ISBN: 0-812-54559-1 Order from: Amazon.com
A mildly entertaining fantasy, long on fighting and descriptions of minutiae, but light on character development or real suspense.
Reviewed by David on June 13, 1998
Genre: Fantasy (Sword and Sorcery, Multiple Worlds)
Synopsis: Anna Marshall, a middle age vocal teacher is transported magically into a world where singing is a method for invoking magic. As it happens, an invasion of the bad guys is imminent, and Anna gets involved in what seems to be a losing struggle. However, her formal training in singing, and her determination, cause her to become an increasingly influential power in the war-torn country, and she end up being instrumental in unifying and defending it. It helps that she gets in the way of a youth spell, and the use of her new-found magic requires more calories than she can gulp down.
Staying perpetually young, blond and thin, has its own problems, and Anna has to fight with rampant chauvinism. Luckily, she doesn't have to rely on logical persuasion: she can just fry (or brain-wash) the more stubborn opponents.
Modesitt can tell a good story, but there is little originality. There is the usual assortment of fatally stupid enemies, and some by-standers to comment on the hero's heroism. The telling of the story gets a bit monotonous with the endless descriptions of the hero rolling over one set of obstacles after another, ruefully commenting that some jerks respect nothing but force (usually just after frying the jerks). The politics are mildly convoluted, with a number of empire-builders, a mixture of sexist societies, both male and female, and an overall feudal society which Anna starts rebuilding into an absolute monarchy with an efficient bureaucracy.
While the author takes pains to describe the common elements of life, such as food, clothing, transportation, it doesn't seem to help much in world-building. The novel suffers somewhat in clearly being the first in a (hopefully) trilogy. The Spellsong War continues this series.
Overall: 5.5; Plot: 5.5; Characters: 4; Style: 4; World-building: 4; Originality: 4;
Tor, January 1998, Mass-market, 664 pages
ISBN: 0-812-54559-1 Order from: Amazon.com