Ysabel
by Guy Gavriel Kay
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Book Summary Information
Author: Guy Gavriel KayEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-02-05
ISBN: 0451461908
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Roc Trade
Book Reviews of Ysabel
Book Review: My least favorite GKK novel
Summary: 2 Stars
Ysabel is about Ned, a teenager who becomes entangled in an age-old love triangle while vacationing in France. Kay does a good job of balancing the primary plot with the subplot of Ned's adolescence, feelings toward girls, and issues with parents. He sprinkles in song references (akin to the poetry in his fantasies?) and modern technology (Google, iPods) to good effect. As usual, Kay describes the setting beautifully and poetically. You can tell that he has visited the places in the book. It is also neat to see characters from Kay's other works reappear here.
The novel reminds me of the books of Sean Stewart and Charles de Lint, who also write about normal people encountering the paranormal in contemporary settings. The main difference, however, is that Ysabel is story-driven, whereas Stewart's and de Lint's books are primarily character-driven. In my opinion, the characters in Ysabel are peripheral to the plot. They do not propel the storyline--it propels them. I think it is a mistake. While the characters are likable and sympathetic enough, they are neither complex nor flawed. Frankly, they are uninteresting.
I have a few other criticisms. First, I think that the novel is uneventful. There is a lot of talking and not enough doing. The dialogue is circular: A lot of the same things are covered in multiple conversations, and it is all too explanatory. Instead of having Ned repeat events every time a new character showed up, I would have preferred to read about a new event. Different character must ask Ned, "Who are you?" three or four times. That's redundant. Second, I think that the characters sound too alike, especially when they try to be funny. Everyone has the same puckish humor.
I was disappointed with Ysabel, which bothers me because I am a devotee of Guy Kavriel Kay. On one hand, I might be biased: I am so fond of his historical fantasies that maybe I did not know how to absorb a novel outside of his established genre. On the other hand, I have specific issues with the novel, which lead me to believe that it is not as skillfully written as his other works.
Summary of Ysabel
Saint-Sauveur Cathedral of Aix-en-Provence is an ancient structure of many secrets-a perfect monument to fill the lens of a celebrated photographer, and a perfect place for the photographer's son, Ned Marriner, to lose himself while his father works.But the cathedral isn't the empty edifice it appears to be. Its history is very much alive in the present day-and it's calling out to Ned...
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