The Summer Tree: The Fionavar Tapestry Book 1 - Epic Fantasy Novel for Adults | Perfect for Summer Reading & Book Club Discussions

Warning: there may be spoilers ahead.The Fionavar Tapestry is a work of sublime beauty. I am a lover of great prose, poetic prose, elegant prose; and that is why I love such works as The Lord of the Rings and Ursula K. le Guin's Earthsea series. Tolkien and le Guin were fantasy's greatest stylists, and in this series, Kay shows that he, too, is worthy to be included in such company. My first experience with the Tapestry was through the audiobooks, read by Simon Vance, a British actor who, though his character voices are a bit lacking, reads Kay's prose with the most perfect intonation. There is poetry in Kay's words, poetry that comes out in Vance's reading, and listening to it, I fell in love with the work. Yes, in the most basic of novelistic techniques (plotting and characterization, mostly) it has flaws, but given that it is Kay's first original work (he began his career by helping Christopher Tolkien compile and edit the Silmarillion into a publishable form), he can be forgiven a few missteps. They do not greatly detract from the story, and in my estimation, Kay's art with words, in this series, surpasses all his other works. Much of the tragedy in the series is communicated in the sound of the words, in the rhythm he uses. I find it more pleasurable than even the prose of Virginia Woolf, whom le Guin herself called the most subtle stylist in the English language.The books are written in the tradition of the Lord of the Rings, in that Kay's aim, at the time he wrote them, was to prove that the matter of High Fantasy could be used in a meaningful and artistic fashion. This aim was born out of the abundance of fantasy that was no more than Tolkien-clones without any of the deeper meaning inherent in Tolkien's works. I think he succeeds in his goal. Like Tolkien, he has a great facility with names (fitting, since he worked on the Silmarillion); each one fits exactly. The same with his prose: much of the story reads as an elegy, with reminders of golden days long past and great deeds still remembered whose actors live on in story. Like the Lord of the Rings, the elves (here called the lios alfar, "most hated by the dark, for their name was Light," literally light-elves) in this story have the choice to leave Fionavar (read: Middle-Earth) for a world of the Weaver's making (read: Valinor), but whereas in the Lord of the Rings the voyage represents Frodo's death as well as his salvation and reward, here the voyage is woven with tragedy. Indeed, the whole series is filled with tragedy, and pathos seems to be the overriding tone or quality of the story, though it is not without its eucatastrophes, as Tolkien termed it. There were moments in the books that moved me to tears: Paul on the Summer Tree, Diarmuid and Uathach, Finn meeting his destiny, Darien and his choice. I say this because I am not given to being moved to tears. They were truly powerful, moving moments, and the trilogy is filled with others, all of which I remember with fondness.This series is, along with the original Earthsea Trilogy, one of my favorite works of fantasy. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is indeed a great, if flawed, work of art. It has passion, both in the author's composition of the series and within the story itself. It is moving, powerful, filled with heroes and villains, tragedy and eucatastrophe, beauty, and is altogether a compelling read. You are missing out if you have not read it.