Ysabel

LOVE that this brought back Kim and Dave, along with new characters. Guy Kay's writings are engaging, and haunting.

Yes, this book is inventive and well-written (dialogue is a bit awkward at times), but it has one issue that makes it problematic to me. SPOILER ALERT AHEAD.XXXThe relationship between Ned 15, and his father’s assistant, Melanie 25, is not acceptable. A 15 year old is a 9th or 10th grader, and Melanie is an adult making references to giving him oral sex, she kisses him, and she makes clear that once he is 16 that she wants a sexual relationship with him. That is just some straight-up pedophilia, and isn’t central to the plot. Why include it? Ick.

A one sentence summary of Ysabel sounds unnervingly like the rote formula of some very, very bad pulp fantasy: a vacationing 15 year old in the South of France comes of age as he gains magic powers, works with his family, and becomes a hero. But Guy Gavriel Kay is at the height of his own powers here, and breaks out by weaving a powerful tale of love and revenge as he slowly reveals the truth - some of which will unexpectedly delight longtime fans. In general, this is his best since Song for Arbonne. A couple of minor nitpicks, but a solid 5 stars.First, the nitpicks. The beginning part of the boy-becoming-man plotline here isn't original and in fact makes the first part of the novel drag a bit, as Kay seems slightly out of his element in dealing with both the narrative of a fifteen year old and a modern setting. Maybe kids grow up quicker now, but protagonist Ned Marriner seems a bit too mature even before what Kay calls the last day of his childhood. Kay's attempts to integrate modern technology and society actually distract from plot advancement at times and in a few years will badly date this book, even if his ruminations on how technology has changed things can be interesting. And finally, there are some minor and a couple non minor characters that could have used more stage time.However, once Ned becomes fully engaged in the bigger picture, the book takes off. Kay settles comfortably into meticulously researched history as to why certain things are transpiring - in this case an age old struggle of barbarians versus civilization in which neither has a monopoly on good - but really hits his stride with the exploration of love and revenge and their effect on innocent bystanders. The ensemble cast supporting Ned is generally well developed and very believable. Better yet are the plot twists and denouement; you don't know where he's taking you, and the ride to find out is marvelous. He's done the love triangle story several times before, but this version is well executed and worth 5 stars on its own.For long time readers of Kay, the delicious bonus here is that the modern setting allows the reintroduction of several major elements from the Fionavar trilogy. I won't ruin the plot surprises by saying much more, but in some senses this is almost a sequel. Where this may be Kay's best writing (probably not his best novel, though, given some of the early miscues) is that he weaves this in so effortlessly that you might not initially notice, and unlike most similar efforts it's a not a requirement to have read the previous books to understand the plot or the characters and doesn't heavy-handedly ruin the main story. It just adds delicious levels of depth and occasionally inside humor to an already good tale.Five stars. Might be 4 1/2 stars in comparison to Kay's other work, but that's too much nitpicking.

Ysabel is rather different from Guy Gavriel Kay's other novels - much more focused on the supernatural premise than his many historical fantasies, but less based in the fantasy world than Fionavar. For me it worked well. As usual, it is Kay's ability to portray, and use, his characters' human choices that creates the real magic. A photography session in Provence gets pulled into an ancient, ever-renewing contest over a woman's choice between two men. The contest somehow influences the fate of cultures, but what matters to us is the fate of the youth who gets involved, with perilous consequences, and the dynamics of his family facing a cultural choice of its own.I have to confess to some impatience as the mystery unfolds, despite Kay's deft exposition, lively character interaction along the way, and generous payoffs to the tensions he is setting up. The story has a teasing feel to it until the title character appears, which I suppose is unavoidable. If not for the solid basis in the interactions between present-day characters it would have dragged, but Kay has also made use of his long experience weaving in place and history to generate dramatic tension with a somewhat thin basis. Don't worry, though - if you have any appetite for Kay's mix of fantasy with ordinary literary workings, you will feel amply rewarded by the book's second half.

