The Fionavar Tapestry

[Finrod Felagund]

Anyone read this trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay?

(who BTW was one of those who helped Chris Tolkien on the Silmarillion)

[Lief Erikson]

I haven't. Plainly it's fantasy, and you think it's good. Is it a recent release, and what's it about, basically?

[turtlelover]

me neither what is it about"??????????

[Finrod Felagund]

Basically these five teen from Toronto are at a lecture and afterwards invited to meet the speaker, who turns out to actually be a mage from Fionavar where they are to be taken for the king's 50th anniversary. It sunds dumb but is actually very cool. There's basically an evil lord who escaped from his entrapment, and thee are arthurian elements as well. It's very good. It is actually a Trilogy
1) The Summer Tree
2) The Wandering Fire
3) The Darkest Road


All published late 80's.
It was published as one book in 1993 or 1996.







(3 posts to 1000)

[turtlelover]

sounds good

[Finrod Felagund]

It is...I just re-read it...in awe once again...so powerful...

[Falagar]

I've read Tigrana by Kay, liked the theme and characters, especially the villain-guy (;)) and it was overall nicely done. Considered trying the Tapestry for a while, but haven't found it anywhere.

[Finrod Felagund]

Really? Hmmmm...tried Chapters? They'll probably have it...if theres one in your area...

[Falagar]

That is, the library or the book-stores I've looked in don't have it. They probably have it on Outland (a store which has the greatest collection of Fantasy I've seen), but right now I'm supposed to save money.

[Wayfarer]

The Fionvar Tapestry was okay. I'd give it a 6 out of 10. Maybe a 7. The overall story was good, but a lot of the individual elements weren't particularly good.

[Finrod Felagund]

Only 7?!?!?

[Wayfarer]

Maybe a 7. Maybe.

It just didn't impress me that much. It's got people from Canada going to fairy-land. Oh, yay. It's got Odin, and Arthur, Yet Another Evil Guy Who Wants To Destroy Everything, and this and that other thing. Big deal. It doesn't take all that much talent to grab random things from various sources and mash them together. But doing it well is something different. That takes style, and that's something that I was very conspicuously not struck by when I read these books.

So, upon further consideration, perhaps even a 6 was too generous of me. This series would definitely fit in around a 5, with most of the other riffs on Arthurian legend.

[Forkbeard]

Basically these five teen from Toronto are at a lecture and afterwards invited to meet the speaker, who turns out to actually be a mage from Fionavar where they are to be taken for the king's 50th anniversary. It sunds dumb but is actually very cool. There's basically an evil lord who escaped from his entrapment, and thee are arthurian elements as well. It's very good. It is actually a Trilogy
1) The Summer Tree
2) The Wandering Fire
3) The Darkest Road


All published late 80's.
It was published as one book in 1993 or 1996.



Just to add to the summary here: Fionavar is the world on which all the myths of all the peoples on all worlds are real. And one does not merely watch the myths take place, but becomes caught up in them. I read these back in the late 80s and thought them good at the time, and am still a Kay fan.

FB

[Jabberwock]

I've read everything fantasy that Kay has written and I have to say that the Fionavar series is easily his worst work. His other books, almost all stand alones, are great, particularly Song for Arbonne, Lions of Al-Rassan (gonna be a movie soon), Sarantine Mosaic, and Tiganna. They're more pseudo-historical novels with a little fantasy mixed, but they're all great for plot, economical poetic writing, and super characters. Kay is one of my favorite writers which makes me wonder why I read anything after starting with the Fionavar books. They really are not that good. I'd rate them a 3 out of ten.

[Forkbeard]

I've read everything fantasy that Kay has written and I have to say that the Fionavar series is easily his worst work. His other books, almost all stand alones, are great, particularly Song for Arbonne, Lions of Al-Rassan (gonna be a movie soon), Sarantine Mosaic, and Tiganna. They're more pseudo-historical novels with a little fantasy mixed, but they're all great for plot, economical poetic writing, and super characters. Kay is one of my favorite writers which makes me wonder why I read anything after starting with the Fionavar books. They really are not that good. I'd rate them a 3 out of ten.
I'd agree that Fionavar is not his best, though I would say a 6-7 is more fair than a 3. He certainly became a much better writer, I have to say.

But then Fionavar is his first work. What's more, at the time it was published, there wasn't a lot of good fantasy out there, a lot of derivative stuff, a few things stuck out, but not much. It was good for its day.

[Jabberwock]

Even considering that, I can't give Fionavar more than a 3. It lacks so much of what even his second novel had. And in a way, its highly derivative. Think Amber, Terry Brooks's magic kingdom books, even Thomas Covenant, and others, all series falling before Kay's Fionavar and similar in nature. It's just not that original or even entertaining. The characters weren't very well drawn, which is an aspect of his later work that keeps me coming back. Tigana was a much better work with a lot more to offer the reader. It was, however, his first work, as you say. That being said, Last Light of the Sun was a big disappointment after Sarantine Mosaic.

[deg5701]

While I must agree with everyone else and say that The Fionavar Tapestry pales in comparison to the rest of his works, The Tapestry itself is still a very interesting plot, if a little predictable. Many critics compare Kay to Tolkein but I feel that's really stretching it - the writing styles are not remotely similar. For one, Tolkein vividly paints portraits in the mind's eye of the reader when describing scenery or a character, thus why most found the movies to (mostly) accurately fit the descriptions they already had from the books. Kay leaves much to be desired in the way of scenic description or even characters' physical descriptions and relies much more upon the characters' actions and reactions to drive the book. I love his plotlines but one thing has been disappointing me as I read more and more of his stuff: his climaxes are very nearly anti-climatic. Consider The Last Light of the Sun where there was huge build-up to what was assumed was going to be a big battle but the characters avoided such, all living happily every after. His descriptions for the battle in A Song for Arbonne were very weak so while I understand the battle was huge and bloody, I felt let down. Not to mention all the 'good guys' lived...and then lived happily ever after.

Has anyone else noticed though that The Fionavar Tapestry keeps coming into his other works? A Song for Arbonne had a song who's lyrics kept mentioning 'Fionvarre' and Ysabel has Kimberly Ford popping back up again! She's also married to a Dave...anyone think that could be Davor??