally bad he makes it and gives the character nothing at all. Otherwise, up until then, the book was okay.
Melodrama everywhere! This is my 4th book of Kay's but his first. I can now see the origin of everything I like and don't like about Kay which strangely is the same thing. My favorite book of his The Lions of Al-Rassan, I was swept up in the grandiose, foreshadowed, battle the entire book was aiming at. The melodrama for that one was just perfect for me. Tigana was too much. Everyone pining and dedicating their whole lives and souls to Tigana got overbearing quickly. Under Heaven did not have any, outside of one small passage and it was dull because of it.
The Summer Tree was thick with portent and then not, and then you could cut the syrupy emotions with a knife and then it was normal. Both the good and the bad melodrama wrapped up in one book. You could definitely see Kay try to figure out how much or how little to put in.
Some of the characters were a bit cliche (Diarmuid) and Jaelle made absolutely no sense to me. There were far too many ideas in the book, Mages, Summer Tree, evil exploding from the mountain, unicorns, mythology, witches, lost brothers, monsters, dark woods, gods, etc
Mostly I enjoyed the friendship aspects of the book. Each of the 5 seemed to find their place and companions, one way or another. The world was well formed with lots of (too many?) of places for Kay to explore.
I liked it but not enough to read the next 2 and will spoil it by reading the Wikipedia entries so I can find out what happened. I think I am done with Kay. I only gave one of his books 4 stars and his writing style is just shading too far towards flowery for my taste. None of the books are bad, just not my first choice for entertainment.
The Summer Tree was thick with portent and then not, and then you could cut the syrupy emotions with a knife and then it was normal. Both the good and the bad melodrama wrapped up in one book. You could definitely see Kay try to figure out how much or how little to put in.
Some of the characters were a bit cliche (Diarmuid) and Jaelle made absolutely no sense to me. There were far too many ideas in the book, Mages, Summer Tree, evil exploding from the mountain, unicorns, mythology, witches, lost brothers, monsters, dark woods, gods, etc
Mostly I enjoyed the friendship aspects of the book. Each of the 5 seemed to find their place and companions, one way or another. The world was well formed with lots of (too many?) of places for Kay to explore.
I liked it but not enough to read the next 2 and will spoil it by reading the Wikipedia entries so I can find out what happened. I think I am done with Kay. I only gave one of his books 4 stars and his writing style is just shading too far towards flowery for my taste. None of the books are bad, just not my first choice for entertainment.