Reviews

The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay

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aka_kassy's review against another edition

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slow-paced

1.0

monotasker's review against another edition

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3.0

I really wanted to like this book more. Kay's prose is head and shoulders above most of what one puts up with in fantasy novels, even if it feels a bit self-conscious and overworked in places. Kay has also imagined a very rich world and his plot is full of satisfying ironies, with just the right mix of tragedy and hope. My main frustration is simply that he rushes so quickly from one world-shattering event to the next that the reader doesn't have the proper time to absorb them. If George R. R. Martin is guilty of stringing minor plot points out into 500 page novels, Kay's trilogy has the opposite problem. While Martin may give me an ulcer waiting for something to happen, I come to know and love (or hate) his characters along the way. So when something does happen (however minor) I care deeply. In these books, though, Kay gives us so little time to walk alongside his characters that when one is caught up in yet another cataclysmic event I just don't care. I end up feeling like I'm reading the plot outline for a really great book. My hope is that this was a symptom of Kay's lack of experience when he wrote the Fionavar trilogy, and I'm looking forward to reading some of his later work.

ponderinstuff's review

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5.0

Was there another book before this one? I just started this book and so far the premise seems highly improbable, even for a fantasy fiction story. A group of university students meet a man who tells them he is going to whisk them off to another time in another world, and only one student comments (just once) that 'this is crazy'. The group is then immediately taken through a kind of time/space travel to begin an adventure.

It's hard to take this book seriously. It's difficult to imagine that out of the group of five people, nobody would put up more serious and lengthy objections if such a proposal were offered to them by a stranger. Even the most adventurous person would ask a question or two about this upcoming quest.

I will continue, for now, to read on because this book has some good reviews.

*Update* - Glad I did not judge this book by the first chapter, because it is an excellent story. However, I am still totally perplexed at why such a good story started off the way it did.

enbyglitch's review against another edition

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2.0

There's a lot of decent stuff going on in this book: the prose is alluring, the University of Toronto stuff is fun, and there's some interesting fantasy elements from time to time.

But the rest of the time, the fantasy is so unmistakeably ripped off from Narnia, Norse Mythology and LotR that it just felt painful. Still, I would have happily given this at least 3 stars if not for - you guessed it - the women.

As with other series, this book tries to empower women by putting one in the role of the Oracle - which really just means her free will is pointless because she's just following the path set in front of her. Also when she first touches magic, it is: "deeper than any lover had ever gone, and more completely". Because gods forbid we portray a woman without bringing up sex at least once per chapter.

The other main female character's entire story arc is:
- she's slept with one of her close friends
- she's so pretty women hate her
- she's so pretty that the prince has claimed her, so no one else can flirt with her
- she's kidnapped and (horrifically) assaulted by the bbeg
....

Not to mention that 95% of the time the other women in the novel are either being seduced or crying over news. I could see that maybe the goal was to show these university students as sex-positive, but the end result felt pretty misogynistic to me.