Katherine
This is the second book in the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy, and unfortunately I felt it was a step down from the first. The prose was still very beautiful, I liked how some of the plotlines set up in the first book paid off here in the second, and I was genuinely a little emotional over some of the events.
My problem with the series is one that might just be personal preference, but it has to do with fate. I don’t like when a character who has a certain fate ordained from previous stories, lives, or prophecy and that character seems to then have no agency or choice in what happens. Keeping this as spoiler-light as possible, there is a moment where Kevin makes a discovery about himself (somehow, it’s unclear) and he immediately accepts that it is now his fate or duty to do what he does. All of the characters are like this in some way. They simply accept whatever role the story is giving them and don’t seem to mourn their loss of free will. “Fate is inevitable” is a perfectly fine theme to explore in fantasy, which is filled with prophecy and destiny. But the characters accepting that because they are chosen for some role, they have to play that role out? That’s not something I particularly enjoyed.
Another, more minor annoyance has to do with fate as well. Specifically, GGK uses a lot of literary, mythological, and historical references that are extremely hard to follow at times. Sometimes, the lore in Fionavar is way overexplained for multiple pages. But in other times, it seems that it is assumed you will immediately know the reference to, for example, Arthurian legend or Greek mythology. It’s sometimes hard to understand why something is happening that way without going to look up the reference. Now, I am very ignorant of a lot of legends and stories, so this may just be me. But the specifics of being marked by some force or this person coming back are lost on me so often that I find it a little frustrating. And when it comes to Fionavar itself, the specific lore in *that* world is often woefully under explained. I want to understand it!!!
I still love the way it’s written and the world. The plot is genuinely interesting, even though it is the fantasy typical “big bad tries to destroy the world”. Some of the characterization is really, really good. I want *more* of that characterization. Sadly, it seems that isn’t likely.
This is the second book in the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy, and unfortunately I felt it was a step down from the first. The prose was still very beautiful, I liked how some of the plotlines set up in the first book paid off here in the second, and I was genuinely a little emotional over some of the events.
My problem with the series is one that might just be personal preference, but it has to do with fate. I don’t like when a character who has a certain fate ordained from previous stories, lives, or prophecy and that character seems to then have no agency or choice in what happens. Keeping this as spoiler-light as possible, there is a moment where Kevin makes a discovery about himself (somehow, it’s unclear) and he immediately accepts that it is now his fate or duty to do what he does. All of the characters are like this in some way. They simply accept whatever role the story is giving them and don’t seem to mourn their loss of free will. “Fate is inevitable” is a perfectly fine theme to explore in fantasy, which is filled with prophecy and destiny. But the characters accepting that because they are chosen for some role, they have to play that role out? That’s not something I particularly enjoyed.
Another, more minor annoyance has to do with fate as well. Specifically, GGK uses a lot of literary, mythological, and historical references that are extremely hard to follow at times. Sometimes, the lore in Fionavar is way overexplained for multiple pages. But in other times, it seems that it is assumed you will immediately know the reference to, for example, Arthurian legend or Greek mythology. It’s sometimes hard to understand why something is happening that way without going to look up the reference. Now, I am very ignorant of a lot of legends and stories, so this may just be me. But the specifics of being marked by some force or this person coming back are lost on me so often that I find it a little frustrating. And when it comes to Fionavar itself, the specific lore in *that* world is often woefully under explained. I want to understand it!!!
I still love the way it’s written and the world. The plot is genuinely interesting, even though it is the fantasy typical “big bad tries to destroy the world”. Some of the characterization is really, really good. I want *more* of that characterization. Sadly, it seems that isn’t likely.