My experience with Beyond the Summerland: A Review

After hearing about this on Holy Worlds and learning that its author, L. B. Graham, would be teaching at the Realm Makers conference, I decided to give The Binding of the Blade a try. I got the book from the library and was impressed by the size of it and the cover art was pretty. Given the reviews on the back, it promised to be epic.

Overall: 2 stars
Beyond the Summerland is the story of Joraiem Andira, the child of one of the Novaana – a council of men from around Kirthanin chosen to train together and keep the country united – and destined to become a Novaana himself. On his journey to Sulare, where his training will take place, he meets and joins a group of Novaana also traveling to Sulare. Servants of Malek, enemy of the Allfather – Black Wolves and Malekim – shadow their company and threaten them even in Sulare’s haven. Joraiem begins to discover gifts that may indicate he is a prophet of the Allfather, and when a host of the enemy kidnaps half of his party, including the woman he has come to love, he will need all of them to get her back.

Unfortunately, I disagreed with most if not all of the reviews on the back cover. This book was work to read and extremely difficult to finish. I went in with high expectations and came out very disappointed. I can also understand why the back cover gave some tidbit of obscure prophecy instead of a story summary: because nothing actually happened.


Concept: 3.5 stars
I rate this higher because the worldbuilding is solid. The legends associated with the fall of Malek, man’s original sin, the dragons and Great Bear, and the creations of Malek are intriguing and an integral part of the world; they don’t feel grafted on as some legends do. Valzaan, the prophet/mentor/Gandalf equivalent, is suitably steeped in mystery and prayer, despite being slightly cheesy and altogether predictable. I also like the way the dragons and Great Bear are servants of the Allfather without being perfect. The Bear are at first impression gentle and silent, and the dragons quite high-and-mighty, yet in the end they work side by side.

Plot: 2 stars
When I started this review, I was perhaps sixty pages from the finish, and held off judgment on the plot until then. The ending didn’t change my mind. The prologue started promisingly, but after that, page after page after page of nothing. The bottom review on the back of the book says “L. B. Graham’s first book in The Binding of the Blade series takes hold of the reader, building one compelling event upon another, and races toward an utterly surprising conclusion.” For one thing, this book does not “race”. It plods. It wanders. It muddles through the thoughts of the character about his love life for half an hour, then decides a story in the world’s ancient past would be more interesting. Then it rides through the grasslands for days on end, pausing often to look around at the scenery. Every once in a while, something would happen – a seemingly random attack of Black Wolves, or Joraiem manifesting yet another gift that made him more and more invincible, or a mysterious light over the ocean on the Isle of Death that everyone of course had to go investigate. Things got a little more interesting near the end after the kidnapping, but not much. They sat around on the island for a week or two, then a random dragon, and then yet more riding and oh look! A battle!

I agree with one part of the review: the end is surprising. Especially since the main character is freaking murdered on the last page. People talk about throwing books. I have never done it, but I have never been closer. I was so sure everything was going to end perfectly with a nice little bow on top, and when he killed Joraiem it made me less likely to read the next book, not more. I put so much energy in finishing this. I was determined to finish it. Then it all turned out to be pointless, because Joraeim’s friend murders him a few months after he marries the girl because said friend was angry about the girl and all his prophecy gifts and everything turn out to be for nothing. It didn’t intrigue me. It depressed me. It made me angry. The author invested everything in this character and his gifts, told me how great he was going to be, what huge plans God had for him, and then it was all pointless. Shame on you, Mr. Graham. Shame.

Characters: 2 stars
Blah. I don’t even want to talk about the characters. Maybe I should have waited until I cooled down a bit after reading the wonderful “surprise ending” (thickly layered sarcasm there), but here it is. I could hardly see one shred of consistent personality between them. Sure, Rulalin had mood swings. Sure, Mindarin was sharp-tongued. Sure, Bryar never wanted to run from a fight. Beyond that? Nothing. Or at least, nothing that I could see. Especially in the main characters. They were flat as old soda. The author seemed to rely on external characteristics to make them interesting. Joraeim was a good archer. Wylla had long black hair. Aljeron had facial scars and a tiger. Valzaan had white eyes, was a prophet, always wore green, and could talk to birds. The list goes on. Neither did any of them have an arc. They all kept talking about how their trip to the Summerland would change them, but none of them ever changed. I also grew increasingly weary of being privy to Joraeim’s thoughts about his love life. Just shut up about women already.

Execution: 1 star
This was the hardest part for me, even aside from the uninteresting plot and the equally bland characters. I’m trying to restrain myself from writing something really harsh, but this book is going in my classic examples of “showing vs. telling”. Never before have I read a book where “an explosion of fire took place”. No, no, no no no. Two-thirds and probably more like four-fifths of the book is summary. Dialogue and monologue are no exception – paragraphs and paragraphs of the characters just prattling on, verbally or otherwise, about legends or battles or their past or the Summerland or their lost love. I have never before rated a book at one star on anything. Even when I didn’t post reviews online, I would think about what I would rate them and never before has a book earned one star. This one earned it and earned it well.

Technical: 1.5 stars
There were fewer typos in this book than in some others I’ve seen, but they were still there, sneaky and pervasive. Spinal chords and two-too-tos and someone’s face reaching out to clasp someone else by the hand. Yikes. The dialogue was extremely unrealistic as well. “Yeah”, “hello”, and “okay” were peppered through it, three things I would never ever use and hate to see in a fantasy, with the exception of portal fantasies. Characters, even wounded or panting from exertion, never paused, never stammered, never hemmed or hawed or thought about what to say. Sometimes I wish I could talk like that.

I added half a star because of the names. They, at least, were beautiful. Most of the locations had two-part names that rolled off the tongue and sounded faintly Gaelic: Peris Mil, Dol Harat, Cimaris Rul, and my personal favorite, Darrion Wel. The character names were also pretty and easy to pronounce, not causing me to stumble. I could only wish the rest of the book was the same.

I’m wondering what I’m going to think when I see Mr. Graham at the conference and if his class will redeem him in my sight. I certainly hope so. I hope to forget about his book very soon.

Y’all are going to think that the only reviews I post on here are bad ones. Never fear. The next one will probably be better. Probably.