Summertide

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
In the town of Kottow, a huge tree hosts an odd mix of residents. But one day, the tree decides to take off on a journey to places unknown - or are they?

Review
I picked this up in part because it was free, , in part because it sounded interesting, but mostly because I liked the cover. Initially, at least, that was a good call – the setting and prose were just as rich as the cover promised. The tone is on the mythic side, the characters are interesting, and the whole concept of a mysterious, walking tree was promising. I liked the first half of the book quite a bit.

Unfortunately, I quickly lost interest once the tree stopped, and, gradually, all was revealed. First, it turns out there's a fair amount of court intrigue happening, and that just doesn't appeal to me anywhere near as much as the more intimate, friendly characters we first meet. More important, however, is that the transition didn't work for me on a number of fronts. First, the geography is extremely vague, even allowing for some mystic uncertainty. Second, the character transitions were more gestured at than developed – characters change, but not in particularly interesting ways, and it all seems to happen in the background, with very little clarity. New characters are introduced, but more sketched than developed. The last third of the book not only feels substantially muddled but almost part of a different book than we started with.

I think this will probably be quite appealing for some readers, but for me, the sum just didn't work. The first half was strong, the second half fairly weak.