Thursday, May 20, 2004
The Summer Tree - Guy Gavriel Kay
I read this and really enjoyed it when I was about 15. I bought the trilogy rather cheap off ebay (they are actually copies from a prison library) and decided to see if they were still as good as I remember. Unfortunately I was disappointed. It seems my fifteen year old self and I have different tastes.
Five ordinary uni students get swept together at a lecture on Celtic lore and are transported to another world.
Hello fantasy cliche. This book was written in 1985, and maybe it wasn't such a cliche then, but it doesn't help raise the level of interest. All the fantasy regulars are there - a dwarf, a Moon Godess and her priestesses, an old and failing king, an exiled prince, barbaric plainsmen, and an unspeakable evil that has been trapped for centuries and is about to break free.
But all these things do not immediately confine a book to the trash pile. If the plot and characterisation is good enough than these books can still make great stories. This one falls a little short. There is more introspection from the characters which is different. They are not complete cardboard cutouts, and the writing is not as bland as it could have been. But there just wasn't enough meat in the plot to keep my interest. It may be that the other two books have more action.
I can still see why I was attracted to this book in high school, but it has lost its ability to enthrall me. Maybe my reading tastes have matured, definitely changed at least.
I'll get to the next two books when I want to read something that doesn't require me to think, which probably means I will be reading them rather soon.
Five ordinary uni students get swept together at a lecture on Celtic lore and are transported to another world.
Hello fantasy cliche. This book was written in 1985, and maybe it wasn't such a cliche then, but it doesn't help raise the level of interest. All the fantasy regulars are there - a dwarf, a Moon Godess and her priestesses, an old and failing king, an exiled prince, barbaric plainsmen, and an unspeakable evil that has been trapped for centuries and is about to break free.
But all these things do not immediately confine a book to the trash pile. If the plot and characterisation is good enough than these books can still make great stories. This one falls a little short. There is more introspection from the characters which is different. They are not complete cardboard cutouts, and the writing is not as bland as it could have been. But there just wasn't enough meat in the plot to keep my interest. It may be that the other two books have more action.
I can still see why I was attracted to this book in high school, but it has lost its ability to enthrall me. Maybe my reading tastes have matured, definitely changed at least.
I'll get to the next two books when I want to read something that doesn't require me to think, which probably means I will be reading them rather soon.
