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Mar 18, 2008

John rated it:

I'm not sure wtf is going on w/ Kay. He's always had William Shatner-esque tendencies towards the overly dramatic statement. (KHAN!!!) I find it annoying but bearable if the plot and characterization are decent (See his Fionavar Tapestry trilogy for example). Here he introduces a 2nd element that’s equally annoying: wrap the basic story in a wet blanket of obtuse statements. Much of the book is devoted to the characters either thinking or expounding on the fact that they don’t know anything. F More...

2 comments like (10 people liked it)

Aug 15, 2007

Brittany rated it:

I can see both sides of the debate people seem to be having about this book. Yes, it's not as rich and deep as his other work. Yes, sometimes it felt like you were trapped in the shallow end of a swimming pool, when you know that, if you could just get there, there's a dazzling, deep lagoon just beyond your reach. If you're familiar with Kay's work, this could be frustrating. But I think it's also clear that Kay wrote this story for his sons. As such, I'm grateful he shared it with us.

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0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2011

Tracey rated it:

Ysabel is the story of a fifteen-year-old Canadian boy who is traveling with his photographer father in Provence, and who trips over a Story, getting pulled into something that has been recurring for 2500 years. Then his father’s assistant is pulled in even further, and the only ones who can get her back are Ned (the boy) and his family.

It read strangely like a boys’ adventure story. Since it’s GGK, it’s an exquisitely written boys’ adventure story, but … it’s almost entirely from More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 23, 2010

Hirondelle rated it:

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 l More...

4 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jun 04, 2007

thefourthvine rated it:

This book is compelling - and it's a YA book, by the way; I don't care what the publisher says - with characters I liked, an unusual approach to the usual YA book Parental Dilemma (for once, the YA tells his parents about his problems; that hardly ever happens), and a plot that I enjoyed. It was a fast, fun read.

And then the ending kind of - um. I'm not exactly sure how, but in the last fifty pages or so, this went from being a four-star book to a three-star book for me; the ending More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 04, 2007

Lucy rated it:

When fifteen-year-old Ned Marriner accompanies his famous photographer father to a town in the south of France, he expects some time off from school and a nice vacation. He doesn’t expect to meet Kate Wenger, an American exchange student who he likes instantly. And they don’t expect to meet a man with a knife, who tells them that they have stumbled into a very old story, and they should remove themselves from it if they know what’s good for them.

And so Ned and his family and friend More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 12, 2007

Brooke rated it:

A bit of warning: Guy Gavriel Kay is only my most favorite author in the entire world. Given how many different authors I admire and follow, that's a pretty big honor for me to bestow. His novels evoke a certain range of emotions that no other author has ever been able to achieve, and without a doubt makes it impossible for me to honestly critique any of his books' weaknesses. Ysabel is no different, and if you take one thing from this review, it's that you should read it. Now.

Kay ha More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 17, 2007

devra rated it:

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 More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 05, 2008

Kathleen rated it:

This won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel just a few weeks ago, and since I've liked other stuff Kay has written, I decided to try this as well. I was very impressed. The characters are strong and believable. The situation was contemporary, but also very magical, and the way the characters interacted with the situation and each other was compelling. The resolution was very satisfying and I loved the way it worked. There was a price paid, but it was the right price, and it was very poi More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 05, 2009

Tommy rated it:

Disappointing. Protagonist has lame taste in music- I would have prefered if the author just wrote: 'he put on his mp3 player and started running.' Characters from the Fionavar Tapestry show up, then do next to nothing. I Listened to this as an audio book. The woman narrating it made the teenage characters more annoying than if I had read the book.
Maybe I'm overly venomous because Kay does this weird thing about half way through the story where he just drops the charcter Kate from the pl More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 27, 2008

Jodi rated it:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Ned and his photographer father are in Provence to shoot a book when Ned sees something he shouldn't be able to see and gets involved in an ancient story he shouldn't have any ties to. But when a member of his father's staff is drawn into the story because of Ned, he's going to do whatever it takes to get her back. I loved the juxtoposition of present and past. More importantly, I liked Ned a lot. He was a teenager caught between childhood and manhood and he knows More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 21, 2011

Anne added it

Wonderful novel: Prior commitments prevented me from reading this novel as soon as I would have wanted to. And now that I've finally read it, I wish I could have done so earlier. Typical of Kay, Ysabel stands head and shoulders above most fantasy books out there. Some might disagree, but Guy Gavriel Kay is likely the only writer who has yet to disappoint me. Every time this author releases a novel, I always know that I'm about to plunge into a superior tale. And Ysabel is no exception!

