Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Wandering Fire: Book Two of the Fionavar Tapestry
    Unavailable
    The Wandering Fire: Book Two of the Fionavar Tapestry
    Unavailable
    The Wandering Fire: Book Two of the Fionavar Tapestry
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Wandering Fire: Book Two of the Fionavar Tapestry

    Written by Guy Gavriel Kay

    Narrated by Simon Vance

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The Wandering Fire is the second novel of Guy Gavriel Kay's critically acclaimed fantasy trilogy, The Fionavar Tapestry. A mage's power has brought five university students from our world into a realm where an ancient evil has freed itself from captivity to wreak revenge on its enemies…

    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…




    From the Trade Paperback edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 1, 2009
    ISBN9781436244305
    Unavailable
    The Wandering Fire: Book Two of the Fionavar Tapestry
    Author

    Guy Gavriel Kay

    Guy Gavriel Kay was born and raised in Canada. He lives in Toronto, although he does most of his writing in Europe. His novels include ‘The Fionavar Tapestry’ trilogy (described by ‘Interzone’ as ‘the only fantasy work… that does not suffer by comparison with ‘The Lord of the Rings’), ‘Tigana’ and ‘A Song for Arbonne’.

    More audiobooks from Guy Gavriel Kay

    Related to The Wandering Fire

    Related audiobooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Unraveller

      Sep 7, 2022

      ▸RELEASED OUT NOW! 496 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▸Author Frances Hardinge ▸Publisher Macmillan Children’s Books Curses grow like wild flowers in this beautifully written fantasy novel about a land blighted by vengeance. This is a world where m

      1 min read

    • Article

      On The Store

      Oct 20, 2020

      On The Store
      3 min read

    • Article

      Reckoning ball

      Feb 12, 2024

      Reckoning ball
      7 min read

    • Article

      In Icewind Dale II

      Nov 11, 2021

      In Icewind Dale II
      7 min read

    • Article

      Reckoning Ball

      Feb 20, 2024

      Reckoning Ball
      7 min read

    • Article

      In Icewind Dale II

      Nov 30, 2021

      In Icewind Dale II
      6 min read

    • Article

      Reckoning Ball

      Feb 1, 2024

      Reckoning Ball
      7 min read

    • Article

      What's Going On

      Jul 9, 2019

      • The Llangollen Faery Festival takes place in Llangollen Pavilion in North Wales on 11 and 12 August. The biggest fairy festival in the UK, there’s everything a fairy fanatic could want from wand-making to fabulous fey clothes and more fairy doors t

      2 min read

    • Article

      Sweet Xvi

      Mar 9, 2021

      Sweet Xvi
      5 min read

    • Article

      No Smiting Norse Mythology

      Mar 25, 2023

      No Smiting Norse Mythology
      3 min read

    • Article

      Vesper

      Nov 2, 2022

      Vesper
      1 min read

    • Article

      Vesper

      Nov 2, 2022

      Vesper
      1 min read

    • Article

      5 New Fantasy Novels Invigorate Old Tropes

      May 18, 2023

      Spell books, dragons, mermaids, fairies and a magic circus all take on new life in the pages of these five enchanting tales hitting shelves in May and June.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Redwall

      Aug 14, 2019

      Redwall
      2 min read

    • Article

      Books Of The Month

      Jun 17, 2022

      By JM Miro A boy in Mississippi whose wounds heal miraculously after every beating; a girl in Tokyo who entertains her sister by summoning clouds of dust and making them dance; a baby in England who glows with a mysterious blue light: these are among

