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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
It is pretty clear reading this book that this is Guy Gavriel Kay's first book. He wrote one of my favorite fantasy series the two book 'The Sarantine Mosaic'. I re-read that a few years ago and it really holds up for me. I like him enough as a fantasy author (even if one of his other books disappointed me) that I figured I'd read all his books. I figured I'd start at the beginning so I could probably get the worst out of the way.
I'm hoping this is the worst of the lot.
The writing is very awkward. He enjoys writing sentences like 'He would know soon enough. Soon enough'. Over and over he writes sentences where he tries to share the majesty or deep meaning of what he just wrote by repeating a phrase. I found this incredibly annoying. It distanced me from the book and put the author in the middle between me in the story in a glaring way. It also made the narrator omniscient even though there wasn't really a narrator. I can't describe it better.
Also the premise is a little 'eh'. Fionavar is the prime world among all worlds so 5 people are taken from our world to that world where they all become avatars of sorts within this world (powerful seer; rider & horn carrier among the plains; etc). Before those characters become something special I could not, for the life of me, tell them apart or remember anything interesting about any of them. Not all of the characters get anything interesting in this story either. One of the females basically stands around being pretty and having to say no to men propositioning her for sex. The women in this novel are not written well and the sexual innuendos are a male fantasy.
The premise of the prime world means that all kinds of myths and other fantasy stories can be told in this one: this feels like a lord of the rings rip-off at times (it is an homage; Kay did work with Tolkein's son on 'The Silmarillion') and of course Odin and his tree are in it, and eventually King Arthur, etc. I don't know why this bugs me in this book when I loved American Gods which clearly uses the Norse myths. Probably mostly because the writing is clunky.
On the whole I enjoyed it. It is not great. I'd recommend other books by Kay first. ... and then you get to the last chapter.
I'm hoping this is the worst of the lot.
The writing is very awkward. He enjoys writing sentences like 'He would know soon enough. Soon enough'. Over and over he writes sentences where he tries to share the majesty or deep meaning of what he just wrote by repeating a phrase. I found this incredibly annoying. It distanced me from the book and put the author in the middle between me in the story in a glaring way. It also made the narrator omniscient even though there wasn't really a narrator. I can't describe it better.
Also the premise is a little 'eh'. Fionavar is the prime world among all worlds so 5 people are taken from our world to that world where they all become avatars of sorts within this world (powerful seer; rider & horn carrier among the plains; etc). Before those characters become something special I could not, for the life of me, tell them apart or remember anything interesting about any of them. Not all of the characters get anything interesting in this story either. One of the females basically stands around being pretty and having to say no to men propositioning her for sex. The women in this novel are not written well and the sexual innuendos are a male fantasy.
The premise of the prime world means that all kinds of myths and other fantasy stories can be told in this one: this feels like a lord of the rings rip-off at times (it is an homage; Kay did work with Tolkein's son on 'The Silmarillion') and of course Odin and his tree are in it, and eventually King Arthur, etc. I don't know why this bugs me in this book when I loved American Gods which clearly uses the Norse myths. Probably mostly because the writing is clunky.
On the whole I enjoyed it. It is not great. I'd recommend other books by Kay first. ... and then you get to the last chapter.
Spoiler
Why they fuck is there a gratuitous and horrific rape scene suddenly in the book?! It is awful and twisted and of course happens to the female character who has had no purpose so far. From a book that didn't have much emotional depth, the be raped by the evil bad god who can read your mind and therefore make the rape as awful as possible... I just didn't need that in this book. I had just finished watching the first season of 'Jessica Jones' (which is fantastic!) where they treat rape/ptsd with the respect it deserves, so this callous disregard for it made it feel even worse. And then the book just ends. The next book picks up and tells you that the rape had to happen for plot reasons. Ugh. The only good thing I can say about it is that so often the evil bad is never actually that evil. Well, you succeeded at fixing that problem.
I understand why I couldn't get into this 2 years ago, despite it being a re-read. When I read about a whole cast of character's getting thrown into another world, I expect them to be asking some questions. This was absolutely not the case in The Summer Tree!!
