Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this book!

I feet like I just read a dream... and I'm not 100% sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I loved the world building and the intricate details this book holds, but I found myself lost many, many times. I think if I had been able to sit down and read this in one sitting I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Still a good read though if you're okay with ending with more questions than answers!

Fantasy novel, The Unfinished Land by Greg Bear mixes history, a dash of adventure, and a pinch of lore to create a stunning new taste of magic.

Our hero, Reynard, is a young man who has long been unhappy working on his uncles fishing ship. He is visited by a stranger with a white shadow, whispering hints of a prophetic nature, and finds himself marooned after his uncle's boat is destroyed by a Spanish fleet. He is adrift, and near-death on a dead and peculiar sea, when another ship of the Spanish armada picks him up.

When the ship runs aground, Reynard and the Spaniards are about to understand that the land they've discovered is worlds away from anything they could have predicted or imagined. A place filled with eldritch magic and gods, Reynard is thrust into the dynamic of these wild, mystical lands. Greg Bear offers a plethora of curiosities, even hinting that this unknown land may be Tír na nÓg.

Unfortunately, the whole of the story hangs empty. Reynard doesn't have an apparent driving force. Instead, it seems as if he proceeds along a path only because it is what lays before him. Similarly, the plot lacks direction, often reading like a dream with missing parts, though Bear's writing is exquisite and descriptions poetic. Though lacking in character and story development, The Unfinished Land can be seen as a kind of otherworldly travelogue.

Reynard meets creatures, people who steal time like vampires, powerful Queens, drakes, and travelers of time. What they all mean to one another, or why they are the way they are, is never explained. The Unfinished Land is not a book for a reader who prefers strong character-focused stories. Rather, it reads more as if Greg Bear is commenting on change. A land filled with creatures and beings of magic fading away as the onslaught of science and progress drive that mystery from our minds.

Beautiful and strange, the excellent world-building of The Unfinished Land cannot detract from its lack of purpose.

I really enjoyed this book! It was very well written, and I was able to relate to parts of it. I would definitely recommend it. I loved Reynard, and the world building was truly incredible.

I found its premise beautiful but formulation foggy. As such, it did little to sustain my interest but may appeal to others.
Thank you for the ARC.

I really liked the concept of the book and was very excited to read it. But I found the plot a little hard to follow and could not connect to any of the characters. It was an enjoyable and fun read, just not one of my favourites.

“The Unfinished Land” takes us into the creative fantasy world Populated by the legendary Greg Bear. His world is complicated but fun, his characters are numerous, but interesting, I enjoyed Bear’s “faux-Old English” writing style. The plot follows a young boy named Reynard on a long and arduous journey (sort of a fantasy trope!) after he becomes the remaining survivor of a sunken ship. I am rating the book highly — when I was a younger man I would have gobbled up the book as part of my addiction to science fiction and/or fantasy. For an older guy I wasn’t quite as enthralled by the narrative —which is a reflection more on me than any Weakness in Bear’s storytelling. So you prospective readers please enjoy the ride. And a big “thanks” to NetGalley for the chance to read “The Unfinished Land.”

I really liked the general concept of this book.
The world and the setting were really fun, I liked the characters, and the story itself was really intriguing and interesting. I loved the chapter titles specifically. I really enjoyed the fantastical elements and how new ideas were combined with the fairytale elements.
However, I found this book sort of hard to read. The pacing was off and I wasn't invested until half of the book was over. The worldbuilding was really confusing and some parts of it I didn't understand at all, not even after finishing the book. There were so many characters that made the story confusing and it was really hard for me to get through the chapters, although they were fairly short.
I also wasn't a fan of the writing style and the Old English, so I needed a while to fully get into that as well and it kept interrupting the reading flow for me.
Overall I think that this is a pretty good book, it's just not for me personally.

