The Summer Tree

The beginning of this book is very awkward and I can see why some people give up on it before finishing, but if you can get past the shaky beginning, it is more than worth it to keep going. It takes a while for the clunkiness of the storytelling to make way for the truly wonderful one it turns into.
I always roll my eyes when a book cover claims it's ‘like the Lord of the Rings'. I have yet to come across the mythical book that is ‘just like the Lord of the Rings'. LOTR being my absolute favourite fantasy, I have never found one that compares. While The Summer Tree doesn't quite compare story-wise (it is it's own story - and that's a good thing), it does actually compare quite well with the Tolkien's poetic and mythic writing style. It feels like you've come across some ancient book, telling you a historical story about the mists of time when gods, goddesses and mythical creatures roamed the earth and magic shaped its destiny. The words are beautifully written, and invokes a sense of magic all it's own. I was quite impressed by the beautiful language used, at times so poetic I wanted to re-read it again. It truly took me to another time and place.
I wasn't as impressed by the characterization of the characters in The Summer Tree, at least at first. The main characters are not given a lot of time to form and become more than just names on the page, although by the end I felt I knew them a bit better. More time could perhaps have been given to the characters and filling them out more as people we care for before they are thrown into the epic journey they go on, would have made that beginning less awkward. Another niggling point was how easy they just went along with it all...I feel like in a kids book you can get away with that, but adults questions a heck of a lot more than children do when they are suddenly transported to another world and are asked to take on some pretty hefty roles when they get there. These characters just seemed to go with it, which I found odd and jarring at times.
However, by the end, I found myself warming to some of the characters and on the fence about others, which means that they really grew in the telling of the story. It took 3/4 of book to get there, but I really enjoyed Dave's storyline, short though it was. So I suppose the characterization wasn't a complete misfire.
The reason I gave The Summer Tree 5 stars, though I did have a few issues with it, is that it is as close as I've come to a similar writing style to Tolkien, something I truly love about LOTR, and also that I really enjoyed about the book. So much so, that I forgave some of the issues I had with the story itself. On that note, I did find the story quite compelling in it's own right. A mix, in my mind, between LOTR, Narnia Chronicles, and strangely enough, the anime The Twelve Kingdoms, it is a mix that works really well and ends up creating a world and story all its own despite borrowing from some pretty mainstream sources. I've drifted from reading a lot of traditional fantasy because I find them so similar to each other, but this book really stood out from them all, even though it uses very traditional elements, and I can't pinpoint exactly why.
In the end, I found I really enjoyed it and also found myself stealing every extra minute to read it and staying up until my eyelids were drooping to get even a little further in the book - which means it certainly had my attention.
Not sure why it took me so long to read The Summer Tree - I've had the trilogy on my shelf for years, but I'm glad I did and am looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.