Very good novel, much better than it looked at the clearance store. I felt at first that it was a total rip off of LOTR, but it got better and more original as the story progressed. At about 1/2 or 3/4 of the way through, it got a crazy lot better, and I was hooked. Look forward to reading the next 2 in the series. Not the best fantasy I've read by far, but it definitely holds its own.
While everyone enjoys a good fantasy adventure now and then, this book exemplifies everything that I advise authors to avoid when writing high fantasy. First, it's confusing. There are dozens of named characters and storylines, most of which are not adequately explained and many of the names are difficult to pronounce or start with the same letter--a recipe for confusion. Secondly, there's no climax and resolution. While one could argue that this is the first book in a trilogy, that's no excuse for poor storytelling. All books should have a clear beginning, middle, and end. This one just wanders all over the place and never really gets anywhere. While there are certainly climactic elements, they're so obscured by random events that it's impossible to tell which ones are actually important. Like many high fantasy books, this one relies heavily on the concept that sex should be a huge part of any fantasy, and I'm putting my foot down on that one. No.
Obviously if you like puzzling through a novel and sitting on the edge of your seat hoping the next book will offer some resolution, this is the perfect book for you, but I find it irksome and I won't be reading the rest of the series.
TW rape and torture
Obviously if you like puzzling through a novel and sitting on the edge of your seat hoping the next book will offer some resolution, this is the perfect book for you, but I find it irksome and I won't be reading the rest of the series.
TW rape and torture
This review is from my reread of this series in 2015/16.
The Fionavar Tapestry was a formative work for me in many ways, with my first read from soon after they came out in the 80s and with multiple rereads since. I mention this to explain why I'm not completely objective on them, as there are several issues from the lens of a 21st century reader including the way some of the women are portrayed here and the lack diversity in a book set across multiple countries and peoples that is meant to be the "first world" that all our worlds are a reflection of (maybe a very small slice of Western Europe, not so much anywhere else).
Five Canadian university students travel to a secondary fantasy world, Fionavar supposedly to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the reign of Ailell dan Art, High King of Brennin. Each finds an important role to play in the events of the series. It's at this time that the evil god Rakoth Maugrim breaks free from his prison and declares war on the whole world.
Volumes have been written on this series, regarding the use of mythology in fantasy works and the price of power and sacrifice. It's all worthwhile, but tends to detract from the shear emotional impact of the series as it constantly defines what is mythic and legendary and then exceeds the legends by the actions of people and gods of the current day. There's a palpable sense of greatness in the sacrifices and actions of these people, particularly in this volume with the actions of Paul, Kim and Ysane and even the Prince Diarmuid who initially comes across as rude and unlikable but soon demonstrates hidden depths.
This is only my current reread, I very much doubt it will be my last.
The Fionavar Tapestry was a formative work for me in many ways, with my first read from soon after they came out in the 80s and with multiple rereads since. I mention this to explain why I'm not completely objective on them, as there are several issues from the lens of a 21st century reader including the way some of the women are portrayed here and the lack diversity in a book set across multiple countries and peoples that is meant to be the "first world" that all our worlds are a reflection of (maybe a very small slice of Western Europe, not so much anywhere else).
Five Canadian university students travel to a secondary fantasy world, Fionavar supposedly to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the reign of Ailell dan Art, High King of Brennin. Each finds an important role to play in the events of the series. It's at this time that the evil god Rakoth Maugrim breaks free from his prison and declares war on the whole world.
Volumes have been written on this series, regarding the use of mythology in fantasy works and the price of power and sacrifice. It's all worthwhile, but tends to detract from the shear emotional impact of the series as it constantly defines what is mythic and legendary and then exceeds the legends by the actions of people and gods of the current day. There's a palpable sense of greatness in the sacrifices and actions of these people, particularly in this volume with the actions of Paul, Kim and Ysane and even the Prince Diarmuid who initially comes across as rude and unlikable but soon demonstrates hidden depths.
This is only my current reread, I very much doubt it will be my last.
