The Summer Tree

Guy Gavriel Kay s fantasy trilogy about a land called Fionavar is a little over 20 years old. I ve never heard of this Canadian author before, but an online friend was so adamant that I should read it that he ordered the books from Amazon and had them delivered to me as a gift.

The trilogy is made up of Book One: The Summer Tree, Book Two: The Wandering Fire and Book Three: The Darkest Road. Since it s essentially one huge story, I ll be talking about all three books in one review.

In The Summer Tree, five Canadian university students Kevin Laine, Kimberly Ford, Jennifer Lowell, Dave Martyniuk and Paul Schafer - were spirited to Fionavar by a mage named Loren Silvercloak of Brennin. They were invited at attend the anniversary of the king s ascension to the throne, but not long after their arrival, it became clear that there was more to it than what they were originally told.

We learn that Fionavar is the first of all worlds. All that happen there will reflect in other worlds, including our own.

A thousand years ago, Fionavar survived a war against the evil god Rakoth Maugrim the Unraveller. Rakoth breaks free from his prison and is bent on finishing what he started - destroying the land.

Loren and Brennin Seer Ysanne would readily confess that Loren came into our world for Kim Ford, whom Ysanne dreamt will succeed her as Seer. What they didn t foresee is that the other four also had specific roles to play in the Tapestry.

The Wandering Fire, which is the middle book that will make little sense without the other two, is where Kay moves all his characters into attack position for the next book. It sees the Arthurian mythos joining the tale, along with deities and symbols from various Northern and Celtic myths.

The Darkest Road is where it all comes together and makes sense. This is where we get to appreciate how intricately woven the tale is as a whole. Light triumphs over Dark, of course, but the journey there is ultimately fulfilling to follow.

I m not a big fan of High Fantasy. Most fantasy literature is either Tolkienesque in depth and length, or just sorry imitations of it. I must confess that by the time I got to The Two Towers, I ve forgotten what Fellowship if the Rings is about and summarily gave up trying to read it.

Another friend commented that The Fionavar Tapestry is too much like Lord of the Rings and it's true. You have the big bad guy, a group of people unwittingly caught in a fight against the villain, a good wizard who help the good guys, another wizard who ends up batting for the other team, the return of exiled royalty, a nation of horse riders, dwarves, a race that will no doubt bring Tolkien s elves to mind, and a lonely journey made by a short guy to the very heart of evil.

Kay, who helped Christopher Tolkien edit The Silmarillion, deliberately set his novels in Tolkien s tradition of High Fantasy to show that there is still room to come up with something that follows a formula, yet throw many surprises of its own at the same time.

The prose is beautiful without being overbearing, and despite the many characters running all over the place, Kay still manages to make you care deeply for them. Often times, you don t realize it until the characters go off and sacrifice themselves for the greater good.

There aren t that many books out there that make me cry so much reading. The last one that comes close is Anita Diamant s The Red Tent, but that is just one book and this is three.

Every time I re-read The Fionavar Tapestry, I am reminded that there is hope for High Fantasy yet.

For more on Guy Gavriel Kay, visit his website at www.brightweavings.com.

(2006)

