Tuesday, July 17, 2012

2012 book 189

Guy Gavriel Kay's The Darkest Road
The third book in the Fionavar trilogy isn't predictable, but a lot of it feels inevitable. It's one of those epics that's going to culminate in a good vs evil battle, and those always go the same way. And I still haven't decided what I think about the gender roles in this series--I would have felt better if there was even one warrior woman (some of the women are powerful, but are sidelined during battle and/or only become sympathetic when they finally agree with the men). I mean, even Tolkien had Eowyn. Still, I totally cried like three times during the (long) ending and I did like Dave's story arc especially, which redeemed some things I liked less. B+.

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Update 7/19: The more I think about this book, the more problems I have with the ending in regards to the parallel world stuff. And the more I realize that Kay didn't bother to create backstories for the women at all. I'll let my original grade stand, but if I was grading it today it'd be lower.

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