“The Unfinished Land” by Greg Bear follows the story of Reynard, a young British fisherman who finds himself stranded on a magical island. In a complex fantasy world, Reynard relies on those around him to guide and protect him, however he soon finds out that the island is in grave danger.
This novel is a rich and magical tale, filled with a large variety of creatures, characters and settings. The island is vividly described, its forests, lakes, deserts and cities are a joy to read about. Unfortunately, many of the intricacies of this fantasy world were hard to follow. Lots of information was withheld surrounding Crafters and Travelers and first words, much of which I still don’t understand after reading the entire novel. It didn’t help that all of the dialogue was in Old English (I’m just not used to so many thees and thous). I feel like it can be likened to “The Hobbit” and the other Lord of the Rings novels due to its historical elements and writing style. Overall, I found the reading experience quite enjoyable, for me “The Unfinished Land” painted a creative picture of the world and its formation.

The Unfinished Land by Greg Bear
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anyone who is familiar with Greg Bear will perk up when I say he harkens back to Eon's strange new SF worlds, mixes it with the feel of Dinosaur Summer, and then tops it off a taste of the big magic of City at the End of Time.

Aspects, mind you. The Unfinished Land is a wonderful new land that mixes historical fantasy with the kick of adventure, complete with sea battles, shipwrecks, and strange settlements WAY off the beaten path.

And when I say strange settlement, I mean one with eldritch magics, gods from outer space, drakes, and a carefully constructed social system of unique undead, eaters, and builders.

Just trying to figure out the rich worldbuilding gave me tons of enjoyment.

Maybe I'm weird, but the historical settings, while delicious, were not my favorite parts. When we get halfway into the novel, things get really interesting. No spoilers, but this is the kind of out-there imagination that I've always appreciated in Greg Bear. The bigger, the weirder, the better. :)

The play on the title is particularly awesome. Just mind, it probably isn't what you think. Maybe. :)

Reynard was a great character and I enjoyed seeing this fascinating world through his eyes. Top-notch world building and an engaging storyline made Reynard's journey enjoyable from beginning to end.

*I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley*

For me, Greg Bear always impress. In this books he tackles not only a new and amazing fantasy setting, but also a new —at least for me— writing style, since the book seems to be written in old english. It took me more than a few pages to get the hang of it, it was worth it.

I'm not going to bother with the book's blurb, since, if you're reading this, you already went through it.

What I liked (a lot):
The writing stile. It was a great surprise.
Unlike most of Mr. Bear's books, this one goes right into the action (not that his other books are worse or better for it).
Mr. Bear always jumps at you with the unexpected, he does so in this book.

What I didn't like (but didn't spoil the book for me).
There's seems to be a void in the story some seventy five percent into it, nothing happens. The main characters seem to stand still for some ten percent of the book, starting in that seventy five percent mark.

What seemed unlikely, this being a Greg Bear book.
In my opinion, Greg Bear always tackles human nature in his books, be it politics, war, greed. This was something either well hidden in the book, or simply not there at all.

This is a book I'm certainly going to buy when it comes out, to have another go at it.

Thank you for the opportunity at an early read of The Unfinished Land!

Bear has been around a long time. This is probably not his best, although it is OK overall. It's a pretty good story, but wasn't flushed out fully. That may be because it's not his usual hard scifi tale. This one is less plot focused. It is more a fantasy tale and will probably be enjoyed more by those fans.

I really appreciate the ARC for review!!

Overall this was wasn’t personally for me. I think I’m outside the shell of targeted audience, but there is a huge niche of people who will love this. Overall very well written.

I would like to thank the author/publisher and NetGalley for providing me with this copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Unfinished Land is a fantasy book full of lore, mythical creatures, journeys and difficult vocabulary. The story takes place during the Elizabethian time hence the language was full of 'thy', 'believeth" and similar words. If you have no trouble with this, that is great. For me, this makes the book hard to read. In the first chapters, there was some Spanish mixed in as well and because I speak no Spanish at all, it almost resulted in DNF. But I pushed through in a hope that this book will deliver exciting adventure.

Unfortunately, I am disappointed. Half of the book did not make sense to me. It was like a dream you partially understand but can't really get a grip of the story. I feel like things were overcomplicated while there could have been an easy explanation for it. And a lot of things were not explained at all.

