Book Review - The Wandering Fire (The Fionavar Tapestry, Book 2) by Guy Gavriel Kay

Synopsis:  The ice of eternal winter has reached out to enshroud Fionavar, the first of all worlds.  For the Unraveller has broken free after millennia enchained - and now his terrible vengeance has begun to take its toll on mortals and immortals, mages and warriors, dwarves and the lios alfar, the Children of Light.

Only five men and women of our own world, brought by magic across the Tapestry of worlds to the very heart of the Weaver's pattern, can hope to wake the allies they so desperately need.  Yet none can foretell whether even these beings out of legend have the power to shatter the Unraveller's icy grip of death upon the land.

First Line:  "Winter was coming."

Random Quote:  "Na-Brendel of the Kestrel Mark had the same sense of belated awareness, but more strongly, because the lios alfar had traditions and memories that went deeper and farther back then did those of the Seers.  Ysanne once, and Kimberly now, might walk into the future, or dream some threads of it, but the lios lived long enough to know the past and were often wise enough to understand it."

Review:  This is the second book in Guy Gavriel Kay's trilogy, The Fionavar Tapestry. The five students we meet in the first book are drawn back to Fionavar where the land is shrouded in a deadly winter. Each of the five has an important part to play in the story of this land and of the fight of the Light against the Dark.

As in the first book, Kay is playing with older stories and patterns. Everyone in these books is caught up in these patterns and they may break them or end them.

To begin there is the summoning of Arthur Pendragon, the Warrior, doomed to fight for the light for all eternity and equally doomed to play out the love triangle that dominated his life. Once he is summoned, Jennifer discovers she is Guinevere and the threads of her life become more clear. It is also discovered that the third part of the triangle, Lancelot, does not appear to be there and there is hope for a change in the story.  Or is there?

The Wild Hunt makes an appearance here, as well, threading their wild magics throughout the tapestry and the night. The Wild Hunt is mythology that appears throughout Northern, Western, and Central Europe and into North America. There is the huntsman and the men that follow along with one child who rides the silver horse. Susan Cooper plays with this mythology wonderfully well in The Grey King and Kay does it equal justice as the subplot here haunts everyone it touches.

This is a book with few resolutions. It is a middle book. In it we learn more about the characters and more about the evil that will lead to the final battle. In it we begin to care a little more.

Reading Challenges:  Once Upon a Time IV Reading Challenge, Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge 2010, 2010 100+ Reading Challenge, 2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge