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Five Canadian college students are transported to a magical kingdom, and all of them are pretty blasé about it. Their lack of reaction cued me in pretty early on that I wasn’t going to like this book. None of these characters felt like real people to me; the students are pretty interchangeable (one’s a bit crankier! one has guilt! two possess vaginas!) and they all completely lack one of the most important things, in my opinion, for a successful fantasy novel: a sense of wonder. Nothing about th
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I am a huge fan of Guy Gavriel Kay's writing, and this is the first book of his I ever read. I am just in love with the way he uses language, as well as the way he can take familiar elements of old stories and make them fresh and new again. I read all of his books over and over again, just to bask in his words and the worlds he creates.
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I first started this book way back when it was first published. I tried to read it..and couldn't get into it. I tried again several years later...and couldn't get into it. This year, more than 20 years after it was published, I tried one more time...and tore through it. I don't know if I was too young, or just not in the right space during the first attempts, but in a way I'm thankful that they failed. I don't think I would have appreciated the depth of the book to it's fullest. A truly wonderfu
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Guy Gavriel Kay really, really likes J.R.R. Tolkien. Like, a whole lot. He even helped edit The Silmarillion for publication. But even if you didn't know that, you'd realize by reading The Summer Tree that Kay really, really, really likes Tolkien.
There is an ancient evil power that has broken free of its bonds and threatens to enslave this parallel world. There are dwarves, and elf-like children of the light, and a tribe of horse-riding warriors, and dark, mysterious woods. There are no hobbits, ...more
There is an ancient evil power that has broken free of its bonds and threatens to enslave this parallel world. There are dwarves, and elf-like children of the light, and a tribe of horse-riding warriors, and dark, mysterious woods. There are no hobbits, ...more
Many years ago, my friend Holly practically forced me to read this series. I am so glad she did. Kay's writing is lyrical and spellbinding; you might know what is coming but you don't expect to feel it quite the way that you do. I know this series has been likened to Tolkien's LOTR - and there are similarities - but I think I prefer Kay's trilogy simply because I feel more connected to his characters than I did to the LOTR characters. (Of course, I didn't read LOTR until college, and many consid
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Jun 02, 2011
Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides
rated it
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Shelves:
used-to-own,
fantasy-fiction
A re-read for a group discussion. It's a little hard to know what to say about this without spoiling the whole trilogy. So I'll say that it's the beginning of a trilogy that wowed me when I was a teenager and still getting into fantasy. It doesn't awe me as much as it did back then, but it's an interesting combination of Earth mythology and original creation.
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A reworking of many fantasy mainstays, well done.
Jun 04, 2007
Felicia
marked it as to-read
Mar 10, 2014
Jennifer
marked it as dnf
Nov 08, 2016
Zack
marked it as to-read
