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timinbc's review
5.0
Folks, if you haven't read this trilogy, you can't say you've covered the basics of high fantasy.
Level One contains Lord of the Rings, and this. No, really.
Kay gets one star simply for daring. He postulates an original world from which all others, including ours, are derived. Then he populates it with about 80% of all the gods and magical characters that western literature has ever known. And some elves and orcs and dwarves, because you have to have those. Clumsily drop in five people from our world, so we can identify with them, and away we go.
There is, of course, a Really Bad Guy, because that's a given in high fantasy. So shake all the characters together, and every once in a while someone is going to Know that something Noble needs to be done, and go do it. Someone might very well die, and there will be mourning but mostly it's about how Noble it was, and you know that in a few more pages it will be someone else's turn.
Kay has totally mastered the required style, in which - shall we say - Rob Ford would become High Councillor of the Realm of Etobicoke, home of the steadfast suburbanites and their mighty TTC buses, bright was the day he was elected. Thankfully, there's very little low fantasy - which to me is all inns and stew and lutes. There are a few annoying tropes that continue, notably that in fantasy the archers on the good side always get an instant kill with every arrow, no matter what. Or that at some point our heroes will have to fight an overwhelming ground force, there will be pages and pages of hacking and slashing, and just when things look bleakest ... well, you know.
Things roll out almost incidentally. At one point the Bad Guy uses winter and snow to thin out the opposition, and not much later he's using killer rain. In the last book, three major encounters end in very similar ways. Somehow it's OK, because epic as those confrontations are, they aren't what the series is about. It's about the people, how they change, how they handle responsibility and love and power and magic.
Which is why Kay can even stir in King Arthur and Lancelot and Guinevere without seeming silly, and even change the loop of fate they're caught in, just as he does for some other characters.
If this seems like an insanely complex plot, it is. But Kay pulls it off with style. Remember that thing that happened on page 80 of book one and was never mentioned again? On page 400 of volume 3, it will turn out to have been very important. I would really, really like to see some photos of Kay's desk as he developed the plot. I'm thinking heaps of papers, Post-it notes all over the walls, mythology texts everywhere, and a typewriter or maybe a crude word processor.
I'd call this required reading. Once you've put this in your brain, you can read some of Kay's later work, which is less vast but perhaps even better written. And then you can read some other attempts at high fantasy, and see how far short some of them fall.
Level One contains Lord of the Rings, and this. No, really.
Kay gets one star simply for daring. He postulates an original world from which all others, including ours, are derived. Then he populates it with about 80% of all the gods and magical characters that western literature has ever known. And some elves and orcs and dwarves, because you have to have those. Clumsily drop in five people from our world, so we can identify with them, and away we go.
There is, of course, a Really Bad Guy, because that's a given in high fantasy. So shake all the characters together, and every once in a while someone is going to Know that something Noble needs to be done, and go do it. Someone might very well die, and there will be mourning but mostly it's about how Noble it was, and you know that in a few more pages it will be someone else's turn.
Kay has totally mastered the required style, in which - shall we say - Rob Ford would become High Councillor of the Realm of Etobicoke, home of the steadfast suburbanites and their mighty TTC buses, bright was the day he was elected. Thankfully, there's very little low fantasy - which to me is all inns and stew and lutes. There are a few annoying tropes that continue, notably that in fantasy the archers on the good side always get an instant kill with every arrow, no matter what. Or that at some point our heroes will have to fight an overwhelming ground force, there will be pages and pages of hacking and slashing, and just when things look bleakest ... well, you know.
Things roll out almost incidentally. At one point the Bad Guy uses winter and snow to thin out the opposition, and not much later he's using killer rain. In the last book, three major encounters end in very similar ways. Somehow it's OK, because epic as those confrontations are, they aren't what the series is about. It's about the people, how they change, how they handle responsibility and love and power and magic.
Which is why Kay can even stir in King Arthur and Lancelot and Guinevere without seeming silly, and even change the loop of fate they're caught in, just as he does for some other characters.
If this seems like an insanely complex plot, it is. But Kay pulls it off with style. Remember that thing that happened on page 80 of book one and was never mentioned again? On page 400 of volume 3, it will turn out to have been very important. I would really, really like to see some photos of Kay's desk as he developed the plot. I'm thinking heaps of papers, Post-it notes all over the walls, mythology texts everywhere, and a typewriter or maybe a crude word processor.
I'd call this required reading. Once you've put this in your brain, you can read some of Kay's later work, which is less vast but perhaps even better written. And then you can read some other attempts at high fantasy, and see how far short some of them fall.
chiara_fontanazza's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
frodo729's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A literary epic in every sense of the word. It combines every series of fantasy and brings together mythology from across the European and North American spectrum. A challenging read prose-wise, but something I’m so happy to have read and enjoyed tremendously.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Blood, and Physical abuse
Minor: Sexual harassment and Sexual violence
babybijou's review
adventurous
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This series was a long journey and unlike most of the books I read. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the characters and the ending.
cimorene1558's review
5.0
A must re-read for me, about as often as I re-read LOTR. Simply one of the best things ever to happen to adult fantasy.
pitaku's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0