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A review by thisotherbookaccount
The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay may well be the final nail on the coffin for fantasy as a genre for me. Lately, I have been growing increasingly disenchanted by the genre, having not found a single fantasy novel or series to excite me about the genre once more. Books have come and gone, and all of them—and I mean all of them—have failed one way or another. The Summer Tree, the first book in Kay's Fionavar Tapestry, is no different. This book, too, sank even before it reached the shore, which is unusual for a Kay book.
You see, I have had a good track record with Kay. Tigana and The Lions of al-Rassan both turned out to be engrossing reads (even though, I admit, I cannot, for the life of me, remember the details). Kay has a way of creating imaginary worlds that are close enough for us to relate, yet foreign enough to be magical. His use of magic, too, is sparing, making his worlds especially easy to relate and digest. In fact, in many ways, Kay's works read more like historical fiction that happen to have magical elements, something that I greatly appreciate as a reader. High fantasy, it seems, is something that I have decidedly grown out of over the years.
So when I heard about Kay's Fionavar Tapestry, I thought, well, it's two of two so far, so why not give this one a shot? Some things felt different right off the bat, however. Both Tigana and The Lions of al-Rassan are standalone books, so you know that you will get a resolution to the story by the end of the book. You also know that the book will follow some narrative structure that's present in other books, which is comforting as a reader. That is not to say that books in a series are inferior because each book is a truncated version of a whole. At the end of the day, it is about who is writing the story that matters the most, I always say.
The Summer Tree, however, is nothing like Kay's other works. This book feels amateurish, and somewhat embarrassing to be a part of Kay's other great works. His signature lyrical way of writing is non-existent here, and it almost feels as if he writes a certain way because all fantasy has to sound a certain way. Sentences run into each other like out-of-control trains, and characters speak like the ones from fantasy worlds rather than real life (a pet-peeve of mine). Perhaps that is because it is Kay's first published work, and he was still trying to find his footing in the genre. And maybe I should have been more aware of that fact before diving into the book (that'd have avoided some measure of disappointment).
The characters themselves, too, make no effort to be liked whatsoever. Kay's character development here is as poor as it gets. The five protagonists are introduced to the readers, then transported to an alternate fantasy universe in under 17 pages (I counted). 17 pages! A mysterious professor reveals himself to be a mage from another universe, and the five protagonists from our world just shrug and go, OK, old man, we will travel to your universe for two straight weeks and get ourselves involved in an epic high fantasy war with a dark lord, no problem! I was hoping for the world to be introduced to us through their eyes, but that is not the case. The five of them are transported to an alternate universe and don't even bat an eyelash once they arrive. In fact, none of them question whatever is going on, and find it to be second nature that they are deeply woven into the "tapestry", whatever the hell that is. In fact, when one of the characters go missing during the transition, the other four spend about five minutes worrying about their missing friend before going about their merry ways. Right off the bat, these are unbelievable characters that we cannot give two shits about. The only way for you to not be turned off by this book is if you can stomach the fact that these characters have travelled to an alternate universe and somehow not freak out.
Another point about this book that drove me crazy was the fact that it is choked with exposition. A few thousand years' worth of history is force fed by the author through dry, repetitive conversations between characters that no one gives a shit about. It is worse when speaking with Seers, because Seers never fucking give direct answers—which is annoying, since they can see the future and everything. I swear, Seers are the absolute worst characters in fantasy.
Also, the cast of characters is vast, which is not a problem if you are used to it. The problem comes when half the characters are always harping on dead characters in the story's past. Throughout the first two-thirds of the book, characters would tell stories about other characters who are already dead and gone by the time the story begins, and few of them have any direct relationship with whatever is going on with the existing world. It is almost like you are reading two books at the same time, and you are hearing this other story being told through the characters in THIS story. Exposition is necessary, but when every dialogue is some kind of exposition about the universe's history, it doesn't deepen the world's realism—it makes the story an absolute bore to read through. Character couldn't help but go on and on about how a character one thousand years ago fell in love with so and so, and they had a child who did this and that, so on and so forth. But how does that pertain to the story? How does it advance the story? Writers these days are so caught up with the intricacies of world-building that they oftentimes forget that the STORY is the story, not the world. If you want us to give a shit about the characters and the world, then tell a good story.
So we have a plot we don't care about, and a world that's populated by characters we don't have particular feelings for. What's left? Honestly, not much. Everything else is a poor cousin of JRR Tolkien's works—which makes sense, since Kay was hired by Christopher Tolkien when the latter was working on his father's manuscripts. You can expect elements of Tolkien's fantasy to trickle into Kay's works. Perhaps that is the reason why so many aspects of The Summer Tree feel so derivative from, not just Tolkien's works, but fantasy as a whole. Fantasy troupes are aplenty in this book, and Kay essentially gave Tolkien-esque characters new names and called them his own creations. Dwarves are dwarves, mages are wizards, and the world even has its very own race of elves that are, more or less, like Tolkien elves. Even the style reads like a weird cousin of The Silmarillion, but stripped of the epic scale of things.
It is the story about good and evil where the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. Nothing surprising, nothing out-of-the-box, nothing outbreaking. This is your very typical, run-of-the-mill fantasy that you have already read a hundred times before, dressed to look like something else entirely.
If you really want to tip your feet into the world of Kay, don't start with this book. Instead, skip over to Tigana and The Lions of al-Rassan, because they are more mature works of an accomplished author in the field. I still have faith that the next Kay book I pick up, whatever it may be, will be of similar quality to the aforementioned books, or even better. It's just that, right now, I feel like taking a long break from the genre and, instead, re-read some of my old favorites. At least I'd know that, by the end of the book, I am bound to enjoy it. Can't say the same about The Summer Tree, or the entire series for that matter.
