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kyrjava1123 's review for:
The Fionavar Tapestry
by Guy Gavriel Kay
I love Guy Gavriel Kay: he has authored several of my favorite books.
I did not love Fionavar Tapestry.
In a word, I found it presumptuous. It set out to create a LotR style epic fantasy trilogy, with many races and worlds and ancient myths and gods and demigods and an ancient, unstoppable, world(s) devouring evil. And a lot of sex. But not only that: a lot of "awefilled" and "fearful" sex. If those seem like strange adjectives to apply to sex, we are in agreement: there was crazy emphasis on the power of sex, and certain characters "made love with an intensity, a fearful passion, that I couldn't understand." I'm paraphrasing that one, but the point is.... It's presumptuous. I don't think sex, or ancient, resurrected love, is quite that impactful.
There's other presumption as well: the most obvious one being how he resurrected some very respected cannon (no spoilers) that I don't feel needs to be resurrected. I had a hard time taking an entire major plot line seriously because those characters are dead, thank you, leave them alone. Also the interaction with gods and demigods: had there been mythos, and one or two meaningful intersessions, that might have been neat. But the gods, who are supposed not to be able to interfere, interfered all over the place. It's really hard to take anything seriously when the gods are just gonna swoop in again.
I didn't hate it. The plot moved. People died. And the writing was as beautiful as ever Kay's is. But I couldn't suspend disbelief: everytime I did, someone had fearful sex, or another god interfered, or a certain piece of respectable cannon gazed at someone with sorrow and stars in their eyes for the umpteenth time.
I did not love Fionavar Tapestry.
In a word, I found it presumptuous. It set out to create a LotR style epic fantasy trilogy, with many races and worlds and ancient myths and gods and demigods and an ancient, unstoppable, world(s) devouring evil. And a lot of sex. But not only that: a lot of "awefilled" and "fearful" sex. If those seem like strange adjectives to apply to sex, we are in agreement: there was crazy emphasis on the power of sex, and certain characters "made love with an intensity, a fearful passion, that I couldn't understand." I'm paraphrasing that one, but the point is.... It's presumptuous. I don't think sex, or ancient, resurrected love, is quite that impactful.
There's other presumption as well: the most obvious one being how he resurrected some very respected cannon (no spoilers) that I don't feel needs to be resurrected. I had a hard time taking an entire major plot line seriously because those characters are dead, thank you, leave them alone. Also the interaction with gods and demigods: had there been mythos, and one or two meaningful intersessions, that might have been neat. But the gods, who are supposed not to be able to interfere, interfered all over the place. It's really hard to take anything seriously when the gods are just gonna swoop in again.
I didn't hate it. The plot moved. People died. And the writing was as beautiful as ever Kay's is. But I couldn't suspend disbelief: everytime I did, someone had fearful sex, or another god interfered, or a certain piece of respectable cannon gazed at someone with sorrow and stars in their eyes for the umpteenth time.