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quaxo's review against another edition
4.0
Episk, storslagen och till brädden fylld av vemod även i de ljusaste stunderna (vilka inte är många). Jag tvivlade aldrig på att ljuset skulle vinna, i en sådan här historia är det underförstått, men även i själva segern finns vemodet kvar. Jag älskar det!
Första halvan lite väl långdragen med mycket upprepningar från föregående böcker, men ungefär halvvägs genom tar det fart mot upplösningen.
Otroligt vackert språk som ger en sagolik stämning. Det allvetande berättarperspektivet passar perfekt.
Bokserien är tydligt inspirerad av Tolkien, mig gör det inget. Det finns gott om annan fantasy som är mer Tolkienlik på ett mycket sämre sätt. Här finns även influenser från Arthursagan och nordisk mytologi.
Som i de två tidigare böckerna tycker jag vissa saker görs lite väl enkla. Som att avstånden är väldigt korta i den här världen och att resor görs ännu snabbare och lättare med hjälp av magi titt som tätt. Ibland är det så oerhört storslaget, episkt att det halkar över kanten till att bli överdrivet, men jag accepterar det helt iom att bokserien är så sagolik i stämningen. Det passar in.
Första halvan lite väl långdragen med mycket upprepningar från föregående böcker, men ungefär halvvägs genom tar det fart mot upplösningen.
Otroligt vackert språk som ger en sagolik stämning. Det allvetande berättarperspektivet passar perfekt.
Bokserien är tydligt inspirerad av Tolkien, mig gör det inget. Det finns gott om annan fantasy som är mer Tolkienlik på ett mycket sämre sätt. Här finns även influenser från Arthursagan och nordisk mytologi.
Som i de två tidigare böckerna tycker jag vissa saker görs lite väl enkla. Som att avstånden är väldigt korta i den här världen och att resor görs ännu snabbare och lättare med hjälp av magi titt som tätt. Ibland är det så oerhört storslaget, episkt att det halkar över kanten till att bli överdrivet, men jag accepterar det helt iom att bokserien är så sagolik i stämningen. Det passar in.
buckeyebreezey's review against another edition
5.0
I'm not a stranger to rereading books. And the Fionavar Tapestry was my introduction to Guy Gavriel Kay - my very favorite author. I've reread this book more times than I can count in the last quarter century.
And, for the first time ever, it fell relatively flat. It could be because it's his first trilogy. And the poetry and prose and character development become so much stronger and better throughout his works. Or, it could be because I've read it over a dozen times and now I can see how some of the characters are a bit one sided. And where the plot holes lie.
The stars are based on my first dozen rereadings and the very first time I read it.
Still one of the very saddest death scenes of all the books I've read. And I never fail to sob - even if it did fall flat.
Reread 9/29/24 - nope. It's still a five star book. I sobbed my way through the end because I knew it was the end. And wondered if GGK would ever make a return to Fionavar...
And, for the first time ever, it fell relatively flat. It could be because it's his first trilogy. And the poetry and prose and character development become so much stronger and better throughout his works. Or, it could be because I've read it over a dozen times and now I can see how some of the characters are a bit one sided. And where the plot holes lie.
The stars are based on my first dozen rereadings and the very first time I read it.
Still one of the very saddest death scenes of all the books I've read. And I never fail to sob - even if it did fall flat.
Reread 9/29/24 - nope. It's still a five star book. I sobbed my way through the end because I knew it was the end. And wondered if GGK would ever make a return to Fionavar...
saraspock's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Guy Gavriel Kay is one of my favorite authors, but I hadn't previously read the Fionavar Tapestry. I'm so glad I finally decided to jump in over Christmas break. It was lush and beautiful, like Kay's writing tends to be.
