The Summer Tree (1984)

This book has been on my to-read list for a long time. I've read other Kay (and loved it all), but for some reason I just kept putting this one off. Every time I decided it was time to jump in, I'd read the blurb and decide to go with something else. "Five men and women find themselves flung into the magical land of Fionavar, First of all Worlds." Yeah.. About that.. The whole magically transported into a fantasy world thing? Thanks but no thanks. It just doesn't do it for me.

So needless to say, I went into this sort of dreading it and not really expecting to like it. And for about the first 25 - 30% of the story, it lived up to that expectation. One of my biggest gripes with the transported into a fantasy world thing is how unbelievable trusting people are. "Hey! I can do magic! We're going to take you to a magical world to meet our King! Are you in?" And of course... They're in. And when it actually happens, when they actually pop into existence in another world, complete acceptance. I don't know about you, but if it were me... First, I'd think whoever was asking me to go was on drugs, and I would call the police so they could come pick up the crazy man wearing a robe... Then, if I still managed to somehow make it to the other world, I'd kick the crazy man's ass thinking that they somehow managed to drug me.

So like I said.. Auto-strike against it. Another problem I had with the first 30%, there are a lot of main characters. The POV bounces around a lot, and with so many characters, you don't have much time to connect to any of them. I spent a lot of time forgetting who was who, and then figuring it out and not really caring.. It was not a good time.

But then somewhere around chapter seven (about 40%), it all clicked. And after that... Wow. It was beautiful. I was moved over and over again by the story, the writing, the characters... Everything. It was so strange... I was pretty much committed to not really liking this one, and then all of a sudden I feel myself tearing up, my heart pounding, completely wrapped up in the words I was reading. I went from forcing myself to pick it up and read a little, to hating the fact that my lunch break was over and I had to put it down. Suddenly the characters who I had spend the first 30% feeling disconnected from came alive to me. And when the characters came alive.. So did the world.

So against all odds, I ended up really loving this book. I can't wait to read the rest of the trilogy, this is how good traditional fantasy is done. I'm only giving it 4 stars instead of 5, because of the rocky start, but depending on how the rest of the story plays out.. I have a feeling this will be jumping onto my favorites shelf very soon. ( )

I've posted a general review of the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy before, here, but I never felt that quite cut it. So this a review of the first book, The Summer Tree, and separate reviews of the rest of the trilogy will follow. It's worth looking at my overview of the trilogy, too, because I'm not going to repeat all of it, necessarily.

Firstly, the trilogy does seem very derivative, mostly of Tolkien, although me and my mother once went through spotting myriads of possible influences. There are great points of similarity between this trilogy and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, but there are differences. The mythology is much more plainly taken from ours -- as is appropriate, given the idea that Fionavar is the true plane and our world one of many reflections -- and woven very deeply into the whole story. So much relies upon the gods, rituals belonging to the gods, etc, even though mortals are the ones taking actions. Gods are rather less present in Tolkien, particularly in Lord of the Rings. It's also quite a lot shorter.

Not that it doesn't pack a punch. In three hundred pages, I'm as invested in these characters as I ever am in Frodo. More about that in a minute.

It's not exactly perfect, even though I think it's powerful. The first few chapters don't really catch my attention, and seem kind of like a Mary Sue fanfic. The prose is a little odd, sometimes, sometimes rather closer to poetry, which I didn't like at first. If you go with it, it's fine, or so I found.

The characters were my main draw, really. Paul and Kevin in particular: Kevin's love for Paul, his yearning and desperation; Paul's helplessness, hardness, coldness, grieving, selfishness, selflessness. I feel their relationship very strongly. Diarmuid arouses mixed feelings in me: I know I didn't like him the first time I read it, but this time through, I read it with sympathy for him. This trilogy definitely doesn't suffer from rereads, for me, probably benefits from it because I'm already invested, despite the (to my mind) weak beginning.

The setting is another draw. The blending of mythology is lovely and appropriate.

It's also amazing how much gets set up for later. Tabor, Jennifer, Matt, Leila, Jaelle... Reading it now, and knowing how things go, I'm amazed at how well everything is set up in this book.

