The god of summer falls in love with the human world and decides to stay on Earth, putting a stop to the changing of the seasons. By the author of Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
An inept monarch; a double brace of scheming siblings; a mannered, stratified society; and a long, cold winter are the background for this drama of duality. Would-be poet Valemar, a young courtier, is entangled by his cousin Narrion in murder and intrigue and is soon further entangled in old deceptions and new war with the city-state Etrara's rival nation, the Shai. Surrounded by duplicity and forced to conceal himself, his resilient adaptability becomes an asset in a polarized world. Tightly plotted and plainly told, this novel furnishes better meat than most trilogies.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
This classy fantasy combines an original take on religion with a realistic view of political intrigue to create an intellectually solid, if not viscerally gripping, adventure. Valemar, a minor courtier who is loyal to the bastard King Gobro, becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue and finds himself exiled to the rural fishing community of Tobol An, home of the library where ancient knowledge about the kingdom is watched over by the beautiful librarian Taja. Once Valemar returns home, Taja receives a magical intuition and discovers documents that show that Valemar is really the legitimate heir to the throne. She manages to reach Valemar with the news, but he decides to bide his time; when Gobro's sister, Callia, installed on the throne after Gobro's demise, starts a war, Valemar joins her in battle. He spends the rest of his time learning how to be a good leader, why the winter is endless, what the gods have been up to and where his heart really lies. Taja also learns the importance of being true to herself and her burgeoning magic. Unlike the characters in Goldstein's earlier work ( Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon ), who seemed freed from convention by the magic in their real-world setting, the characters here are strangely constrained by their fanciful environment. Yet the poetic interplay and philosophical intricacies have their own beauty, and eventually both the characters and the story thaw into something noble and rich.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful details of a new world,
By
This review is from: Summer King, Winter Fool (Paperback)
Goldstein has created a beautiful novel about a world wonderfully different than ours, but which still reminds us of our own. This is a kingdom whose power structure is full of courtly intrigue, ambition, and trivialities. The main religion of this land is the worship of the two gods who rule summer and winter. Each god rules for six months and then is challenged by the other who climbs up the ladder to claim his rule in heaven while the other descends to exile on earth. The society worships the ascended god and themselves strive to ascend the ladder in whatever way they can. The story one finds here is of one man who comes to realize the absurdity of the court's ambitions and games, but who, at the same time, discovers that he is the one legal heir to the throne. The story of how he discovers himself and who his true friends are, and then how he comes to power are the main focus of the book. What is so special about the book are the details the author has developed in order to create this world. Besides a full description of the religious system, one reads of the history of social societies, festival traditions, and the mores behind acting in that country. My favorite detail was that each courtier has a personal poet to entertain them and address court politics in verse form. Some poets are truly poet-mages who, through poetry, can do great magic. In reading this novel, one becomes engrossed in a strange world. The description is so involved that one feels as if the world is real. I very much enjoyed my read of this book, for although it is different that Goldstein's other novels, it is still very good. It reminded me of a few of Patricia McKillip's works, so if you like her stuff I would recommend you reading this.
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Uninspired and uninvolving,
By A Customer
This review is from: Summer King, Winter Fool (Paperback)
Lisa Goldstein has a good reputation in fantasy circles, but on the basis of this book I have to assume either that she is highly overrated or else that "Summer King, Winter Fool" is not particularly representative of her work as a whole. Some nice work in creating a promising setting and some intriguing ideas along the way are deep-sixed by a formulaic plot and characters who stubbornly refuse to come to life. Ms. Goldstein ignores the essential injunction to show, not tell, and the book hurries to its ending without creating the slightest tension along the way. Inexplicably recommended as one of the best fantasy novels of 1994 in Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's annual "Year's Best" anthology, which is normally a fairly reliable source for finding quality fantasy literature. Go figure.
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I thought it was O.k. ,but it could of been better.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Summer King Winter Fool (Hardcover)
This was an alright book but,the characters were not as,"deep" as I expected.The characters seemed to lack some emotion.Although, the story wasn't that bad.
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