Review: The Summer Tree (The Fionavar Tapestry #1)

The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay

*Note: I couldn't finish this book, but I did read the first 160 pages (out of 400) so I feel I gave it a good try*

Summary
Five people are transported to another world called Fionavar where some things have gone terribly wrong. They find themselves entangled in the webs of a political power struggle in a kingdom where the king is old and beginning to lose his mind.

Commentary
I really liked Tigana, which is why I was pretty excited to pick this book up. Unfortunately right from the start, I couldn't really get into the story because characters just kept piling in without much background to separate the megaton of names being thrown around.

The premise for the story is pretty weak. The characters get an offer to go off to a mystical new land, which seems kinda cool, but noone really spends that much time questioning this new land and what dangers there might be. Once they get there, a whole bunch more names of places, people, and gods are thrown around.

Basically, every time I thought I had a handle on the current set of characters, a whole new set of myths with names and almost completely without context were thrown around so I've given up. This might have been interesting, and there were moments were beautiful writing reminiscent of Tigana arose. Sadly, though there just weren't enough of those moments.

Star Rating: 0.5/5.0

For an explanation of the Star Rating go here.

This is one of the books I've read and reviewed for the fantasy mini-challenge. Progress 11/13 books.