There were too many characters without any real purpose to mine liking. I don't know what the main goal of Reynard was? What did he want? What was his dream? Why did he do things he did? I missed the driving force or motivation behind his decisions and actions. He says he wants to escape the island but then he never even tries to do it instead he gets willingly intertwined in other character plots. And what motivation was behind the other character actions I don't know either. Everything and everyone is mysterious. I guess the reader is supposed to keep guessing but some answers are needed in order to make the reader interested and invested in the characters.

The tone of the story seemed very static. There was no build-up, there was no tension, there was no boring part. The whole book was written at the same emotional level. To me all characters were the same, there was no distinctive language that would separate them or any special features they would have to make them stand out.

Those are the reasons why I decided to give this book only 2 stars. However, there were things I did love about this book. I loved that chapters were short, it made the read dynamic. The chapters also had names and I just love to have that little 'spoiler'. Words can't describe how much I love a good title to a chapter. I also really enjoyed the name and background of the main character Reynard. I feel like the name fit him really well. I also recognise that the author has an amazing imagination and combines legends and lore with his own ideas and creation which is hard to do and not many authors are able to fit their own "creations" into the real world.

But these things, unfortunately, didn't make me enjoy the read. I had to push through the chapters. I had to force myself to read it and in the end the book didn't deliver what the synopsis promised.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC read!
The premise of Greg Bear’s newest novel is both captivating and alluring, it’s also right up my alley. A young man shipwrecked on his uncle’s hoy, finds himself captured by the Spanish Armada and taken on a grand adventure to a series of mystical islands where there are Dragons, time vampires, and even a wizard names the King of Troy. Here is a story that stems from a point in history, where a real event can open the doors to the Fae and magic. Pulling on multiple legends, myths, and fairytales, Bear creates a weblike story, spinning all these myths into a new mythic-like creation story. It has all the right beats, all the right ingredients to make for interesting and new tale.
But about halfway through the novel, it began to feel like a slog to read. It seemed weighed down by the very parts that made it interesting. The historical aspects are set on the back burner (then eventually lost), the characters feel flat and static, the magic unexplainable and mysterious for no apparent reason. Even the climatic ending is anticlimactic, ending with a big “oof” type of twist.
I understand why Bear keeps the “magic” in the dark—it certainly feels like an old fairytale or something pulled out of Grimm. But where those stories are mere pages, this is an entire novel of an ungrounded, unanchored magic system. So at a certain point it feels too vague and confusing.
I also found the main character, Reynard, frustrating. He had barely any growth. He is the same as he was in the beginning. He never has a moment where he seems to change.
I think Bear had a very interesting premise and idea, but got lost in all the complexities. He wanted to do pull from his extensive knowledge of other lore (and myths and religious tales) that he forgot to care about creating his own story. As the novel’s title claims, the story itself is “unfinished.”
I’d recommend it if you want something different to read, but not if you are looking for a satisfying “finished” tale.