We had amazing world building in Books one and two, which set the stage for an all out onslaught of storytelling in The Darkest Road. I can recognize ways in which Mr. Kay's writing has improved in the interim years, but this trilogy is everything I love about fantasy as a genre. Light fighting the dark. The reluctant prince. The destruction-hungry evil being. Different species of beings. Powers. Gods. Seers. Mages. But there's something else happening in The Fionavar Tapestry. An expertly woven story that will keep you guessing and will still have surprises in store past the last page when you reflect back on what you just read.
I can't stop thinking about our 5 characters, Paul/Pwyll, Kevin, Dave/Davor, Kim, and Jennifer, and I'm debating just starting right back over at the Summer Tree to see what I missed the first time. This is why I read. I'm going to carry these characters with me for a very long time.
We had amazing world building in Books one and two, which set the stage for an all out onslaught of storytelling in The Darkest Road. I can recognize ways in which Mr. Kay's writing has improved in the interim years, but this trilogy is everything I love about fantasy as a genre. Light fighting the dark. The reluctant prince. The destruction-hungry evil being. Different species of beings. Powers. Gods. Seers. Mages. But there's something else happening in The Fionavar Tapestry. An expertly woven story that will keep you guessing and will still have surprises in store past the last page when you reflect back on what you just read.
I can't stop thinking about our 5 characters, Paul/Pwyll, Kevin, Dave/Davor, Kim, and Jennifer, and I'm debating just starting right back over at the Summer Tree to see what I missed the first time. This is why I read. I'm going to carry these characters with me for a very long time.
merholley's review against another edition
2.0
This suddenly got way too Power Rangers for me. No one was a bigger fan of the Darien story at the beginning of the last book (or Jennifer’s story? Both) than this girl, but, man, when it turned out that he had ? That was a bummer. I mean, you might say, “no, no ,” or whatever, but I think you’re wrong. I mean, this book even made me like the other books a little less. It was the Phantom Menace to [b:Wandering Fire|104088|The Wandering Fire (The Fionavar Tapestry, #2)|Guy Gavriel Kay|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171506612s/104088.jpg|1136221]’s Empire Strikes Back. All the eye rolling I did while reading this book got them really loose and limber and ready for swimsuit weather. Eye yoga. If I had that would be really dangerous.
And the battles were all really Power Rangers to me, too. But, what if David Rees re-wrote the story? Darien’s would basically look like this:
Yeah. If David Rees had written this book, I would have liked it. As it is, I really can’t think of anything I like about it. I totally can’t handle the kid who is in love with the pegacorn (pegasus + unicorn – bred for its skills in disgusting, gory mass-murder, while it whispers sweet nothings to little boys).
I started off iffy on the Camelot story, anyway, and at the start of this book I was officially persuaded of the benefits of ménage a trois in some relationships. Like, they’re all in love with each other. What is the problem? I’m not being snide. Really, what is the problem? I think I’m supposed to feel some kind of tension that I don’t feel. I mean, I get the problem in the original Camelot story, but not in this one.
I’m a bad fantasy reader. That’s what this really comes down to. I need stories like this to either be really short and action packed, or to have a little sense of humor. I find the earnestness of fantasy to be dreary and shallow. I don’t know, was Power Rangers supposed to be a little funny, or at least facetious? I was a little too old for it, so it just seemed loud and obnoxious to me. Maybe I didn’t get it like I don’t get this. But, I don’t get this.
And THEN at the end
Also, it was pretty easy the way Satan’s baby killed him. I don’t know. It was just convenient after a looooooong wait of flying around in forests and like, “Should I be eeevil? Should I be good? I don’t knoooooow!” Whatever. If I had laser eyes, I would probably spend more time perfecting x-ray vision and less time being a loser than people with laser eyes seem to do. Maybe laser eyes would make me really angsty, too. I don’t know. I don’t see the correlation.
