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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
Back before I had to be careful to avoid horder status, I would peruse the book section of my local thrift stores and pick up anything with an interesting cover. That's how I ended up with three copies of The Summer Tree.
Despite circling the book in this way for a few years, it kept getting deprioritized for reading because, as the back cover puts it, it's "an epic adventure written in the rich tradition of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings." Has a less appealing sentence ever been written?
Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy having read that sort of high fantasy. The problem is that I don't often enjoy the actual reading of it, in the present tense. I love the ideas, I love learning the lore, but it takes itself too seriously. It's too pretentious.
And The Summer Tree does fall into that trap, but at least it's only for 323 pages. I can endure anything for 323 pages.
Despite the claim that the book is like Lord of the Rings, I found it reminded me much more of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. Or, perhaps, it would be more proper to say that The Wheel of Time reminded me, retroactively, of The Summer Tree, now that I look up the publication dates. I wouldn't call plagiarism, but some similarities are rather striking at times.
The tone is a bit of a weird mix. This is a portal fantasy, so you have the high fantasy thees and thous and highfalutin language, and then you get the informal modern speech of the protagonists. It might possibly be funny if the trope hadn't already been done to death and the rest of the book didn't take itself so seriously. But as it was, it just felt awkward and jarring. It's hard to see what Kay might have done differently, though, once he'd locked himself into the portal plot. I think the lesson here is to just avoid the portal plot.
I did have a rough time getting into the book. Part of that might be that I was in a car (and therefore had to keep taking breaks to avoid tossing my cookies all about), part might be that I was just coming down off the very different writing of We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. Either way, the first fifty or so pages felt like real drudgery. Perhaps it's no coincidence that these take place in the "real world" (which, in this case, is Toronto). After that, however, I found that the characters grew on me. I was invested in them (well, some of them - enough of them).
It helped that the pacing is consistent, with the exposition mingled with action. Given just how much exposition had to be covered (and covered again, as the protagonists are rarely together and must learn the backstory separately), that's pretty impressive.
My big complaint about the book is its treatment of women. Of the four named women who are dead before the start of the story, three died for men (one to stop her lover from doing more evil, one out of grief because her loved died, and the third out of grief/shame because her lover was exiled). The fourth's only function in the story is to be dead so that a male character can have an angsty backstory.
Of the living women, we have a princess and future queen whose only role in the plot is to be tricked into sex in a scene played for comedy. We also have one of the five "real world" characters whose only role seems to be to get kidnapped and tortured by having her body (and, specifically, her nipples) pinched (SPOILERS:and then be raped ).
There are a handful of other female characters, but their roles are nearly as passive. They do a few things, make a few decisions, but it is the men who go out and have adventures and fight the baddies and carouse. I lost track of all the women the main male characters have sex with, but the only female characters getting any action are coerced into it.
And it just seems so... unnecessary. What is the point of pushing women to the sidelines like this? Of denying them agency and personality? Of raping and killing them, over and over again, to serve the plot? Maybe these books are a product of their time, or maybe the fantasy genre's conventions make these nasty attitudes difficult to see and avoid. I don't know, but it's frustrating and unappealing to see authors view people like me as not really human, and certainly not capable of being interesting. We are sprinkled in because even Tolkien couldn't write a world that is completely free of women, but we are the mothers, the lovers, the unruly daughters - our pain matters only insofar as it causes men pain, our struggles matter only insofar as they further men's interests, our agency matters only insofar as it threatens men. It's frustrating, and it's disappointing.
I will read the second book in the trilogy, and I'll give Kay a chance to fix his thoughtless parroting of tropes when it comes to his female characters. But every book I read like this makes me less inclined to bother with male fantasy authors in future. We can do better.
Despite circling the book in this way for a few years, it kept getting deprioritized for reading because, as the back cover puts it, it's "an epic adventure written in the rich tradition of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings." Has a less appealing sentence ever been written?
Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy having read that sort of high fantasy. The problem is that I don't often enjoy the actual reading of it, in the present tense. I love the ideas, I love learning the lore, but it takes itself too seriously. It's too pretentious.
And The Summer Tree does fall into that trap, but at least it's only for 323 pages. I can endure anything for 323 pages.
Despite the claim that the book is like Lord of the Rings, I found it reminded me much more of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. Or, perhaps, it would be more proper to say that The Wheel of Time reminded me, retroactively, of The Summer Tree, now that I look up the publication dates. I wouldn't call plagiarism, but some similarities are rather striking at times.
The tone is a bit of a weird mix. This is a portal fantasy, so you have the high fantasy thees and thous and highfalutin language, and then you get the informal modern speech of the protagonists. It might possibly be funny if the trope hadn't already been done to death and the rest of the book didn't take itself so seriously. But as it was, it just felt awkward and jarring. It's hard to see what Kay might have done differently, though, once he'd locked himself into the portal plot. I think the lesson here is to just avoid the portal plot.
I did have a rough time getting into the book. Part of that might be that I was in a car (and therefore had to keep taking breaks to avoid tossing my cookies all about), part might be that I was just coming down off the very different writing of We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. Either way, the first fifty or so pages felt like real drudgery. Perhaps it's no coincidence that these take place in the "real world" (which, in this case, is Toronto). After that, however, I found that the characters grew on me. I was invested in them (well, some of them - enough of them).
It helped that the pacing is consistent, with the exposition mingled with action. Given just how much exposition had to be covered (and covered again, as the protagonists are rarely together and must learn the backstory separately), that's pretty impressive.
My big complaint about the book is its treatment of women. Of the four named women who are dead before the start of the story, three died for men (one to stop her lover from doing more evil, one out of grief because her loved died, and the third out of grief/shame because her lover was exiled). The fourth's only function in the story is to be dead so that a male character can have an angsty backstory.
Of the living women, we have a princess and future queen whose only role in the plot is to be tricked into sex in a scene played for comedy. We also have one of the five "real world" characters whose only role seems to be to get kidnapped and tortured by having her body (and, specifically, her nipples) pinched (SPOILERS:
There are a handful of other female characters, but their roles are nearly as passive. They do a few things, make a few decisions, but it is the men who go out and have adventures and fight the baddies and carouse. I lost track of all the women the main male characters have sex with, but the only female characters getting any action are coerced into it.
And it just seems so... unnecessary. What is the point of pushing women to the sidelines like this? Of denying them agency and personality? Of raping and killing them, over and over again, to serve the plot? Maybe these books are a product of their time, or maybe the fantasy genre's conventions make these nasty attitudes difficult to see and avoid. I don't know, but it's frustrating and unappealing to see authors view people like me as not really human, and certainly not capable of being interesting. We are sprinkled in because even Tolkien couldn't write a world that is completely free of women, but we are the mothers, the lovers, the unruly daughters - our pain matters only insofar as it causes men pain, our struggles matter only insofar as they further men's interests, our agency matters only insofar as it threatens men. It's frustrating, and it's disappointing.
I will read the second book in the trilogy, and I'll give Kay a chance to fix his thoughtless parroting of tropes when it comes to his female characters. But every book I read like this makes me less inclined to bother with male fantasy authors in future. We can do better.
This is a book that i read a couple of years back, and one, that i used to re-read - before this phase of books overdose "thing" that i've entered, in which i only have time to read new stories. Well almost _ from time to time.
This story, the ambience and the characters were so magnificient, that up into this day, i still haven't forgoten them.
I've never been a sci-fi fan so - and i hope that this profanity is forgiven _ for me, this story, is more on the epic fantasy category, than scy-fy. YEs, there is a jump through time! Yes there is! But that's it!
All of a sudden we have a group of persons, who find themselves living in a far away kingdom, in which every single one of them, will have a role to play in the kingdom's fate.
This is a book filled with interesting characters, with plenty of quests to fulfill, lovers whose fates are bound to the threads of time, sacrifices, losses....this is not a very HEA trilogy. But i truly like it just the same.
I love this book. As well as i did the other two. But this one presented a universe that will forever live in my mind. And for that, it will always be the number one in my head.
This story, the ambience and the characters were so magnificient, that up into this day, i still haven't forgoten them.
I've never been a sci-fi fan so - and i hope that this profanity is forgiven _ for me, this story, is more on the epic fantasy category, than scy-fy. YEs, there is a jump through time! Yes there is! But that's it!
All of a sudden we have a group of persons, who find themselves living in a far away kingdom, in which every single one of them, will have a role to play in the kingdom's fate.
This is a book filled with interesting characters, with plenty of quests to fulfill, lovers whose fates are bound to the threads of time, sacrifices, losses....this is not a very HEA trilogy. But i truly like it just the same.
I love this book. As well as i did the other two. But this one presented a universe that will forever live in my mind. And for that, it will always be the number one in my head.
I have really mixed feelings about this book. I liked it, for the most part, but it often felt shallow to me. It was quite evident that this was not written recently and that it is some of Kay's early work. Perhaps I'm not literary enough to appreciate it?
I would have liked more character development and less fate.
Also CW/TW: Rape / torture: why? Why is this necessary to show how evil the evil god is? Why are the women always helpless? Would have liked the book a lot more if it weren't for this part at the very end followed immediately by a cliffhanger.
I would have liked more character development and less fate.
Also CW/TW:
I liked the last 1/3 of the book a lot more than the first 2/3's. Maybe I finally got the hang of the world in general but a lot of it had to do with the shift to another character's POV (one that was much more identifiable).
How do these characters get transported to this world & NOT blink an eye? I feel like they just accepted it without any degree of fascination or denial or amazement.