After reading several of the reviews, I almost didnt buy this book. But I was looking for something to read on my Kindle while I awaited some of my favorite author's next publications.From the beginning, I felt many of the critics were too harsh. Maybe they expected something grand like the Finovian Tapestry, but I was looking for less. Then, after a few chapters, it really started to pull me in. And when the SURPRISE occurred, I was shocked. Yes, I should have seen it coming but I missed the clue and didn't read the reviews that gave it away........I really liked this book. Ok, it's not a masterpiece, but it is a good solid read that held my interest and managed to both keep me guessing and choke up my emotions.If you are looking for Lord of Rings, look elsewhere. But if you want something to cozy up to on a rainy day, this is your story. NOTE: If you have not read the Finovian Tapestry, STOP and read that first. Few books will ever stand up to that standard, which I believe is higher than Tolkien, but it will help you understand some of the Celtic references.

A brilliant modern day 15 year old boy is drawn into a never ending war between a powerful Celtic druid and a Roman soldier while on a trip to France with his father who is a famous photographer. His father's Indispensable aid is taken hostage by the spirit of a goddess like woman who is the object of the druid's and soldier's fierce battle to possess the spirit.Over 400 pages of clever twists and turns mesmerized this reader

I read Ysabel because it was chosen for my sci-fi reading group. Kay is not an author I had read before, but was highly recommended by one member of the group. We were aware that some of his other books have better reviews than this one, but we wanted to read a standalone book (the problem with reading one of a set is that then you want to read the rest ... and there are only so many weeks in a year!), and a recent one, so Ysabel was chosen.Personally I enjoyed reading this book. I liked the setting in beautiful and historic Provence – I thought that came across well – and the fast pace. I read a lot in the Young Adult genre, and as a YA “coming of age” story this book would score quite highly.However, as a fantasy novel aimed at adults – it just fails. The love triangle around Ysabel lacks depth and the plot stretches credibility. Ned comes across as a college student (not as a 15 year old boy) and the attempts to tie him to his classroom back home are really clumsy. Most disappointing of all was the way the supernatural elements are handled. There is so much scope there, so much possibility, but Kay reduces it to a mundane power struggle between two love-struck men.I gave it 2½*s (rounded up to 3) because I like YA books, and I enjoyed reading it. But I was by far the highest voter in my group. My advice to anyone looking for a mature sci-fi / fantasy novel is not to bother with this one.

This is set in Provence and Provence is itself a character - both literally and metaphorically, in that the eponymous Ysabel also seems to be an avatar of the country. Unfortunately, it's very much an ex-pat's view of the country (the only named French characters are "Veracook" and "Veraclean" who are respectively the cook and the cleaner at the luxurious villa in the hills above Aix-en-Provence in which Ned, the 15 year old narrator, his photographer father and his father's support team are ensconsed for a month-long photo-shoot). This could be intended as thematically relevant, given the book concerns a millennia-long struggle for possession of the woman and, by extension, the land. Unfortunately, by choosing Ned as the main point of view character a lot of the opportunities for exploring that theme fall away, because Ned -- like most fifteen-year olds given the chance of a month off school following his Dad round Provence -- simply doesn't think like that. He's also, as a character, not really up to the weight the narrative loads on it.A couple of characters from The Fionavar Tapestry appear - it's nice to see them again, and would be even better if they were given more to do, or if they had a more vivid sense of having been irrevocably changed by their previous brush with the supernatural. "What happens when someone returns to mundane life after a portal fantasy ends?" is a perennially interesting question, and the answer here is not entirely satisfactory.It's a page turner with occasional flashes of brilliance; the scene in the baptistry is particularly well done, but hampered by its somewhat leaden main characters and lack of explanation for why the central conflict matters.