And, I’m sorry, but forget the ménage a trois idea because, actually, every single person in this book just wants to give every other person in this book a BJ. They’re just all completely interchangeable. They got flatter and flatter and flatter until at the end it’s a bunch of literary crepes walking around complimenting the other crepes on their fighting style. Like this, but not funny:
I’m sure I was supposed to be so in love with the characters that their every move stirred passion within me, but that was not the case. They were all so flowey and gushy and metaphorical. And, okay, you know I’m pissed because It's not really fair.
So, now I shall continue through the books I own. I have quite a variety, so we are sure not to be disappointed. Maybe I’m going to take a break from things I don’t get, like fantasy books, for a while, though.
Spoiler
laser eyesSpoiler
his eyes just turn redSpoiler
laser eyesAnd the battles were all really Power Rangers to me, too. But, what if David Rees re-wrote the story? Darien’s would basically look like this:
Yeah. If David Rees had written this book, I would have liked it. As it is, I really can’t think of anything I like about it. I totally can’t handle the kid who is in love with the pegacorn (pegasus + unicorn – bred for its skills in disgusting, gory mass-murder, while it whispers sweet nothings to little boys).
I started off iffy on the Camelot story, anyway, and at the start of this book I was officially persuaded of the benefits of ménage a trois in some relationships. Like, they’re all in love with each other. What is the problem? I’m not being snide. Really, what is the problem? I think I’m supposed to feel some kind of tension that I don’t feel. I mean, I get the problem in the original Camelot story, but not in this one.
I’m a bad fantasy reader. That’s what this really comes down to. I need stories like this to either be really short and action packed, or to have a little sense of humor. I find the earnestness of fantasy to be dreary and shallow. I don’t know, was Power Rangers supposed to be a little funny, or at least facetious? I was a little too old for it, so it just seemed loud and obnoxious to me. Maybe I didn’t get it like I don’t get this. But, I don’t get this.
And THEN at the end
Spoiler
when the WHOLE Camelot crew gets on the boat that’s supposed to only hold one person? That was silly. But, also, where were they going? They were going to the “Weaver’s side” right? Wouldn’t it just be faster for someone to axe them in the head? That’s what the Weaver’s side is, right?Also, it was pretty easy the way Satan’s baby killed him. I don’t know. It was just convenient after a looooooong wait of flying around in forests and like, “Should I be eeevil? Should I be good? I don’t knoooooow!” Whatever. If I had laser eyes, I would probably spend more time perfecting x-ray vision and less time being a loser than people with laser eyes seem to do. Maybe laser eyes would make me really angsty, too. I don’t know. I don’t see the correlation.
And, I’m sorry, but forget the ménage a trois idea because, actually, every single person in this book just wants to give every other person in this book a BJ. They’re just all completely interchangeable. They got flatter and flatter and flatter until at the end it’s a bunch of literary crepes walking around complimenting the other crepes on their fighting style. Like this, but not funny:
I’m sure I was supposed to be so in love with the characters that their every move stirred passion within me, but that was not the case. They were all so flowey and gushy and metaphorical. And, okay, you know I’m pissed because
Spoiler
what’s his face, the rake prince guy, dies. But, you pretty much knew he was going to die from book one. I was more surprised that he made it this long. Super gross that he sacrificed himself for the booooooooring Camelot people, when he was not boring. That’s another thing. I know there were stars in Arthur’s eyes, but how did that look to you? In my imagination, it made his head look like a giant slot machine that kept coming up stars. I don’t think this was the author’s intent. Anyway, it didn’t bug me sooo much that the prince died, but it did bug me that when everyone was making out at the end, they didn’t even mention the princess. And, really, you can bring EVERYBODY back to life with unexpected magic skills, EXCEPT the character I like?So, now I shall continue through the books I own. I have quite a variety, so we are sure not to be disappointed. Maybe I’m going to take a break from things I don’t get, like fantasy books, for a while, though.
tokay13's review against another edition
5.0
Loved it, high fantasy series. Incorporates many different mythologies, including Arthurian legend (directly- Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere feature heavily), Norse mythology, etc. Themes of free will, forgiveness, and power weave throughout.