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.I absolutely loved everything about Guy Gavriel Kay???s stand-alone novels [b:Tigana 104089 Tigana (10th Anniversary Edition) Guy Gavriel Kay http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1241516828s/104089.jpg 1907200] and [b:A Song for Arbonne 104085 A Song for Arbonne Guy Gavriel Kay http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171506608s/104085.jpg 2498881], so it was with great excitement that I downloaded the newly released audio version of The Summer Tree, the first novel in his famous The Fionavar Tapestry.In The Summer Tree we meet Loren Silvercloak, a wizard who has traveled from the world of Fionavar to Toronto to fetch five university students (three guys and two girls) who are needed to help fight an ancient evil force that has been bound under a mountain for centuries. It is awakening, has adversely affected the weather, and threatens the future of Fionavar. The students are transported to the capital city of Caer Paravel ??? no wait, wrong book ??? Paras Derval and each discovers that (s)he has an important role to play in this strange land???s upcoming upheaval.If I had read The Summer Tree when it was first published in 1984, perhaps I would have enjoyed it more. Or at least I would have been more forgiving back then, but at this point in my life, with many years of reading fantasy epics behind me, I just had a hard time mustering up much enthusiasm for this story.Besides the parallels to Tolkien and Lewis which you will have already noticed, we???ve got dwarves who live under mountains, elf-like creatures who live in the forests, names which require hyphens, apostrophes, or other funny symbols (Na-Brendel , M??rnir, Ra-Termaine, T???Varen), names of evil things which sound Russian (Rakoth, Starkadh, svart alfar, Rangat, Bl??d, Khath Meigol, urgach), nasty creatures who are minions of the bad guy, a girl who finds out she???s the next seer, a hero who must sacrifice himself to save the blighted land???. etc. Much of it is derived from ancient myth and legend and it's presented in Kay???s eloquent and slightly overwrought style. This will likely please those who are looking for that sort of weighty epic, but to me it just felt heavy. I have no doubt that this is caused by reading this too late in my fantasy vita ??? I was looking for something new ??? so if you're not relating to me here, I encourage you to give The Summer Tree a try. Every fantasy fan should read Guy Gavriel Kay.Kay???s use of the five modern-day characters is a bit perplexing. Their reactions to being brought to a parallel world with an ancient culture were unconvincing as they immediately adapt to the customs of Fionavar without much trepidation or wonder. They didn???t seem concerned about how or when they???d get back to their world, what their family and friends might be thinking, or what might happen if they (very likely) died in Fionavar. They never talk about modern conveniences like cars, guns, and telephones. They go along with the patriarchic culture and, though they are well-educated, they don???t use their modern knowledge to any advantage. Perhaps they will in the sequels, but there is so far no indication that they are thinking that way, which baffles me. I???m wondering why Kay used modern-day heroes at all.As for the audio production, it???s produced by Penguin Audio and read by Simon Vance (one of my favorites) so it???s well told. However, Vance???s Canadian accent makes me cringe and, since our five heroes are all Canadian, that???s a lot of cringing.I expected to love The Summer Tree, so I had purchased the second book in The Fionavar Tapestry, too, and I will probably read it at some point. But I greatly prefer Guy Gavriel Kay???s more recent fiction, which is really wonderful stuff.

This is definitely one of the best Fantasy books ever written... It is a beautiful homage to [a:J.R.R. Tolkien 656983 J.R.R. Tolkien http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1329870573p2/656983.jpg]'s [b:The Lord Of The Rings 15369 The Lord Of The Rings (Radio Collection) J.R.R. Tolkien http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1166672332s/15369.jpg 3462456], showing how amazing and powerful is the Guy Kay's knowledge on Mythology, Fantasy and Tolkien's works. [b:The Summer Tree 104086 The Summer Tree (The Fionavar Tapestry, #1) Guy Gavriel Kay http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348810485s/104086.jpg 3238632] has not the same flowery prose as seen in [b:Tigana 104089 Tigana Guy Gavriel Kay http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348738842s/104089.jpg 1907200], but Guy Kay certainly knows how to write in a beautiful way.I confess that it took a while to be hooked. At the beginning it's a little bit hard to believe in the five main characters, the university students Paul, Kevin, Dave, Kimberly and Jennifer. But as soon as we see the narrative being brightly woven, we can also observe the amazing growth of these characters. Guy Kay knows how to touch the reader who wants, for a while, to be a fantasy hero in a different world. Well done, well done, Guy Kay... now I'm getting ready for the next book, [b:The Wandering Fire 104088 The Wandering Fire (The Fionavar Tapestry, #2) Guy Gavriel Kay http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348816263s/104088.jpg 1136221].