Πρώτη μου επαφή με το έργο του Γκάι Γκάβριελ Κέι και μπορώ να πω ότι έμεινα, σε γενικές γραμμές, ευχαριστημένος. Θα μου πείτε γιατί έπιασα πρώτο το Ύζαμπελ, που πολλοί θεωρούν ως το πιο αδύναμο του συγγραφέα. Πρώτα-πρώτα το βρήκα φτηνά το Σάββατο στο bazaar των εκδόσεων Anubis. Δεύτερον είναι το πιο μικρό σε μέγεθος βιβλίο του Κέι. Και τρίτον, πολύ απλά δεν ήθελα να ξεκινήσω με κάποιο από τα δυνατά του έργα, με αποτέλεσμα να έθετα από νωρίς τον πήχη ψηλά.Σύντομη περίληψη: Ο δεκαπεντάχρονος Νεντ Μάρινερ συνοδεύει τον πασίγνωστο φωτογράφο πατέρα του στην Προβηγκία της Γαλλίας και συγκεκριμένα στην πόλη Εξ, για τις ανάγκες φωτογράφισης ενός λευκώματος. Τα συγκεκριμένα μέρη έχουν μεγάλη ιστορία, καθώς στο παρελθόν έζησαν πολλές μάχες και μετακινήσεις λαών. Κέλτες και Ρωμαίοι, μεταξύ άλλων, έζησαν πολλά χρόνια πριν στην πόλη αυτή. Ο Νεντ θα βρεθεί στην μέση μιας διαμάχης που χάνεται στο μακρινό παρελθόν, μιας διαμάχης μεταξύ δυο μυστήριων αντρών για τα μάτια μιας πανέμορφης γυναίκας, της Ύζαμπελ. Την παραμονή της Κέλτικης γιορτής Μπελτέιν, της ιερής νύχτας των πνευμάτων, τα σύνορα μεταξύ του κόσμου των νεκρών και των ζωντανών θα πέσουν και τόσο ο Νεντ όσο και οι κοντινοί του άνθρωποι, θα ζήσουν μια περιπέτεια με έντονες μεταφυσικές προεκτάσεις.Τα στοιχεία του βιβλίου που μου άρεσαν πολύ, ήταν η σούπερ ατμόσφαιρα, ο συνδυασμός ιστορίας και φαντασίας, καθώς και ότι η πλοκή εξελισσόταν στην σύγχρονη εποχή. Η αλήθεια είναι ότι ο Κέι με έκανε να ψάξω στο ίντερνετ κάποια ιστορικά γεγονότα της περιοχής και στην συνέχεια έριξα μια ματιά στο Google Earth street view για να δω τα μέρη τα οποία επισκέφτηκαν οι χαρακτήρες. Θα ήθελα μια μέρα να τα επισκεφτώ. Από κει και πέρα, η πλοκή μάλλον είχε αρκετά ασαφή σημεία και πολλά ερωτήματα έμειναν αναπάντητα. Γενικά δεν πείστηκα και τόσο για το μεταφυσικό κομμάτι. Πολλά τα γιατί και πως. Όμως δέθηκα με τον έφηβο Νεντ (περισσότερο) και με τους υπόλοιπους χαρακτήρες (λιγότερο) και δεν πέρασα καθόλου άσχημα με την περιπέτεια που έζησαν. Η γραφή μου άρεσε, ήταν ιδιαίτερα ευκολοδιάβαστη και ξεκούραστη, με χιούμορ εδώ και κει, αν και μερικοί διάλογοι που είχαν σκοπό την πλάκα, μου φάνηκαν κάπως εκτός κλίματος, με βάση τα τεκταινόμενα. Πάντως το μόνο σίγουρο είναι ότι ο Κέι ξέρει να γράφει. Αυτά τα ολίγα. Με βάση τα σχόλια εδώ μέσα περίμενα κάτι τελείως μέτριο, τελικά όμως διάβασα κάτι καλό, που είχε όμως τα προβληματάκια του. Όσες ασάφειες, όσες ευκολίες στην πλοκή και να υπήρχαν, δεν μπορώ να παραβλέψω το γεγονός ότι τελικά πέρασα καλά με την ιστορία αστικής φαντασίας που έγραψε ο Κέι, οπότε δεν υπάρχει και λόγος να μην δώσω στο βιβλίο τέσσερα αστεράκια στο Goodreads.