My sincere gratitude to netgalley.com and the publisher for the ARC of The Unfinished Land by Greg Bear, and here is my honest review in exchange.
A teenaged boy destined to fulfil a grand purpose, a mysterious island home to magical creatures and people, and a violent clash between humans and gods – all of this set amidst the Anglo-Spanish war of the Elizabethan era – are ingredients for a cracking fantasy-adventure, and I expected The Unfinished Land to be one. But was it?
Reynard, an English boy with gypsy ancestry on his mother’s side, is adrift alone in the ocean on the wreck of his uncle’s ship, blasted away by the Spanish armada while transporting foodstuff for the English fleet. He is rescued by a Spanish warship which is also lost in the ocean, shrouded by a heavy mist. The ship is forced to land on an island, suffering some damage that needs repairing. One lowly old sailor, who is instrumental in rescuing Reynard, is not what he seems, and is no stranger to the mysterious island. After some terrible events on the beach that result in the destruction of the ship and most of its crew, Reynard is taken on a fantastic journey through the island in which he meets a variety of magical creatures and people, towards the centre of a war between mighty forces, to fulfil a higher purpose that is incomprehensible to him.
The author has built a fantastic, magical world, filling it with fascinating creatures and features. There are the splendidly coloured drakes (gigantic dragonflies that become paired with blunters – humans who drink their nymphal fluid), trees that can walk away if they want to, roads – called trods – that reveal themselves only to those worthy of treading them, and Eaters who steal time from humans and leave them to age and die. And there are the Crafters, who create worlds and histories and destinies from their imagination, aided by the words brought to them by the Travelers and their servants – the ones who roam the earth to bring back news of humanity.
But, excellent world-building alone serves no ultimate purpose in the absence of a coherent plot, and that is where this fantasy fails. The plot moves along nicely enough initially, until Reynard is told that he has been brought to the island to fulfil a grand purpose. It takes on some wild turns from this point onwards, and any sense of comprehension that the reader has is utterly, irrevocably lost. Just like Reynard, the reader is left struggling to understand what goes on and the purpose of it all. Exasperatingly, almost every character Reynard, and the reader, encounters speaks in riddles. The author’s extensive use of archaic English – thou, thee, thy, trow, knowest, hast, and so on – compounds the annoyance. There are some traces of Norse and Celtic mythologies in this novel, but nothing is developed sufficiently to be recognizable. All the magical things, so painstakingly created, seem to be serving no purpose at all. The multitude of characters, though interesting in their own right, too dissolve into obscurity towards the end of the story. The ending itself is as confounding as the rest of the tale.
In an effort to make sense out of this bizarre novel, I read it almost twice, and still came up with nought. For me, The Unfinished Land is a fantastical journey through a magical wonderland that leads, most unfortunately, nowhere at all!

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.

The Unfinished Lad by Grieg Bear- A young man in 1800's England has been visited by apparitions telling him certain things that will come to pass in a very cryptic way. When his uncle's fishing boat is commandeered to fight the Spanish Armada of King Philip, he finds himself the only survivor after a terrible battle. Sinking slowly into a vast sea, he is rescued by Spaniards and taken aboard their vessel. A thick grey gloom has cloaked them, and they know not where their ship is headed until they behold a strange land. Here they will be tested, for this is no normal land and the powers that rule it are constantly at war. For many years I've read and enjoyed Grieg Bear's science fiction novels, novellas, novelettes, and short stories, but stayed away from the fantasy writings. I've always been amazed and entertained by his work, but I must confess, I did not enjoy this novel. The world-building is first-rate, as always, and the characters well drawn. Just not for me. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, who provided me an advance copy of the book for a fair and honest review. The book starts off feeling like a fantasy novel or a Guy Gavriel Kay novel, set in the immediate aftermath of the battle of England with the Spanish Armada. The action quickly moves to an island full of various mysteries. I found this promising and intriguing, and, at this point, supernatural/fantasy elements started to come into play. However, though I enjoyed the prose and the atmosphere immensely, I kept searching for more of a plot. This felt very much like a Jeff VanderMeer novel in that the atmosphere is mystical and you want to spend time there, but I personally got hung up on wanting to see the story driven forward at a quicker pace.
It has a bit of a portal fantasy feel, and at points, even feels a bit like Robin Hobb Liveship traders, but I think people who like VanderMeer, Guy Gavriel Kay, and even Chabon's fantasy, and even Seanan McGuire should give this a try.
I liked the setting and time period, as most fantasy feels based on history before this point or after this point in time, if history based, and enjoyed the mythology set up in this series. Assigning it 3 stars personally, but people who dig atmosphere this will be a 5 star for sure.

The Unfinished Land is an enjoyable read that takes you to the realm of Tir Na Nog. I vaguely remembered this was related to Irish folklore about mythical islands. The story follows Reynard's journey and discovery of who he is and his life's purpose. I admit it took me a bit to get used to all of the hast thous, and flow of the speech patterns of the characters. I did like the cast of people around Reynard, especially Valdis and Calafi, and would have loved more interaction between Reynard and Valdis. The Travelers who journeyed with Reynard have their own magical abilities and would have liked finding out more about them and their backstory. Overall I enjoyed the read and the interpretation of the legend of TIr Na Nog.