      2 min read

    Reviews for The Wandering Fire

    4/5

    846 ratings28 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This is a reread (again). The Fionavar Tapestry is Mr. Kay's first series and is worth going back to again and again. The story of five college students drawn into the first world to save all the worlds is epic fantasy at its best. I admit I cried at parts of this book (again). It's a story of sacrifice, love, evil, and heroism - one I truly love.
    • 4/5
      Second volume of an excellent fantasy series
    • 4/5
      Like most middle books in a trilogy, this book is a bit of a drag as people's motivations are explored in near exhausting detail though there were some fun elements, particularly in the attempt of the King of Cahal's attempt to upstage the new High King of Brennin as it was disrupted by the new King and his brother. We're also introduced to the greatest Warrior in all the Worlds of the Weaver and hi Queen.
    • 3/5
      After falling head over heels in love with The Summer Tree, I was more and more disappointed reading The Wandering Fire. Everything seemed a bit less clear. By the time I was halfway through I began mixing up characters, some of them seemed unnecessary. Kay threw Arthur Pendragon into his tolkienesque world, which seemed like just one thing too many. And even the prose came across as less lyrical.If you're looking to dive into Guy Gavriel Kay, please do so, because he's a brilliant author, but start with The Lions of Al-Rassan or Tigana.
    • 4/5
      The Wandering Fire, the second installment in the Fionavar Tapestry, picks up six months after the events of The Summer Tree. Jennifer is pregnant with the child of Rakoth Maugrim and insists that she will have the baby if it kills her, because Rakoth did not want the child to live. The others are waiting for their summons back to Fionavar, and when it finally comes they find themselves caught up in the politics of the Brennin court and the order of priestesses who worship the Mother. The Arthurian element is much stronger in this story and we find out that Jennifer is actually Guinevere, born into this time and place to carry out the endless tragic tale of her love for both Arthur and Lancelot. Kim, who is now Brennin's Seer, summons Arthur to fight with their armies against Rakoth. There are so many threads in this complex weave of a tale, but everything is slowly moving into place for the final battle in the last book. Kay's writing seemed to smooth itself out a bit in this story, though he still indulges overmuch in fragments for effect. I noticed them less, however, as the story pulled me in. The world-building continues to be strong, and again Kay uses the theme of personal sacrifice effectively. Overall this was more than passable fantasy, maybe even an improvement on the first book, and I eagerly moved on to the next in the series.
    • 4/5
      The story is not has good as the first book, but the narration is great!
    • 5/5
      The follow-up to The Summer Tree continues the weaving begun so beautifully in the first book, and indeed soothes some (not all) of the concerns at the portal-world trappings of the book by connecting the "real world" to Fionavar more directly, thus offering some stronger reasons behind the transport of the five characters.

      This book also cranks the heartbreak up, as the pain of the first book is bound tighter into the weave, and the losses become more permanent, and more unexpected. There is real pain here, but Kay makes sure to leaven it with love and joy, and above all with striving against a Darkness that seems beyond defeat.

      A worthy sequel, indeed.
    • 5/5
      This is at least the fifth time I’ve read this book, and it continues to be compelling and moving.
    • 3/5
      A continuation of the saga of the Fionavar Tapestry, and a sequel to The Summer Tree. I wanted to read a continuation of the story of the college students drawn into the first world "to save all the worlds". This is vintage epic fantasy. And besides, there was a chilling development that I thoroughly disliked with one character in Book 1 which I hoped to see evolve into a less chilling outcome.In this second part of the trilogy, the plot development felt glacial, partly due to too much detail. It was easy to get lost in the Arthurian tropes which kept appearing in a chronicle that didn't feel right to include the Pendragon myth. I missed that in an earlier reading. In this re-reading, I was struck by the Winter-death narrative which I guess complimented the Summer-Tree setting.Fans of classic fantasies with a Tolkien or Arthurian underpinning will enjoy this book, especially as the characters resolve more clearly into their traditional counterparts in well-known legends.
    • 3/5
      A good second book in this series. My review of the first book could be copied here. I can see why people enjoy it, but for me there is something missing to completely enjoy it. But that's just me, so go on and read the series. Language and writing keep on enjoying me.

      An example, in this book there is a surprise attack on some of the characters. The author described it in a way that really relayed the confusion and shock the characters must have felt in this situation.
    • 3/5
      This one I liked better than it's predecessor. The beginning was rough and really had nothing more than tidying up loose ends from the last, creating a time line jump, and then getting everyone back where they had to be.

      I still find myself only interested at all in two of The Five, Paul and then Jennifer, but I am massively in love and rapt with a whole lot of the secondary characters and large swags of certain Finoavar races. I do feel that the first book portrayed the Evil vs. Good sides more clearly and evenly, while this one had a whole lot on what was happening on The Good Guy's Side.