trvlrschick's review against another edition
5.0
A truly excellent end to this series. Darien was one of the most tragic heroes I've ever read, and he really did keep you in suspense until the end over which side he would choose. Lovely read.
noahapples's review against another edition
2.0
I've heard that Tolkien had these crazy charts he drew up that tracked what every character was doing at every hour of the day throughout their adventures in Middle Earth, and maps that tracked minute troop movements and showed excruciating details of landscape. This book, and ultimately the whole trilogy, feels like it has every ounce of Tolkein's dedication to craft, but none of Tolkein's charm. It's a relatively "tidy" book lengthwise, but at the expense of any kind of heart; there's no six-page description of a feast... but there's also no six-page description of a feast, if you know what I mean. I thought Kay's under-edited, over-whimsical writing in the First Book was over the top, but at least it had personality.
It's, like, a masterful story I guess, but do I really care about anyone in this book? Maybe one guy who dies? Idk.
The characters literally teleport or fly or ghost travel or whatever from plot point to plot point, and most conflicts are resolved by deus ex magic ring. Whatever faint emotional attachments I had or strings of likability that stuck around for anyone tenuously in book two are gone here, replaced by rote action or weird forced drama that has basically #@%$ all to do with the events taking place in the book. There's also a dumb black & white good/evil dichotomy that's basically never explained and explicitly has no nuance, like there are just beings that are "good" and "bad" by the nature of their existence.
Here are some questions I was left with: Why is Kay insisting on telling his weird King Arthur fanfic in the middle/all around/instead of his original fantasy epic? Like [female] characters are literally replaced by mythological symbols and dehumanized completely because they're part of a different story that he's decided should go here instead of the one he was telling.
Why even have the main set of protagonists come from "our world"? It ultimately just becomes a thin excuse to have things explained to them.
Here's one I'm just not going to let go of: How is Loren able to make himself a well respected academic figure in Book One but not have access to other worlds like any other time after bringing the protagonists across? Why is Fionavar an old-timey fantasy world if they exist contemporally with our world? What are the other worlds like? They must have cool shit there too, right? Seriously though, why doesn't Kim just Baelwraith up some machine guns or a bomb and take out Mogrim's army real quick if the book has decided she's "a summoner" all of a sudden? Why, Guy Gavriel Kay? Why?
It's, like, a masterful story I guess, but do I really care about anyone in this book? Maybe one guy who dies? Idk.
The characters literally teleport or fly or ghost travel or whatever from plot point to plot point, and most conflicts are resolved by deus ex magic ring. Whatever faint emotional attachments I had or strings of likability that stuck around for anyone tenuously in book two are gone here, replaced by rote action or weird forced drama that has basically #@%$ all to do with the events taking place in the book. There's also a dumb black & white good/evil dichotomy that's basically never explained and explicitly has no nuance, like there are just beings that are "good" and "bad" by the nature of their existence.
Here are some questions I was left with: Why is Kay insisting on telling his weird King Arthur fanfic in the middle/all around/instead of his original fantasy epic? Like [female] characters are literally replaced by mythological symbols and dehumanized completely because they're part of a different story that he's decided should go here instead of the one he was telling.
Why even have the main set of protagonists come from "our world"? It ultimately just becomes a thin excuse to have things explained to them.
Here's one I'm just not going to let go of: How is Loren able to make himself a well respected academic figure in Book One but not have access to other worlds like any other time after bringing the protagonists across? Why is Fionavar an old-timey fantasy world if they exist contemporally with our world? What are the other worlds like? They must have cool shit there too, right? Seriously though, why doesn't Kim just Baelwraith up some machine guns or a bomb and take out Mogrim's army real quick if the book has decided she's "a summoner" all of a sudden? Why, Guy Gavriel Kay? Why?
valsira's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75