The Summer Tree
- 323
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“The Summer Tree” opens “The Fionavar Tapestry” with prose and world-building that some readers admire. Others find the setting close to Tolkien and the chosen-one pattern typical of 1980s fantasy, and some need time to sort out the names and events. Guy Gavriel Kay draws on Norse and Celtic myth for Fionavar, his characters hold interest, and the volume lays the ground for the two that follow.
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 Summer Tree is a 1984 novel written by Canadian fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay and the first novel of The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy.
Reading order · The Fionavar Tapestry
Full order & progress →- The Summer TreeThis book
7.67.6 / 10 - The Wandering Fire
7.87.8 / 10 - The Darkest Road
7.97.9 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.2 across 151 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 51% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Fantasy average of 8.0. That is how 7.6 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.5 | 13 | 9% |
| Hardcover | 7.2 | 138 | 91% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Summer Tree?
It has 323 pages — shorter than 90% 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 7.6, the closest to this book.
