A brisk, expertly crafted tale that delivers an important, uplifting lesson about the power of music.
In Himeda’s fantasy novel, a young boy embarks on an adventure of a lifetime to apprentice under a Master of Music, and unlocks his own hidden powers along the way.
Eleven-year-old Kaelin loves and fears music with equal measure. He believes that his flute playing was responsible for a concurrent horrific event that occurred when he was younger, so he now only plays in the forest, where no one else can hear him. The boy lives with his older sister on the Bardic Isles, where the Bards fled after coming close to extinction by the hands of the Druids, more than 200 years before. After hearing the visiting Master Bergid play music that Kaelin himself had composed the day before, he follows the musician and asks to become his apprentice. The two make their way to Elegy for the Spring Council, and the Master slowly discovers Kaelin’s extraordinary gift: “If he focused intently on something in the clearing—a rock, leaf, or tree—he could hear its music, wondrous music that seemed to define its very essence.” As Kaelin sets about exploring his unique abilities, he’ll be forced to confront his own past, as well as the music within Elegy’s Bardic Mountain—the power of which threatens to drain him completely. Over the course of this novel, Himeda employs realistic dialogue and a clear, immersive tone that moves the action effortlessly forward as characters develop. She’s creatively crafted a fantasy novel in which magic comes from music itself, which some readers may consider to be a bold move. It’s a decision that pays off well, though, and the author employs clever touches that build upon the musical aspect, such as dividing the book into “movements” made up of individual chapters. Although the worldbuilding is robust throughout, complete with epic backstories, the novel skips lightly toward its emotional conclusion—one that’s satisfying but also leaves things delightfully open-ended for a future installment of the Bardic Isles series.
A brisk, expertly crafted tale that delivers an important, uplifting lesson about the power of music.Pub Date: April 13, 2023
ISBN: 9781959900009
Page Count: 375
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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