Guy Gavriel Kay was born in Canada in 1954 and writes fantasy fiction. “The Summer Tree” – his debut novel and the first in his Fionavar Tapestry trilogy - was first published in 1984. “Ysabel” is his tenth novel, and was first published in January 2007. It was nominated for the White Pine Award and won the 2008 World Fantasy Award in the Novel category.Ned Marriner is fifteen years old and – thanks to his dad – his school year has finished a little early. Ned’s father, Edward, is an internationally renowned photographer and has brought Ned with him to Aix-en-Provence for six weeks, while he works on an assignment. (Ned’s mother works with Médecins sans Frontières and is currently in the Sudan; Aix was clearly the safer option).The first day of the shoot sees Edward and his team focus on Aix’s very historic Saint-Sauveur Cathedral. Despite being very popular with the tourists, the cathedral has been sealed off for the shoot – which should have allowed Ned to explore inside by himself. However, when he enters, he meets Kate Wenger, an exchange student from New York and a self-confessed geek. The pair are then startled by a man, crawling up through a grate in the floor of the baptistery. The stranger, who won’t share his name, is a threatening-looking individual who warns them to give him a wide berth. He also, however, says just enough for the teenagers to get interested – and when Ned discovers he can sense the man’s presence, he just can’t back off. Ned and Kate are then drawn into a dangerous, supernatural tale of Romans and Celts.I picked up “Ysabel” largely because of its location – I’m due to visit Aix this summer while on holiday. I did enjoy the book, and it’s added a few places to my must-see list. Kate in particular was a very likeable character, though Ned himself can be a bit of a nuisance at times. (His taste in music is also a little jumbled –he claims to be a fan of both the Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin, and yet also has Coldplay on his iPod. He even manages to refer to their music as “rock” at one point). Good fun overall though; it’s more geared towards the teen-fantasy market, though it’s also worth reading if you’re travelling to Aix.

This is an odd book to write a review for. The number of people and reviews that refer to it as the weakest of Kay's books, or not as good as his other work was almost universal, so I went in not expecting anything stellar, although it needs to be said that even a bad Kay book is going to be better than the majority of other fantasy on the market.Maybe it is because it took me so long to read it (over 2 months!)but I really enjoyed it, a lot, lot more than I thought I would have done.The story is that of a young man working in the south of France with his father. But he is drawn into a conflict between two men; not just any men though but two men who have been born time and again over thousands of years, each time to fight one another for the love of an equally ancient woman.The story is entwined with ancient history and Celtic mythology, a mystery that needs to be solved, and one that becomes more intense as a friend is drawn into it, apparently lost to the world.In many ways it is very different to all of Kay's other work; most of that is based in fantasy world; worlds that have strong connotations to the real world, drawing on genuine historical situations and twisting them into a slightly different, warped image of what was.This works in a different way, taking the real world and twisting it slightly, and that is what might make it the least popular of Kay's works.However, maybe it is being force to linger on it that made me enjoy it more, or perhaps it was just something in the story that appalled to me, but I thought it was up there with the best of Kay.Perhaps one of the strongest parts of the story, the most important is the fact the novel is a sequel in many ways to Kay's first major work The Fiovanar Tapestry.Characters from that book appear and some of what happened there is explained in a different light, strengthening what has gone before but more importantly they give the impression of time moving on, that characters that appeared in a book that was read years ago have grown up and changed, whilst holding on to those very events that changed them so much.Not Kay's best? Probably not, but certainly not his worst

Bought this on the recommendation of a friend (who doesn't usually like books with a supernatural element but who does enjoy science fiction, if that has any bearing on the issue). I do sometimes enjoy a well-written 'displaced time' story, but in this case couldn't suspend my disbelief. I felt no empathy with any of the characters - wasn't moved to care about what happened to them - and in fact found the main character slightly unlikable if anything. Don't often give up on a book, but (over half way through) I have little curiosity about the outcome and keep on putting off trying to finish it - and probably won't.So, obviously appeals to some people but not to me. Perhaps the problem is that I'm more interested in character interaction and motivation than in the mechanics of keeping a fantasy story going.