This one More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 18, 2009

Resonance rated it:

Guy Gavriel Kay has gotten somewhat away from writing long, complex, interwoven stories and started writing shorter, quicker reading ones. The work suffers a bit simply because Kay is so good at what he does that the books are finished all too soon, you end up wishing there was more there to be had. But because they're that good, you're still really happy you read them.

This is a beautiful fantasy set in the modern day. Most of those come off as pretty hackneyed but Kay makes it work More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 18, 2011

Richard rated it:

Rating: 3.75* of five
Since there are no 3/4 stars, I've had to round this up to 4. I liked the book very much, and I found reading it very easy. I like the PoV character, Ned, and found his development from adolescent smartass to postadolescent smart youth involving.

Apparently this book winds up a series of books about its semi-immortal characters, doomed to replay and replay their ancient passionate triangle through millennia of time. The accidental instrusion of Ned, his aunt, h More...

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Sep 08, 2011

Scott rated it:

So I love Guy Gaveriel Kay. He's probably my favorite fantasy author. His books make me weep, make cry in joy, laughter, smile, lust, and want to live. For the most part. Last Light of the Sun, the book he wrote previous to Ysabel fell flat for me - it was a story that didn't speak to me then, though it has grown over the years on me, it is still not one of my preferred reads of Kay. Why this monologue of Kay and not Ysabel?

Because, well, that's why it took me 4 years to read Ysabel. I More...

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Aug 05, 2011

Methodtomadness rated it:

Guy Gavriel Kay manages to both captivate and annoy me on a regular basis, and _Ysabel_ is no exception. There's something about his writing that can be chauvinistic -- without necessarily being anti-feminist -- which riles me, but his twisting, interlocking narratives and mind-bending plots make up for it by and large. Published several years after the godawful best-selling _Da Vinci Code_, _Ysabel_ is a little tiny bit like what Dan Brown's novel could have been...if Brown were a masterful More...

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May 01, 2011

Martha rated it:

I'm only just noticing that "Ysabel" has the lowest average Goodreads rating among Kay's books. My theory on why this might be? It tries too darned hard NOT to be a Kay book.

I have swooned over the Fionavar Tapestry, admired "Tigana", and enjoyed "A Song for Arbonne". If there's a standard criticism of Kay's works, it's that he has a tendency to overdo the epic mythical-ness of everything. I can agree with that assessment, but to me it's a mark in his f More...

1 comment like

Jan 12, 2011

Vijay rated it:

This book is probably one of the best contemporary fantasies I've read this year. It's excellent, with interesting and relatable characters, and a solid storyline. A lot of contemporary fantasies either take the tack of demystifying the supernatural such that the reader can accommodate its existence alongside or intertwined with our world. Others dwell too much on the weirdness of the supernatural, the bizarre nature of it, emphasizing to the reader its overwhelming otherness relative to real More...

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Dec 02, 2010

Carla rated it:

Reading this was an uncanny experience for me.
Let me explain. I am studying abroad in Aix-en-Provence, France, at the moment. I was browsing books in my favorite English language bookstore, looking for something fun in the fantasy/scifi section. I saw there were some book by Kay, and took note, as I ADORED his "The Lion of Al-Rassan." Any, I picked up Ysabel at random, because I liked the cover and it had nice reviews on it, sat down with a cuppa and started reading.
The b More...

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May 01, 2010

Colin rated it:

I've read Ysabel before, but picked it up again tonight to remind myself of the structure and poetry of it. I devour everything Guy Gavriel Kay writes, and Ysabel was no exception, but for me it was not the most successful of Kay's books.

Kay got his start in high fantasy. He had a significant part in reconstructing Tolkien's The Silmarillion, and wrote his own myth-bending fantasy trilogy called The Fionavar Tapestry. In more recent years he's been known for a loosely connected alter More...

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Aug 23, 2009

Didi rated it:

I was disappointed and frustrated by this book. I usually really enjoy this author. His other books take place in Medieval settings. This one took place in the present, with echoes of a story from the past. The problem was that he put a lot of energy into describing the present. He mostly did it by endlessly describing minutia of present day life and describes in great detail how the character downloaded songs from the internet, and then put his running clothes on, grabbed his i-pod and cou More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 10, 2009

Kathy rated it:

This was an incredibly evocative novel. I mean that it really gives you a feel for where it is set and makes you want to visit there. This book is a Celtic/Modern Day ghost story set in Aix En Provence, France. The author has obviously spent a lot of time there, not only figuring out where things are and the history, but the feel of the place, how the sunlight makes the castles look in the morning and again at sunset.
I was struck by the amount of history contained in certain regions of Eur More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 29, 2009

T.j rated it:

“Ysabel” is a book that tells a story of a young boy’s self discovery linked with the unusual elements of ancient mythology and perpetual love. It illustrates both a sophisticated historical aspect along with a modern touch to bring together a compassionate read that appeals greatly to readers who enjoy fictional novels of magic and mystery. One of the most attracting parts of the book is how the author is able to successfully manipulate true historical facts into a well fantasized st More...

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Feb 20, 2009

Miz Lizzie rated it:

While accompanying his father on a photographic shoot in France, fifteen-year-old Canadian Ned stumbles into a powerful love triangle originating in early Celtic-Roman history that became such a pivot point in history that it has been cyclically replayed over and over again throughout the centuries. Along the way, Ned uncovers some interesting secrets in his own family background. This literary fantasy might have been published as a young adult novel, as Tender Morsels was, except that the a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 07, 2009

Jenn rated it:

Ysabel is an amazing story that, in typical G.G.Kay style, blends the past and the present - and does it beautifully. Reading Kay's prose is such a treat - it's so beautiful and effortless, and the plot is fascinating and original. I always feel that his characters are living, breathing human beings. I didn't have quite the visceral reaction to the ending of Ysabel, that I did with Lord of Emperors (I sat on the bathroom floor and cried for hours, but maybe I shouldn't include this personal stor More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2011

Thea rated it:

This is not listed as a YA selection, but, if you have a precocious kid, this would definitely be the book. The language is all GG Kay -- emotive, evocative -- and the story echoes back to a previous series. Others have complained that you never know enough about what the characters from the previous series are doing there, or who they are, but I didn't find that to be the case. Maybe it helped that I haven't read the series in ages and so didn't remember the characters well enough to become More...

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Feb 05, 2010

Lightreads rated it:

My friend Jen once in a while posts a list of words that probably don't exist in German, but should. Here's one: a book that makes you really really happy even though you're making a long list of its flaws as you read it.

A young adult story about two teenagers in the south of France stumbling into an ancient love triangle. Full of old cathedrals, and verbal photographs of the countryside, and family tensions and people coming through for each other.

Let's just preface ever More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 15, 2011

February rated it:

After reading Under Heaven and The Lions of al-Rassan, Ysabel was an unfortunate letdown. Quite often in the story, I started skimming; the alternative was to just stop reading, and I got pretty close a few times but managed to continue by persuading myself that skimming was the lesser of two evils.

A lot of the story was unfortunately meandering, and I never quite got the epic vibes I read Kay for. The scope of the story was supposed to be epic, but turned out very personal. Good More...

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May 04, 2010

Darrell rated it:

I just can't finish this book. It started out decently, but about 130 or so pages in it just tanked. The lame "pop culture" references to music and a plethora of trademarked products (iPod, iTunes, Coke) and an attempt to include technology (like the use of "jpegs" a hundred times--nobody I know ever says, "I'm going to send you some jpegs"), come across as either product placement or a lame attempt to be "hip" and play to a younger audience. While t More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 21, 2011

Cris rated it:

I never would have picked this up if it hadn't been selected for my book group, but I'm glad I read Ysabel.

I've never read anything by Kay before, so I can't compare Ysabel to his other works. But I found Ysabel to be fast-paced and the prose flowed so smoothly that even sections I didn't find particularly interesting flew by quickly. And Kay used language very, *very* well. He altered his use of language very subtly to match (and enhance) the different moods and events. (<spoile More...

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