Review: The Unfinished Land

The Unfinished Land by Greg Bear
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am a firm believer that sometimes a book is bad only because it was read at the wrong time. Don't misunderstand me, a book can truly be terrible. But outside influences tend to weigh heavily against enjoyment. A good example of this would be when I read Blood of Elves. After discovering black mold in our apartment, we were forced to live in a Hotel room for six months while our entire building was remodeled. It was stressful and, with two young boys, almost impossible to give the book my full attention. I hated it and haven't picked up a Witcher book since.

The Unfinished Land falls into this category because I had suffered a medical episode while reading this. In fact, I spent the bulk of this book laying on the floor, covered in my own blood and when that wasn't going on, writhing in pain. The book was used as a distraction from what was going on but the reading itself suffered as a result.

I attempted to read two other books but neither held much interest for me. When I started The Unfinished Land I was instantly hooked. Something was intriguing about the way it was written. The best I could come up with was in the style of Classic Foreign Fiction, whatever that may mean. It probably doesn't fulfill that category at all. It reminded me of a lot of older foreign fiction I read from time to time, in other words. Or something you would read in high school.

Our story starts with a boy, Reynard, as he is struggling to survive on the wreck of his Uncle's fishing vessel. His Uncle, Cousin, and the other people on the boat all were killed when it came under attack by a Spanish Galleon. We are treated to flashbacks of what put him in this position, as well as one flashback where we are introduced to the man with the white shadow. He is rescued by the Spanish, specifically, an Old Man named Manuel. Their ship lands on an island and our story begins to take shape.

It is on this island that our story takes a sharp turn. I believe chapter two begins to mention Queen Hel, and then the Vanir and Aesir. As a Norse Mythology fan, I was all for it. But the book itself is extremely schizophrenic. I quickly began to takes notes from this point onward only to abandon it when my medical issues took hold. There was simply no way for me to keep up with everything going on because the book kept outrunning itself.

Numerous books handle large cast well enough for you to understand each person's motivations and believe they are a living, breathing entity. This isn't one of those books. Characters come at you fast and you meet others almost as soon as you leave the last. The island also has mythical creatures but not nearly enough for it to feel special. The book gets lost in its construction easily here but I'll try my best to summarize a few points.

The island, if I'm following this correctly, is a version of Tir Na Nog. Queen Hel is responsible for most of it but at this point, she is long gone. There is another part of the island ruled by the Sister Queens who later we meet as conjoined siblings. I'm unsure if there are more or just those two. There are tiers of people who serve either side, some of which are Those Beneath The Sky, Crafters, The Travelers, and the Blunters. Blunters are responsible for getting blood from Nymphs which will turn into Drakes in order to pair up with them. The Drakes aren't typical but instead are overgrown dragonflies. There are also Childers which to my understanding are faeries that appear as small children. If I am incorrect please let me know. I lost a significant amount of blood so please forgive me. There are also Eaters which are Vampires who eat Lifetimes instead of drink blood. Their victims age until there is nothing left. I enjoyed the Eaters most of all the fantasy elements of the book because they came across as the most developed. Sadly, I couldn't say that about anything else.

The writing style changes once we get to the island or at least feels like it has. The promise of the Aesir and Vanir is as incomplete as the land the book is about. I was hoping Queen Hel would be Loki's daughter as it was heavily implied but nothing becomes of it. Nothing becomes of a lot of the book. Other reviews, the few that I've seen, say that the book had no plot and went nowhere. It was my challenge in my incapacitated state to try to prove them wrong. I still don't know, ultimately.


I can understand why Manuel, really known as Widsith, is sent out from the island to discover what is going on with the rest of the world. Each time he returns as an old man, Calybo of the Eaters uses his power to rejuvenate Widsith back into a younger man. Reynard's role is constantly brought up as he doesn't know his part in all of this. In the end...well, without giving too much away I feel that the ending of the book was pointless as I don't truly feel Reynard had any importance at all. And as for the Island itself...

I wish it pushed harder into the mythological elements. We get a handful of creatures and way too many different people who speak what I'm assuming is old English. Lots of Doth, Thou, Telleth, and the like. Very annoying. There's a throwaway line somewhere where I believe it mentioned Elves and Dwarves but I didn't write it down and none are mentioned or appear. There's also a brief part that mentions Trees can walk and the people of yesteryear became trees. Truly something of interest in this story and it is not utilized. I believe the intention was that the Crafters of the land could create anything they wanted, creatures and places, but this fantastical island was an island first and foremost and fantastical as a minor afterthought.

Reynard and the group travel from person to person trying to get Reynard to a specific location where he would learn his purpose in all of this. That can qualify as a plot but again this is all poorly developed. Events are rushed together. Every time I felt as if I had a hold and understanding of the story, other things would happen and I would be lost once again. For what it's worth, the synopsis says that this will lead up to a war between humans and the gods but what Gods? And humans had come and gone on that island for centuries. Too many ideas and the wrong things are emphasized. Here's another example of something that went nowhere. Reynard for fans of tales and fables is obviously an allusion to Reynard the Fox. He's even referred to as such in the book. Reynard is not a trickster, nor do I see any other connection to the fabled character. So what was the point?

My favorite part of the book, as I kind of mentioned above, were the Eaters. I thought there would be a bigger role for these people to play but this book goes in whatever directions it feels like even if it means bashing itself against a wall. There is a moment where the Eaters board boats to leave the Island and I was reminded of the Elves leaving Middle Earth. Intentional or not, it was a pleasant connection.

I'm looking back and forth to the one page of notes I did manage to take and I've used none of it here because it wouldn't make any sense. I believe the story of this book is about the time of myths and legends dying and the world of man and science taking over. I could be absolutely wrong. For now, I am saying this book falls into a space between good and bad. It simply is what it is and I don't know if it knows itself what it's trying to be. Maybe it warrants a reread at a later date. It's a tough call. Finishing it was extremely difficult for me. Whether that is because of the blood loss, or pain, or if it is because the book isn't as good as I wish it to be is not something I could say at the moment. It's something to think about at least.

View all my reviews