The Darkest Road

The Darkest Road

Guy Gavriel Kay

First published 1986

7.97.9 / 10
Score out of 1083 ratingsConfidence 36%: this much of the score is the readers’ own
421
Pages
about 8 h
Reading time

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In our Atlas

Guy Gavriel Kay
Canada
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Our view

“The Darkest Road” brings “The Fionavar Tapestry” to a powerful close, tying its many threads together with real emotional force. Guy Gavriel Kay draws deeply on myth and legend, and the question of free will gives the final confrontation its weight. Many readers find his lengthy, repetitive style tiring over the span of a trilogy, even as they praise the ending.

The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.

About the book

The Darkest Road is a 1986 fantasy novel by Canadian fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay and the third and final novel in The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy. It follows The Summer Tree and The Wandering Fire.

Description: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Reading order · The Fionavar Tapestry

Full order & progress →
Score per volume3 volumes on a timeline, 1984 to 1986 · Best-rated volume: The Darkest Road
  1. The Summer Tree
    The Summer Tree1984 · 151 ratingsStart here
    7.67.6 / 10
  2. The Wandering Fire
    The Wandering Fire1986 · 90 ratings
    7.87.8 / 10
  3. The Darkest Road
    The Darkest Road1986 · 83 ratingsThis book
    7.97.9 / 10

Where the score comes from

The sources average 7.9 across 83 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 36% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Fantasy average of 8.0. That is how 7.9 comes out.

SourceAverageRatingsWeight
Hardcover7.983 100%

Frequently asked

How long is The Darkest Road?

It has 421 pages — shorter than 70% of the ranked books in Fantasy.

In this book

Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.

If you liked this

The same shelf — Fantasy — and a score of 7.9, the closest to this book.