The Fionovar Tapestry is the closest thing there is to Tolkien’s style, and thus the second best fantasy story there is. In fact, it’s so close you can even see it as an unofficial sequel to the Lord of the Rings, since most of the plot and events are the same. Furthermore, just like the Lord of the Rings improved a lot of things from the Hobbit, Gavriel Kay improves it even further.
Remember how bland most of the characters were, just archetypes who are always polite and never have sex? He makes them far more flawed and humane, getting drunk, swearing, having sex, and in general having lots of internal monologues. Remember how long the descriptions of every area were? He keeps them to reasonable lengths. Remember how the human races that were hostile to the England-based races, never got any fleshing out? Here they do. Remember how the dwarves were always minor characters and mostly comic relief? Here they are treated equally as important as any other race. The setting and the cast are far more realistic and identifiable.
Unfortunately, this is where the good stuff end, since everything else is a hit or miss. A big chunk of the mythos in Fionovar is heavily based on Arthurian legends. It’s not like the indirect similarities with Middle Earth; those ones was just a template. The plot is directly based on the Knights of the Round Table and includes Arthur, Lancelot, Stonehenge, and a whole bunch of other names. This made it feel derivative since the plot cannot exist on its own.
The second snag is how it’s about people from our world transferring to a magical one; something which does not happen in Middle Earth, it’s closer to the Chronicles of Narnia. You cannot believe how hard it is to suspend your disbelief because of this. Narnia was escapism fantasy for children, you could accept it as no more than an excuse for them to have adventures in a magical realm. Fionovar is not a fairy tale, its characters are all adults who swear, drink, and have sex. It was very awkward while a mage was trying to convince a bunch of university students from our world, to follow him on a magical adventure on a completely different one. You do not mix reality with fantasy like that without the Uncanny Valley swinging a broadsword at you.
But I’m going to be fair. To its defense, the story is basically a dark subversion of children, transferring to magical worlds and have lots of fun adventures. That’s what the students thought they were going for, only to be screwed in the ass by the sudden return of the Dark Lord and his armies of monsters. That plot twist was amazing.
The execution of the twist on the other hand leaves a lot to be desired, with the most evident one being the abuse of magic. Every 50 pages you get a deus ex machina in the form of a spell or a magic ritual that can have any desired effect, from changing the weather to teleporting someone across alternative dimensions. I get it, Fionovar has magic which makes the impossible, possible. It’s still used too often and cheapens the good attempt at strategy and field tactics during battles. There isn’t much tension when everything can be done and undone so easily.
The author tried to make it seem tragic by having powerful magic requiring lives to work. Meaning, for something really big to happen, someone needs to die. That adds a tragic element to it and it would work if I cared enough about the characters to consider it important. And I didn’t care enough. In fact, I was even annoyed in a way, since there are several gods physically appearing on Fionovar and none of them are doing anything to stop the Dark Lord, even when they know they will also die if he wins. What is the point of being a god with super divine powers when you expect a bunch of mortals to save the day by killing themselves? Why do you even need a tribute to do anything? You are a god.
Aside from all that, it’s a great piece of epic fantasy that can be very enjoyable if you are not thinking about it much. It’s not Middle Earth, but then again nothing is.