Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay
A brilliant and extraordinary book -- Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay.
With Ysabel, GGK returns to contemporary fantasy. The main protagonist, 15 year old Ned, a Canadian on holiday in Provence in France, stumbles on.... well, it's hard to explain - he stumbles straight into the world of the myths that make history - the myths that have formed history, or are formed by history.
Provence is a rich and fertile area, extraordinarily beautiful, heavily steeped in the history of conquests. The Celts that lived there traded with the Greeks who established Marseille, were conquered by the Romans and fought back bitterly. And were conquered again. And again. In later years, Provence was conquered and assimilated into France. It's had witch-burnings, resident Popes - the most romantic and violent of histories - and brutality and conquest in many and varied forms.
And Ned discovers that he is uniquely able to stumble into that world of history and myth and conquest that touches the present-day, and threatens those close to him. It's a beginning and an ending, a spiral endlessly repeated - only this time Ned can change the pattern...
And as a special bonus -- Ned meets his Aunt Kim and Uncle Dave for the first time -- for they too become part of this story -- and these two favorite characters from The Summer Tree and the other books of The Fionavar Tapestry series are re-visited. It was worth reading for this reason alone!!!!
For me, Ysabel, did not have that rich, evocative, lyrical style that characterizes GGK's writing at its very best - the style that marks The Last Light of the Sun, where every second sentence seems designed to make me weep, or the melancholy bitter-sweetness of The Lions of Al-Rassan, or the heart-breaking sorrow that pervades The Fionovar Tapestry books. But is still extraordinarily well-written - and after a little hesitation with the initial chapters, I couldn't put it down - couldn't sleep until I'd read more! Highly recommended!