I could see why some people dig this, but I struggled to finish it. Too 'high' fantasy for me.
How do these characters get transported to this world & NOT blink an eye? I feel like they just accepted it without any degree of fascination or denial or amazement.
I could see why some people dig this, but I struggled to finish it. Too 'high' fantasy for me.
2.75⭐
Took me the better part of a year to finish this one.
Except for the ever grieving character of Paul, nothing/no one in particular worked for me, unfortunately.
A classic case of its-not-you-but-me.
Would I continue with the series? Maybe. Someday.
Took me the better part of a year to finish this one.
Except for the ever grieving character of Paul, nothing/no one in particular worked for me, unfortunately.
A classic case of its-not-you-but-me.
Would I continue with the series? Maybe. Someday.
If you can wade through the mess of the first 100 pages, it does begin to improve. The writing is all over the place. Sometimes the dialogue and imagery are smooth and gather you into the story, but then he abruptly attempts to be Tolkien, and it falls apart again. The story kept me interested, but I had to make the decision to keep reading through many spots.
This is my second time reading this book (this time was on audio book)
This is a great story, full of Tolkien influences (and maybe some Robert Jordan)?
This is a book to read when you are looking for something skilfully written yet familiar. This story is filled with fantasy tropes, but sometimes that is what you want from a book.
One of the stories I find too difficult to read as anything other than a scan (you will know it when you get to it). The gender dynamics are a little outdated, but I am able to look past it. It's a good story and I do love all the characters. I think almost all of them transform in fascinating ways. A good book all around. Read it when you are craving classic fantasy.
This is a great story, full of Tolkien influences (and maybe some Robert Jordan)?
This is a book to read when you are looking for something skilfully written yet familiar. This story is filled with fantasy tropes, but sometimes that is what you want from a book.
One of the stories I find too difficult to read as anything other than a scan (you will know it when you get to it). The gender dynamics are a little outdated, but I am able to look past it. It's a good story and I do love all the characters. I think almost all of them transform in fascinating ways. A good book all around. Read it when you are craving classic fantasy.
I read this series countless times when I was a teenager in the 90’s. I’m happy to say that it is indeed a great series. The adventure is compelling and Kay’s writing is really beautiful. I’d recommend finding a physical copy of this book because the cover art is amazing. Every edition has different, gorgeous cover art. (They really don’t make fantasy covers the same way any more.)
Content warning for rape (see the end of my review).
Five grad students from Toronto are whisked away to the magical world of Fionavar. Each character ends up serving a vital role in their new world. Kay worked on the official edits of JRR Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, so we know he was a big fan of Middle Earth. The main characters are very different from those in The Lord of the Rings, but the actual world is extremely similar. Like Middle Earth, Fionavar is an isolated continent divided into several countries with distinct characteristics. The three main countries are analogous for some old civilizations in our world: Native American, Norse and Persian. There’s also wizards, dwarfs, fairies, orc and dragons. And King Arthur.
This was published in the 1980’s and takes place in 1975. However, the characters seem completely modern. If the date weren’t listed, I never could tell that this didn’t take place in current times. There is little of the sexism that can be found in so much fantasy written in the 1980’s. There are still more men than women, but you can see that Kay is deliberately improving on the number of women in LotR. Some characters do sexist things, but that is part of the character flaws and not the author’s opinion. For example, there is an old-fashioned scene where the prince seduces a princess. The prince is very impressed with himself, but no one else really is impressed and he eventually learns that he shouldn't behave that way. (Of course, we as readers still had to read that seduction scene, so I could see how it doesn't really matter if it was "right" or "wrong" and matters more that it's in the book at all.)
I’ve thought a lot about why Kay decided to insert five people from our world into the action. I think it’s because he was deliberately playing with tropes. He’s showing that these characters have roles that repeat over and over across time and worlds. Since these characters are from a different world don’t care about how they’re “supposed” to act. (The characters barely seem surprised at being suddenly transported to a magical world; I think that’s to show that they always felt they had unrealized destinies that Fionavar suddenly fulfills for them.)
The characters physical appearances are not generally described in any detail. Kay just likes to tell us their heights and hair color. However, I’m concerned that despite the multi-cultural influences, the characters may read as white; some people from the “Native American” tribe are described as having blond hair. This might become even more important because recently the books were optioned for a tv show.
There is a rape storyline that begins in the last pages of The Summer Tree (the character is rescued, so it doesn’t end in that cliffhanger). In the next book, it’s described further how she was abducted, brutalized and then bore the child of her rapist. It is disturbing but not gratuitous. There is no minimization of the incident but it’s tough to read.
Content warning for rape (see the end of my review).
