A review by bandwitch
The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay

2.0

I really had high hopes for this story, but by the time I made it halfway through, I found my eyes crossing: characters blended in with other characters, histories were being told that didn't pertain to the plot, and a lot of it all started becoming very familiar.

Oh, right, Tolkien. It seemed as though Kay took down a list of all of the races in Middle-earth, drew a line to the other side of the paper for each listing, and then started coming up with alternative names for things like elves, orcs, Rohirrim, and Fangorn forest. Hell, even the lios alfar elves go back and forth from the West. There's also a bad guy who is very near a volcano and has no face, but instead of being portrayed as a Great Eye, he's portrayed as a giant taloned hand.

Yawn.

Black is evil and white is good.

Yawn.

I'll probably finish the other two just to have the whole story, but my God, the thought of having to trudge through two more of these makes me want to weep with pain. I even recommended this to people... and I hope they fare better with all of those names, names, names and long-winded mumbo jumbo. Maybe high fantasy isn't for me.

There's also a unnecessary rape scene which kind of pissed me off, so... there.