Summer stories had a rhythm and a pattern to them, and she knew in her belly exactly how that one should have ended: with the summer lord rising healed and radiant from his bed to catch the hand of the heroic knight who had saved him... [loc. 556]
The Summer War has the beats and the ambience of the most classic fairytales: a king with three children, a curse with unexpected consequences, a bargain with the fae (in this world known as 'summerlings') that hinges on wording, a heroic princess. Celia -- the youngest of King Veris' three children -- accidentally curses her eldest brother, Argent, after he declares that he's leaving home and going to the Summerlands. The middle brother, Roric, has been the odd one out: as King Veris sinks into depression, Celia and Roric vow to care about one another. And when Celia sets out to marry a prince, it's Roric whose music and wit comes to the rescue.
Hard to discuss this one without spoilers! It's a story about the stories we tell ourselves and one another: right from the start, with Veris paying a songwright to write a romantic song that reinvents his story, there's a theme of propaganda, (mis)interpretation, the pattern of stories and how to fit one's life inside those patterns. Told in third person from Celia's point of view, we come to understand what's happening as slowly as Celia herself. And it subverts several fairytale tropes: there is no triumphant wedding, and no punishment of the villains. (Indeed, as a friend observed, no actual villains.)
A gorgeous novella, with a fascinating world lightly sketched, a queer love story, and an eminently capable heroine.
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