I can understand the beginning being a turn-off, but give it chance. It has a charm and a draw of its own. I feel like this review only began to touch on how much I love these books and why. Just for one more illustration... The Summer Tree is one of the few books that makes me choke up every time. The rest of the trilogy is also on that list. I find the writing extremely powerful, despite the first-novel pitfalls.

Reread again in February 2010. Must note again how much this book affects me -- and more every time, I think, the more I care about the characters. One thing I did notice this time, and I think a greater flaw than the ones that are easier to pick out, is the oddness of the scene with Paul and Rachel in the car. Everywhere else, Rachel's spoken of with a lot of love, and yet in this scene I totally don't understand her and her motivations for speaking to Paul the way she does. I understand the situation, and Paul's bitter reactions, but Rachel's dialogue feels more like a scene from a soap opera to me. I think it could've been more effective if the love was still there, from her, more strongly, and if she hadn't said things that made her sound awful.

Still, that scene is, at most, three pages long -- hardly a major flaw. ( )

Fresh from reading most of Tolkien's work, and writing a gigantic essay on it too, I have a different perspective on Kay's work. Especially when reminded that Kay worked on The Silmarillion with Christopher Tolkien. He has a lot in common with Tolkien, really: the synthesis of a new mythology (though not done as history, and therefore lacking all the little authenticating details that Tolkien put in) using elements of an old one (though Kay used Celtic and Norse mythology, and goodness knows what else). The comparisons can't help but be made, though Kay sees his world as a tapestry and Tolkien as a song being sung.

I don't think he makes his world as well as Tolkien does. I feel info-dumped, at times, rather than as if I'm just touching on the tip of a giant submerged mass of lore and wonder that even the inhabitants of his world only half-know. His gods are much more touchable, and more concerned with the individual fates of mortal men, and so less distant and thus less awe-inspiring. I think, perhaps more like C.S. Lewis, he tries to handle more than he can really weave together.

But, that's not to say it's totally unsuccessful. A book that can have me laughing at one moment and weeping not three pages later can't exactly be classed as unsuccessful. His style is distancing at first -- perhaps too much of a high tone, which Tolkien avoided with his hobbits -- but there are some lovely lines and turns of phrase, and undoubtedly he makes me care about the characters.

Another hint that he's doing quite well is that this is at least my fourth reread of this trilogy, though I could well have read it more than that.

Not perfect, but beloved all the same. ( )

Three and a half stars - kinda overblown in many parts (I prefer my fantasy understated and practical in style) but even knowing that in the next book the author brings in Arthur, for god's sake, I still went and found the next in the trilogy on finishing this one. So there's definitely something there.

I think it's partly because I like the Dalrei - plains riders - best. They only turn up towards the end but pep the whole thing up when they turn up.

Also, there's ridiculously large numbers of extra-powerful, extra-special characters. I would normally see that as a fairly dodgy sign of weak writing, but almost he's larded it on so much that he can get away with it. Still, though. Arthur, for god's sake. Dude. ( )

I enjoyed [b:Tigana|104089|Tigana|Guy Gavriel Kay|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1241516828s/104089.jpg|1907200] so much, it made sense for me to dip into Kay's back catalog. I may have gone too far back. This book was really, really busy what with the 12 intersecting plot lines, the 27 classes of people, the 14 gods (numbers approximate, but overwhelming) and the odd shape-changer. The language is high-flown and portentous all out of proportion with the fairly stale plots. I understand that in the second book, Arthur and Lance are brought into the world, and one of the existing characters morphs into Gwen, as if things weren't tangled up enough already.

I stuck it through till the end because the seeds of the writer Kay grew into are interesting to watch germinate, but I won't be reading the other two books of this trilogy. I was interested enough to look up the plot summary on Wikipedia, but I was not interested in giving any more of my life to this group of gods, mages and men.

The best part, for me, was the Ivor/Tabor/Levon/Dave storyline. It was strong and clean and fresh but hearkened back to several ancient civilizations. I wish the whole book had been like that. ( )