A review by enbyglitch
The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay
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.
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.