it seemed, at first, as if prayers had been answered. my immediate thought, that this novel would more closely resemble the motifs of fionavar, seemed vindicated. ned, the 15-year-old protagonist, was interesting enough (although i felt that GGK was a bit too glib with his time-dated references to googling and ipods and coldplay), and in classical fashion the reader is drawn immediately into the story (again, more in the way of fionavar than in the style of his “historical” novels. that is to say, we meet the protagonist in on his way toward what he is becoming, but not in medias res of some kind of mission, premonition or dark, half-told foreshadowing). i have no doubt in my mind that had GGK given it the kind of treatment he had granted fionavar, it would have been spell-binding. there was certainly all the potential for an engrossing multi-book arc--we could have had an entire book, practically, of building up to the appearance of YSABEL. we could have gotten more of an idea of the tensions that existed in the ford family after kim came home from fionavar. i had originally speculated the GGK could have given us that flashback, or told us that story--he did it for dave, at least, in his arc of the original trilogy--but then i recalled his treatment of kevin and jennifer. we never got a flashback, never got a sense of what they had truly gone through on their roads toward their destinies. i suppose it would be too much to expect GGK to grant us that courtesy with kim and dave, however fascinating the story might have been. i almost ache for it--to hear how kim would have tried to return to a normal life and failed. how she and dave--who had given us the barest hint of a courtship in fionavar--rushed off and got married and moved to glastonbury. (clearly some kind of arthurian complex that i DO NOT understand, given how thoroughly GGK examined kim’s self-loathing for re-igniting the arthurian legend during TWF) and how that change had affected her family. why kim couldn’t have kids. who told jen’s family what had happened? i’m overwhelmed by the squandered potential of this storyline. even the plot was flimsily resolved, with more of the same half-assed dues-ex-machina of having ned turn out to be the descendant of the illegitimate child fathered by YSABEL at some point during the 2000-year history this story is meant to encompass. and at the end, poof! the most appalling, from a purely nostalgic-for-fionavar standpoint, is that we never see ned do the obvious--which is to sieze the opportunity, ANY opportunity, to corner either his aunt or his uncle and demand an explanation for the allusions they keep dropping, the names they use to frighten the players (and why these names might have the power to frighten), the reason for the rift between their families. it is, i think, what any self-respecting protagonist would do in the midst of so much strangeness. but GGK keeps this key trio separated for most of the book, on the pretense that since each of the three of them has some kind of ability, they should each be leading their own “team” in the investigation. and even i must confess that such a scene would be difficult to execute without either rehashing the entire fionavar trilogy or sounding like too much unnecessary expositing on the part of either kim or dave (after all, it is meant to be ned’s story). i had gotten about halfway through the book before i turned out the lights for the evening, feeling very disconcerted. i consoled myself that i had felt much the same when i first read TST, because it was so strange and everything was continually left unexplained. fortunately, by the end of the trilogy, even if things hadn’t been fully exposited, enough was known to invest the reader in the story. sadly, the same cannot be said for YSABEL.
What do You think about Ysabel (2007)?
Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay.One thing is, if you like Kay as much is i do/did, stay away from this.It's a bit like a Dan Brown, with investigation in churches and acheological places in France, or Perez Reverte at best. But not the author of the lions of al Rassan and Tigana, i feel cheated, like coming home and finding my wife in bed with a rugby team. One can't come back from that and be innocent again.I'm disapointed with you Guy.The narrator is a teenager and the novel, from start to finish, is pickeled with humorous retort that would make blush the aging Roger Moore with the worst James bond puns.Pathetic.Like the Brown and Reverte, one is aware of what will happen in the next pages like watching a movie with a granny with a gift of forsight and who is alway right about the next move. Which might give some pleasure of deduction to some retarded but is mighty enoying when you expecte a bit more from the man.The worst of it is, i'm affraid i won't be able to read him again without seing this side of him, like the rugby team, it sort of color all the rest. What as been seen or read cannot be unseen or unread, i say.
