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This was really good. It's his latest novel. Um, without saying too much, if you read Kay's Fionavar Tapestry and haven't read Ysabel yet, you should read it. Because this book shows Kim and Dave from Fionavar, 25 years later. They're minor characters--the book is really about Kim's sister's son--but it was really good to see them again and see how they moved on after what happened in Fionavar.
I was really stupid about it, though, I didn't realize who they were until 275 pages into the book. "Aunt Kim and Uncle Dave" could be anyone, really, but when "Aunt Kim" turned out to be a small woman doctor with prematurely white hair and supernatural powers, who mentions some huge and painful event in her past that introduced her to those powers, well, I really should have caught on. But no, not until a very large man jumps a cemetery fence and turns out to be Dave Martyniuk did I realize who they were. And then I spent a lot of time reminiscing about Fionavar and how amazing those books were while I drove to the mall.
Anyway, this was an excellent book--I wouldn't recommend it as the first Kay book someone read, but it was definitely really good. Young Ned is traveling with his photographer father in Provence in France when he gets drawn in to a supernatural event that's been going on for over 2600 years, relying on ancient Greek, Roman, and Celtic history. One of those timeless love stories. So it had a sad ending, but a satisfying and beautiful one, too.
I had some questions, though, that didn't get answered. So Ysabel only turns up when they summon her. How then do the two men enter the world? Are they born here, and so have their own place in the world? Do they spend whole childhoods remembering this long brutal past and knowing what they're going to have to do? Or do they just emerge full grown into the world somehow? I was imagining it as something like what Jennifer experienced in the Fionavar books--that she was Guinevere, but she spent her life up to that realization as Jennifer, not knowing but still sort of living it. But the book said that Phelan and Cadell came back as themselves, every time, while Isabel changed depending on what woman she possessed. And Phelan and Cadell didn't have names until she named them, which wouldn't be the case if they were born into a life here, and Phelan said that even though he was 2600 years old he still remembered what it was like to be young. So I guess they sort of just always are, and after one of them kills the other the winner gets to live out a lifetime with Isabel, after which they both somehow come into the world again and it all plays out again. But do they just, like, appear, or what? And if Phelan was originally a Greek, then how did he become a Roman later on? I mean, he showed up as Marius and killed Cadell in that lifetime. Do they just teleport or something? I am dissatisfied. I want details, Guy!
I was really stupid about it, though, I didn't realize who they were until 275 pages into the book. "Aunt Kim and Uncle Dave" could be anyone, really, but when "Aunt Kim" turned out to be a small woman doctor with prematurely white hair and supernatural powers, who mentions some huge and painful event in her past that introduced her to those powers, well, I really should have caught on. But no, not until a very large man jumps a cemetery fence and turns out to be Dave Martyniuk did I realize who they were. And then I spent a lot of time reminiscing about Fionavar and how amazing those books were while I drove to the mall.
Anyway, this was an excellent book--I wouldn't recommend it as the first Kay book someone read, but it was definitely really good. Young Ned is traveling with his photographer father in Provence in France when he gets drawn in to a supernatural event that's been going on for over 2600 years, relying on ancient Greek, Roman, and Celtic history. One of those timeless love stories. So it had a sad ending, but a satisfying and beautiful one, too.
I had some questions, though, that didn't get answered. So Ysabel only turns up when they summon her. How then do the two men enter the world? Are they born here, and so have their own place in the world? Do they spend whole childhoods remembering this long brutal past and knowing what they're going to have to do? Or do they just emerge full grown into the world somehow? I was imagining it as something like what Jennifer experienced in the Fionavar books--that she was Guinevere, but she spent her life up to that realization as Jennifer, not knowing but still sort of living it. But the book said that Phelan and Cadell came back as themselves, every time, while Isabel changed depending on what woman she possessed. And Phelan and Cadell didn't have names until she named them, which wouldn't be the case if they were born into a life here, and Phelan said that even though he was 2600 years old he still remembered what it was like to be young. So I guess they sort of just always are, and after one of them kills the other the winner gets to live out a lifetime with Isabel, after which they both somehow come into the world again and it all plays out again. But do they just, like, appear, or what? And if Phelan was originally a Greek, then how did he become a Roman later on? I mean, he showed up as Marius and killed Cadell in that lifetime. Do they just teleport or something? I am dissatisfied. I want details, Guy!
