I suppose that if one of your first literary jobs is helping Christopher Tolkien edit his father's work, The Silimarillion, it is inevitable your own work bear the master's mark. Which makes it all the more remarkable that Guy Gavriel Kay's The Fionavar Tapestry resemblances to The Lord Of The Rings almost begin and end with the fact that it is a trilogy.
Since the publication of The Fionavar Tapestry, the Canadian born Kay has gone on to create a reputation for himself as the writer of unique fantastical histories. Using real epochs in earth's history as a basis for his stories, he creates a parallel to our world, then recreates moments of import as seen through the eyes of the central players: kings, queens, emperors, generals, and champions; and those who serve them: cooks, servants, and soldiers.
Their vision is what makes his work come alive. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, than we are beholden to each of his characters for our understanding of what passes for beauty in each of his worlds. What is important to the foot soldier, and what is important to the lord of the manor are separated by generations of class distinction, so the picture of life we form is a composite that is far more revealing than normally offered a reader.
If this tends to make his work wordier than most, it does not detract from the story. Instead it only increases our appreciation and wonder. Nothing he writes is extraneous, and he deftly weaves each thread together, forming a final complete image that is imprinted in our minds.
The three books of the Fionavar Tapestry cycle (The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road) were first published in the mid-1980s, and then gathered together in an omnibus form by HarperCollins in 1995. It seems only appropriate on the tenth anniversary of that edition, and nearly twenty years since the completion of the trilogy, to look back and see how it is withstanding the tests of time.
There are some books you re-read because they are easy and allow for a few moments of respite from the day; I call them "television reading," as they require almost no effort on my part, and allow for simple diversion. However there is a spot on my bookshelf reserved for those books that I simply feel compelled to read on a regular basis. The reasons are as varied as the books, but the authors included each have their own attraction.
Article comments
1 - johnboy
Interesting you didn't draw similarities with the Silmarillion.
I read the books thinking all the way how stylistically similar I thought they were.
Only when I got to the end did I notice Kay's involvement.
OK so I prefer to know the work before i check out the author.