This was my second time through "The Summer Tree," and it was as good as I remembered it. The characters are vivid and the story is epic without getting bogged down in needless details (hint, hint, George Martin!). I cried at several points in the story, and I'm sure I will again during books two and three.
Good, but slow start
Introduction to the world is lacking and it takes more than 1/3 of the book to actually start caring about it and the characters. Some phrases are extremely weird and hard to read, pulling me away from the story.
Once the story picks up it’s quite interesting, and the end of the book made me really curious to get the second one.
So I’d say it’s worth it the struggle of getting through the first part.
Introduction to the world is lacking and it takes more than 1/3 of the book to actually start caring about it and the characters. Some phrases are extremely weird and hard to read, pulling me away from the story.
Once the story picks up it’s quite interesting, and the end of the book made me really curious to get the second one.
So I’d say it’s worth it the struggle of getting through the first part.
Epic beginning for a high fantasy series. The usual fantasy tropes are involved, but very well done, good characters and world building. On to book 2 (it feels strange to review a book that is clearly only one part of something larger)
4.0 out of 5 stars
I have wanted try out Guy Gavriel Kay’s work for quite a while but haven’t known where to start. The collective wisdom I’ve seen says to skip his first books, a trilogy called The Fionavar Tapestry. They say that he hadn’t quite found his voice yet and that the story plays as a cheap Lord of the Rings knock off. I didn’t necessarily want to read his best novels first and be disappointed later on, so I ignored the advice and dove in at the beginning. I was pleased to find that this first book was quite compelling and enjoyable. Yes, it’s a bit uneven and the similarities to Tolkien are present, but I set these things aside because I saw sparks of brilliant storytelling. The world building and character work are particularly strong.
At first the characters seem interchangeable (and weirdly unskeptical when a wizard offers to whisk them away to another world), but as the story unfolds, each character embarks on their own emotional journey and I’m fully invested in it. I look forward to seeing how it all plays out in the next two books and am excited to read his subsequent (supposedly better) work.
See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.
I have wanted try out Guy Gavriel Kay’s work for quite a while but haven’t known where to start. The collective wisdom I’ve seen says to skip his first books, a trilogy called The Fionavar Tapestry. They say that he hadn’t quite found his voice yet and that the story plays as a cheap Lord of the Rings knock off. I didn’t necessarily want to read his best novels first and be disappointed later on, so I ignored the advice and dove in at the beginning. I was pleased to find that this first book was quite compelling and enjoyable. Yes, it’s a bit uneven and the similarities to Tolkien are present, but I set these things aside because I saw sparks of brilliant storytelling. The world building and character work are particularly strong.
At first the characters seem interchangeable (and weirdly unskeptical when a wizard offers to whisk them away to another world), but as the story unfolds, each character embarks on their own emotional journey and I’m fully invested in it. I look forward to seeing how it all plays out in the next two books and am excited to read his subsequent (supposedly better) work.
See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.
I knew that this series was heavily influenced by LOTR, so I was wary going in. The beginning seemed to confirm all my misgivings of a badly written copy. But for some reason, I kept going, and the story won me over.
This is one of those books that you lose yourself in, as it transports you to another world and takes your breath away with the advent of events. The characters are all well written, and the plot, though a bit jumpy and confusing at the start, is rich and complex. This is epic fantasy, and I can't wait to sink further into the world Kay paints.
Special highlight: that last chapter was hands down one of the best literary portrayals of grief and strength I've ever read, and seriously, hats off to Kay for capturing the bleakness and the strength of humanity so well in that event, but also throughout the book.
Starting book 2 today itself!
This is one of those books that you lose yourself in, as it transports you to another world and takes your breath away with the advent of events. The characters are all well written, and the plot, though a bit jumpy and confusing at the start, is rich and complex. This is epic fantasy, and I can't wait to sink further into the world Kay paints.
Special highlight: that last chapter was hands down one of the best literary portrayals of grief and strength I've ever read, and seriously, hats off to Kay for capturing the bleakness and the strength of humanity so well in that event, but also throughout the book.
Starting book 2 today itself!