The Spellsong War: Book Two: The Spellsong Cycle - Softcover

Modesitt Jr., L. E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1857237269 ISBN 13: 9781857237269

Publisher: Orbit, 1999

Synopsis

When Anna Marshall wished she could be anywhere but Ames, Iowa, and anything but a singer and music instructor at Iowa State University, she did so at exactly the wrong time and found herself pulled from Iowa to the very different world of Erde. On Erde, music is magic, and Anna's ability makes her an enormously powerful sorceress - potentially.

With her unique power, Anna saves the kingdom of Defalk from invasion and in six months becomes its regent. After six years of war, Defalk is weak and Anna must turn her efforts to rebuilding the kingdom. But she has little time: Defalk's southern neighbour is already encroaching on the border. Rising to power in Defalk may have been the easy part; now Anna will need all her skill merely to hold on to what's she's managed to accomplish so far.

About this title

Review

L.E. Modesitt is best known for his long fantasy series beginning with The Magic of Recluce (1991), in which magical power works with the unforgiving balance and precision of physics. The Soprano Sorceress (1997) and its sequel The Spellsong War are similar in tone but use another magic system based on song. Thus singer-heroine Anna, summoned from Earth to the fantasyland of Erde, finds that her trained voice makes her the most powerful sorceress around. After wreaking much magical devastation in book one, she's now running the land of Defalk as Regent. Defalk is surrounded by scheming enemies, while its own vassal lords dislike being ruled by a woman. Modesitt's strength and weakness is that he imagines what follows in minute, realistic detail. It's good that, unlike some authors, he doesn't gloss over the hassles of tax-gathering in a feudal economy...but a little of this goes a long way. Anna deals with foe after foe in repeated, gruelling magical battles, each well visualised and each taking its toll of her health...but with a few too many roughly similar skirmishes in the book's 656 pages. One wonders, tongue in cheek, whether Modesitt deliberately conveys the exhaustion of war by half-exhausting his readers. Big, well-crafted and demanding. --David Langford

Review

Modessit creates a deeper and more intricate world with each volume. (PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY)

An intriguing fantasy in a fascinating world. (Robert Jordan)

Modessit follows the very real concerns for food, latrines, shelter, medicine, and the struggle for power within the group, while tracing the lifes of gifted men and women in the process of becoming legends. (LOCUS)

L.E. Modesitt is best known for his long fantasy series beginning with The Magic of Recluce (1991), in which magical power works with the unforgiving balance and precision of physics. The Soprano Sorceress (1997) and its sequel The Spellsong War are simi (David Langford, AMAZON.CO.UK)

About this edition

• Publisher: Orbit
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1857237269
• ISBN 13: 9781857237269
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 672