      There's a whole lot of loose ends in this one. Where the first book could stand alone, so much is left unattended to, or pushed to the side, that I feel I wanted to see more of, whether person or place or event or happening. And certain other things happens so fast looking back I wonder if they were supposed to have mattered more to me.

      Of course, you know I loved it when they brought Arthurian Legends into it. (Finally. Something to cling to hard until Ysabelle.) I really, really like what they are doing with that legend here, how it blurs, how everyone loves everyone, and hopefully book three won't have me eating these words.
    • 3/5
      The end of this one almost pushes it up to a four--and maybe upon further reflection it will--because it is a truly spectacular last forty pages or so, but this is the one book in the series that I always found just a little too disjointed.
    • 5/5
      I can't stop so Fionavar will probably wind up a single blog post after I read the third book.
    • 5/5
      The second book of the Fionavar Tapestry feels by far the shortest, to me. That isn't to say not much happens -- a lot does happen, so much that it makes my head spin a little, but it feels quite short. Possibly because my copy is both slim and has bigger writing than the other books, which are both thicker and have tiny writing. Anyway!

      The Wandering Fire really introduces the Arthurian thread, which is the newest thing. It's been hinted at and set up already in The Summer Tree, but it's in The Wandering Fire that that's finally articulated. I'm interested as to how much Guy Gavriel Kay has drawn on existing Arthurian legend and how much he has built himself. I haven't read anything about Arthur being punished over and over again -- he's generally portrayed as fairly virtuous -- and I've never read anything about Lancelot raising the dead. I do like the way the legend is constructed here -- differences to the usual main themes and stories, but using them and showing that the stories we have are supposed to be reflections and echoes of this 'reality'.

      I love the fact that the gods aren't supposed to act and there are penalties for this... and actually more of the lore about the gods in this world, like Dana working in threes and her gifts being two-edged swords.

      The death in this book makes me cry... not the actual death, at least not until the very last line of that section, but the reactions, and particularly Paul's. This isn't really surprising, but it highlights once again how much these books make me care.

      Reread again in February 2010. It's amazing to me how much I can love almost every word of this book and yet find a small scene was horribly jarring -- it's the same in The Summer Tree, just one scene sticks in my throat and won't go down. It's the scene with Kim and Loren, at Maidaladan. It just doesn't make sense. There's no build to it. I always thought she should go to Aileron instead... now there's a build-up that makes at least some sense.