Five grad students from Toronto are whisked away to the magical world of Fionavar. Each character ends up serving a vital role in their new world. Kay worked on the official edits of JRR Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, so we know he was a big fan of Middle Earth. The main characters are very different from those in The Lord of the Rings, but the actual world is extremely similar. Like Middle Earth, Fionavar is an isolated continent divided into several countries with distinct characteristics. The three main countries are analogous for some old civilizations in our world: Native American, Norse and Persian. There’s also wizards, dwarfs, fairies, orc and dragons. And King Arthur.
This was published in the 1980’s and takes place in 1975. However, the characters seem completely modern. If the date weren’t listed, I never could tell that this didn’t take place in current times. There is little of the sexism that can be found in so much fantasy written in the 1980’s. There are still more men than women, but you can see that Kay is deliberately improving on the number of women in LotR. Some characters do sexist things, but that is part of the character flaws and not the author’s opinion. For example, there is an old-fashioned scene where the prince seduces a princess. The prince is very impressed with himself, but no one else really is impressed and he eventually learns that he shouldn't behave that way. (Of course, we as readers still had to read that seduction scene, so I could see how it doesn't really matter if it was "right" or "wrong" and matters more that it's in the book at all.)
I’ve thought a lot about why Kay decided to insert five people from our world into the action. I think it’s because he was deliberately playing with tropes. He’s showing that these characters have roles that repeat over and over across time and worlds. Since these characters are from a different world don’t care about how they’re “supposed” to act. (The characters barely seem surprised at being suddenly transported to a magical world; I think that’s to show that they always felt they had unrealized destinies that Fionavar suddenly fulfills for them.)
The characters physical appearances are not generally described in any detail. Kay just likes to tell us their heights and hair color. However, I’m concerned that despite the multi-cultural influences, the characters may read as white; some people from the “Native American” tribe are described as having blond hair. This might become even more important because recently the books were optioned for a tv show.
There is a rape storyline that begins in the last pages of The Summer Tree
Didn't draw me into the story like [book: Tigana] . I like the parallel story lines and the if the character development were more fully realized it would be terrific. Instead, [author: Julian May]'s [book:Golden Torque] remains my favorite of this genre, but I am moving on to [book:wandering fire], the next in the Fionavar Tapestry series and so far enjoying it a little more than the beginning of [book: Summer Tree] . Jury's still out!
--2 1/2 stars--
It has been quite a while since I have had mixed feelings about a book. The Summer Tree is excellent at times, it had one of the most cathartic scenes that I have ever read, but there was quite a few times where I wanted to give the book up. I am a fan of Guy Gavriel Kay and I recognize that this is his first published book, and his writing has come a long way, but I am debating about not returning to Finovar.
This books greatest weakness is its characters. For the first half of the book I kept confusing the five main characters, they had no discerning characteristics. Kay has to many characters in this book, if it wasn't for the cast sheet in the beginning, I would have completely forgotten who many of them are. There was one moment where a character was revealed to be evil and it felt like a cheesy TV movie sans the maniacal laugh. The character had no motivation, or personality for that matter, until the "grand reveal". . It felt like Kay sacrificed plot for characterization and when tragic moments happened for the characters, I could not have cared less. The lack of strong characters killed this book for me.
Just like how the characters felt weak, the condensed world building fell flat for me. Kay drops a lot of important objects and culturally significant myths, throughout the book and barely explains them. The book should have been longer to allow for a more nuanced explanation. It felt like these objects and stories were going to be important later on, but all I am going to remember is that thing was a dagger, right? The Summer Tree , should have been about one hundred pages longer and had a lot more explanation.
If you liked Tolkien and are into sword and sorcery, I would recommend this book to you. Otherwise, I would stay away. I think I am a bigger fan of Kay's historical fantasy and I will probably be sticking with those.
It has been quite a while since I have had mixed feelings about a book. The Summer Tree is excellent at times, it had one of the most cathartic scenes that I have ever read, but there was quite a few times where I wanted to give the book up. I am a fan of Guy Gavriel Kay and I recognize that this is his first published book, and his writing has come a long way, but I am debating about not returning to Finovar.
This books greatest weakness is its characters. For the first half of the book I kept confusing the five main characters, they had no discerning characteristics. Kay has to many characters in this book, if it wasn't for the cast sheet in the beginning, I would have completely forgotten who many of them are.
Just like how the characters felt weak, the condensed world building fell flat for me. Kay drops a lot of important objects and culturally significant myths, throughout the book and barely explains them. The book should have been longer to allow for a more nuanced explanation. It felt like these objects and stories were going to be important later on, but all I am going to remember is that thing was a dagger, right? The Summer Tree , should have been about one hundred pages longer and had a lot more explanation.
If you liked Tolkien and are into sword and sorcery, I would recommend this book to you. Otherwise, I would stay away. I think I am a bigger fan of Kay's historical fantasy and I will probably be sticking with those.