Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay. First book of the "Fionavar Tapestry". I just couldn't do it. At 1/3rd I decided enough was enough. The opening was probably adequate warning: a mage turns up and asks five college students to come with him to a magical world and they say "right-oh" (or words to that effect), and so it goes on. Everything is written on the assumption of a sense of wonder that is never earned. Things happen amid lots of information dumps, but there is little sense of story, nothing seems to be driving or motivating any of the actions. I didn't finish so will refrain from offering a score, maybe it gets better.
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As a GGK fan, I can assure you--it does not.
I saw the Fionavar Tapestry as a bit of fun backstory for the rest of of his works (all tied in in either overt or obscure ways), but by itself?... yeah, not so much. They are to the GGK oeuvre as the Silmarillion is to LotR (forgetting for a moment that Tapestry wasn't actually a "prequel"). A comparison that is even more appropriate if you know that GGK helped Christopher Tolkien edit the Silmarillion.