      Nonetheless, wow. This book breaks me more every time.
    • 3/5
      Kay does a great job building off The Summer Tree and deepening the connections with other mythos, such as the Arthurian legends. In this second book of the series, he shows readers that the Earth characters' backstories really were important and relevant as The Summer Tree indicated. That is, he doesn't leave their backstories behind but continues to exploit them as an additional (if less epic-seeming) "mythos."
    • 4/5
      The story continues. It's a middle book: lots of movement, some gains, some grievous losses, no resolution.
    • 4/5
      The Wandering Fire, the second installment in the Fionavar Tapestry, picks up six months after the events of The Summer Tree. Jennifer is pregnant with the child of Rakoth Maugrim and insists that she will have the baby if it kills her, because Rakoth did not want the child to live. The others are waiting for their summons back to Fionavar, and when it finally comes they find themselves caught up in the politics of the Brennin court and the order of priestesses who worship the Mother. The Arthurian element is much stronger in this story and we find out that Jennifer is actually Guinevere, born into this time and place to carry out the endless tragic tale of her love for both Arthur and Lancelot. Kim, who is now Brennin's Seer, summons Arthur to fight with their armies against Rakoth. There are so many threads in this complex weave of a tale, but everything is slowly moving into place for the final battle in the last book. Kay's writing seemed to smooth itself out a bit in this story, though he still indulges overmuch in fragments for effect. I noticed them less, however, as the story pulled me in. The world-building continues to be strong, and again Kay uses the theme of personal sacrifice effectively. Overall this was more than passable fantasy, maybe even an improvement on the first book, and I eagerly moved on to the next in the series.
    • 2/5
      Too many characters. Difficult to follow.
    • 5/5
      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.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.
    • 4/5
      Somehow this book manages to be both amazing and flawed at the same time. The writing is a bit choppy and curt and strained at times, but while reading it you are absorbed into the world and the characters and forget all about that. Unlike more recent fantasy novels, this is short and to the point. There isn't a lot of time wasted on minor characters or lengthy side plots, nor words wasted on endless explanation. It is mystical and mythical and fascinating. Not tremendously original at times, but still excellent. If you enjoy Tolkien style fantasy, you'll enjoy this.
    • 5/5
      A WONDERFUL series. Something I believe will be considered a classic.
    • 2/5
      Everyone says this one gets good and you just have to be patient. I never found it got good enough to keep me interested. The characters felt inconsistent and unreal and, personally, I never felt transported to Fionavar.
    • 3/5
      The Fionavar Tapestry continues and I start to get annoyed. Let me explain why and go into reasons why it's still a three star book worth a read, if not a hearty recommendation. Guy Gavriel Kay (GGK)'s central premise in the story is that there is one first world, and all other worlds are connected to that one. As a result, the battle of good vs evil in this trilogy will affect all the worlds, which are part of a greater "tapestry" watched over by the "weaver." Also, all myths are related. I think GGK does a very good job of showing archtypal relationships between many of the world's myths. There are also some great characters (Diar is my favorite) and moments.That said, I'm beginning to find one of the authors techniques annoying. Since he's telling the story of a "weaving" GGK will often pick up the "threads" of different characters to tell a piece of action from their point of view. Which is all well and good, but it means that sometimes I have to hear the same story told 3 different ways, and then summarized again at various points because of the complicated plot. Sometimes its interesting, but often the additional perspectives don't add much and feels like he's milking one piece of creative storytelling more time than he should. Also, GGK is constantly insisting that a particular bit is "the saddest story ever" "the bravest act ever" "the boldest hero ever". Is he writing a novel, or the Guiness book of world tragedies? It grates on my nerves and feels pretentious.Finally (SPOILERS) he picks up the Arthurian myth. It feels like a cheap way to add more resonance to the story. I'm a huge fan of Arthurian legend, and I feel like he misses the point. I disagree with his treatment of the mythology, and that definitely affects my review here. If you feel less strongly about Arthur, you may feel differently.
    • 3/5
      Unexpectedly, I found this less persuasive than its predecessor, though it is hard to pin down why. Perhaps it is something to do with the plot device whereby the characters from this world turn out to be, not mere Canadians, but incarnations, reincarnations, or divinely elect figures of mythological significance. This undermines their narrative status as 'bridges' for the reader. There is also something vaguely unsatisfactory about importing Arthurian figures into the narrative, suggesting that the author has run out of original ideas, or at least, cannot find a way of integrating the Arthur myth into his own subcreation. I'm going to go on to part 3 but I don't feel that keen compulsion to do so: my sympathy with characters lessens as their mythic status overwhelms their humanity. MB 27-xii-2007, rev. 31-xii-2007
    • 4/5
      The second book in The Fionavar Tapestry adds greater emotional depth to the series. I enjoyed it far more than the first volume.Kay's pacing is excellent. There are some truly tense, exciting moments here as the characters struggle to return to Fionavar, then to aid the land they love. Each event flows smoothly into the next, effectively drawing the reader in and forcing her to read just a little bit more... then just a little more after that... The result is an absorbing and engaging fantasy with a great deal of heart to it.More archetypes are introduced this time around, including some heavy Arthurian themes. I sometimes find that these sorts of things bog books down, but here they work beautifully. As many of the characters discover their ties to various mythical figures, their reactions fit perfectly with their personalities and with the story's needs. Kay is able to incorporate larger, recognizable themes from Celtic mythology without sacrificing his own story or detracting from the characters he's developed. The blend isn't quite seamless, but it's close enough to it.As a final note, the Arthurian/Celtic themes do play a large role here. I'm sure some prior knowledge of these things would help the reader out, but it's not absolutely necessary. I know very little about King Arthur and general Celtic mythology, and I had only a little trouble following certain portions. I think this book - and the series as a whole - could be a good jumping-off point for anyone interested in looking at Celtic mythology in general or its role in modern literature.
    • 5/5
      My favorite fantasy series. The Celtic-tinged world created here is filled with heroes, magic and myth and best of all modern people thrown into the mix.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant series. I don't even have words to describe how wonderful these books are, just read them! :)
    • 4/5
      cllassic high fantasy done very well indeed.