—Saliotthomas
3 or 3.5 stars. I love Guy Gavriel Kay's writing and have LOVED the other books of his that I have read (Tigana and The Lions of Al-Rassan)--they were 5 star reads for sure. This one, while enjoyable, was like GGK-lite. The story just wasn't as rich and deep as the others, the characters weren't developed enough for me to care so very deeply for them, and I didn't finish the book thinking the author was an absolute genius, even though I know he is :).I really like the writing, the setting and how it's described, and the blend of history, myth, and fantasy. It is a good book and I would probably have given it a higher rating had I not already read things by this author that set the bar so high.
—Tish
Warning : I am not going to mark it as containing spoilers, because I think all examples I give are vague and do not give away plot points. But they are probably spoilerish about specific details, so if you are very careful about spoilers, better avoid this till you have read it. Though my advice really is: don´t read it.Back to the book, I should have known better. But in a way I am sort of glad to have read it, despite thinking it is really a quite bad book. There is a spoilerish link to another book which would have made me want to read it anyway. But mostly this new book helped me figure out what exactly is my problem, my beef, with Guy Gavriel Kay´s writing. For quite a while I felt like a black sheep, nearly everybody I know whose tastes I respect lurved his books. Leaving me going "yeah, but don´t you think this or that"?. And me without being able to articulate precisely what is that bugged me so much and why I thought that no, his books really are not that good. Ysabel at least helps me ID what - GGK writes not so much of how things are, but how he wishes history was. And it´s mythological history, full of impossibly beautiful queens, tragic loves, pure melodrama rather than drama. It is just too shallow, too theatrical, too ridiculous in comparison with real history.Combine that with an overdose of little tricks to deceive the reader, a love of pointlessly dramatic prose and it can get very syrupy. The use of history as some sort of backdrop to a recurring eternal love triangle is just not convincing here. Hints are dropped, a few details told, but I remain uninformed of what is the antagonism is supposed to be really about? What eternal struggle is that supposed to mean, what resonances does it have for other places and cultures? And as far as I could understand, it seems it was all about being foreigner to Provence and not being "foreigner" ( and Ysabel being some uber bitchy stereotype whose main function seems to be beautiful and wanted. Not very flattering if she is meant to represent Provence), but that interpretation is literally foreign to me. And unlike Fionavar, dogmatically declared to be the one true land, Provence is not completely convincing as being The Land About Which All Is About. Oh yeah? Surely every reader will have other lands he or she can suggest as being as special. The resolution of that conflict feels completely out of the blue by the way. And now for a few nitpicks, because I just got to rant a tiny little bit...- Were the celts supposed to be huge and golden haired? Hmm, I don´t think so. That is just a symptom, that GGK is using real history to project his own private world into. It has not been convincing me for a long while, but it´s particularly out of tune here in this modern setting. - Other people have mentioned how incongruous the modern-touch references were. Oh yes. Lots of brand-name dropping and a particularly unconvincing teenager who seems to have the music tastes of a 40+ year old and who runs listening to his ipod ( a real ipod I mean. not nano or shuffle. Where does he tuck it in on his clothing? we got all details of him getting ready to run, but where do you put a real-big-ipod when you go running?). Same teenager does not send one text message the whole book and seems unable to find a number in his mobile phone´s adress book without using fast dialup. Dude, if I was 15 years of age I would be insulted, there is no 15 year old in the world who needs fast dialup to look a phone number! Actually my inner teenager actually is insulted at the way teenagers act. Real teens don´t flirt the same way 30/40 year olds do, their interaction was just unbelievable! - GGK main characters are always superlative at something, almost annoyingly so. The plot here depends very much, too much,on Ned always finding extra power or ability or something within him which makes him even more special and unique all the time.- Ever noticed how his main male characters always have women throwing themselves at them (sexually) even in the unlikeliest of scenarios? James Bond syndrome I call it, and in a few instances it gets extremely unlikely ( yeah, widowed red-haired bearded mosaic artists have huge potential as sex symbols. Not) Here it has the distinction of going from just unlikely all the way to very unlikely and extremely creepy. I puke. Really.- The prose. Some people like it, but there are some examples from this book which, in my opinion, have crossed the purple line by meters....
—Hirondelle