You see, I have had a good track record with Kay. Tigana and The Lions of al-Rassan both turned out to be engrossing reads (even though, I admit, I cannot, for the life of me, remember the details). Kay has a way of creating imaginary worlds that are close enough for us to relate, yet foreign enough to be magical. His use of magic, too, is sparing, making his worlds especially easy to relate and digest. In fact, in many ways, Kay's works read more like historical fiction that happen to have magical elements, something that I greatly appreciate as a reader. High fantasy, it seems, is something that I have decidedly grown out of over the years.
So when I heard about Kay's Fionavar Tapestry, I thought, well, it's two of two so far, so why not give this one a shot? Some things felt different right off the bat, however. Both Tigana and The Lions of al-Rassan are standalone books, so you know that you will get a resolution to the story by the end of the book. You also know that the book will follow some narrative structure that's present in other books, which is comforting as a reader. That is not to say that books in a series are inferior because each book is a truncated version of a whole. At the end of the day, it is about who is writing the story that matters the most, I always say.
The Summer Tree, however, is nothing like Kay's other works. This book feels amateurish, and somewhat embarrassing to be a part of Kay's other great works. His signature lyrical way of writing is non-existent here, and it almost feels as if he writes a certain way because all fantasy has to sound a certain way. Sentences run into each other like out-of-control trains, and characters speak like the ones from fantasy worlds rather than real life (a pet-peeve of mine). Perhaps that is because it is Kay's first published work, and he was still trying to find his footing in the genre. And maybe I should have been more aware of that fact before diving into the book (that'd have avoided some measure of disappointment).
The characters themselves, too, make no effort to be liked whatsoever. Kay's character development here is as poor as it gets. The five protagonists are introduced to the readers, then transported to an alternate fantasy universe in under 17 pages (I counted). 17 pages! A mysterious professor reveals himself to be a mage from another universe, and the five protagonists from our world just shrug and go, OK, old man, we will travel to your universe for two straight weeks and get ourselves involved in an epic high fantasy war with a dark lord, no problem! I was hoping for the world to be introduced to us through their eyes, but that is not the case. The five of them are transported to an alternate universe and don't even bat an eyelash once they arrive. In fact, none of them question whatever is going on, and find it to be second nature that they are deeply woven into the "tapestry", whatever the hell that is. In fact, when one of the characters go missing during the transition, the other four spend about five minutes worrying about their missing friend before going about their merry ways. Right off the bat, these are unbelievable characters that we cannot give two shits about. The only way for you to not be turned off by this book is if you can stomach the fact that these characters have travelled to an alternate universe and somehow not freak out.
Another point about this book that drove me crazy was the fact that it is choked with exposition. A few thousand years' worth of history is force fed by the author through dry, repetitive conversations between characters that no one gives a shit about. It is worse when speaking with Seers, because Seers never fucking give direct answers—which is annoying, since they can see the future and everything. I swear, Seers are the absolute worst characters in fantasy.
Also, the cast of characters is vast, which is not a problem if you are used to it. The problem comes when half the characters are always harping on dead characters in the story's past. Throughout the first two-thirds of the book, characters would tell stories about other characters who are already dead and gone by the time the story begins, and few of them have any direct relationship with whatever is going on with the existing world. It is almost like you are reading two books at the same time, and you are hearing this other story being told through the characters in THIS story. Exposition is necessary, but when every dialogue is some kind of exposition about the universe's history, it doesn't deepen the world's realism—it makes the story an absolute bore to read through. Character couldn't help but go on and on about how a character one thousand years ago fell in love with so and so, and they had a child who did this and that, so on and so forth. But how does that pertain to the story? How does it advance the story? Writers these days are so caught up with the intricacies of world-building that they oftentimes forget that the STORY is the story, not the world. If you want us to give a shit about the characters and the world, then tell a good story.
So we have a plot we don't care about, and a world that's populated by characters we don't have particular feelings for. What's left? Honestly, not much. Everything else is a poor cousin of JRR Tolkien's works—which makes sense, since Kay was hired by Christopher Tolkien when the latter was working on his father's manuscripts. You can expect elements of Tolkien's fantasy to trickle into Kay's works. Perhaps that is the reason why so many aspects of The Summer Tree feel so derivative from, not just Tolkien's works, but fantasy as a whole. Fantasy troupes are aplenty in this book, and Kay essentially gave Tolkien-esque characters new names and called them his own creations. Dwarves are dwarves, mages are wizards, and the world even has its very own race of elves that are, more or less, like Tolkien elves. Even the style reads like a weird cousin of The Silmarillion, but stripped of the epic scale of things.
It is the story about good and evil where the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. Nothing surprising, nothing out-of-the-box, nothing outbreaking. This is your very typical, run-of-the-mill fantasy that you have already read a hundred times before, dressed to look like something else entirely.
If you really want to tip your feet into the world of Kay, don't start with this book. Instead, skip over to Tigana and The Lions of al-Rassan, because they are more mature works of an accomplished author in the field. I still have faith that the next Kay book I pick up, whatever it may be, will be of similar quality to the aforementioned books, or even better. It's just that, right now, I feel like taking a long break from the genre and, instead, re-read some of my old favorites. At least I'd know that, by the end of the book, I am bound to enjoy it. Can't say the same about The Summer Tree, or the entire series for that matter.