Tuesday 21 February 2012

Review: Songs of the Earth - Elspeth Cooper

The Book of Eador, Abjurations 12:14, is very clear: Suffer ye not the life of a witch. For a thousand years, the Church Knights have obeyed that commandment, sending to the stake anyone who can hear the songs of the earth. There are no exceptions, not even for one of their own.

Novice Knight Gair can hear music no one else can, beautiful, terrible music: music with power. In the Holy City, that can mean only one thing: death by fire—until an unlikely intervention gives him a chance to flee the city and escape the flames.

With the Church Knights and their witchfinder hot on his heels, Gair hasn’t time to learn how to use the power growing inside him, but if he doesn’t master it, that power will tear him apart. His only hope is the secretive Guardians of the Veil, though centuries of persecution have almost destroyed their Order, and the few Guardians left have troubles of their own.

For the Veil between worlds is weakening, and behind it, the Hidden Kingdom, ever-hungry for dominion over the daylight realm, is stirring. Though he is far from ready, Gair will find himself fighting for his own life, for everyone within the Order of the Veil, and for the woman he has come to love.

Series: The Wild Hunt #1, Genre: Fantasy, Pages: 496, Published: Feb 23 2012, Publisher: Gollancz, Source. For review


My thoughts:
Religious persecution against those with magic. Yes that always brings forth emotions in me. They are the perfect baddies, sitting in their cold towers preaching about salvation and hunting innocents with magic in their blood, even if those loves the Goddess just as much as the rest.

We got Gair, our hero, who is being tortured because he has magic. A good hero who finds his own way, friends and love down the road that is this book. He never loses faith either, something that is not easy after what he has been through. But he does does wonder what he really is.

Still what I liked most was the story. We had our Spanish inquisition, they had theirs; going after those who heard the song. There are even fundamentalists in the desert that they are fighting. A world very true to our own in a way. In other ways not to much, they have a one true Goddess, they have magic, and they have a veil that separates other world from theirs. A veil that is breaking, and then all hell will break loose. 

A church is always a good bad guy, because we as the reader know that Gair is good and it not to blame for hearing something that is in tune with the earth itself. And as the story progresses I learn more and I do want to read the next book because how can this end well when the world is caught up in their own madness?

Conclusion:
An interesting start to a new series. It is so familiar, yet so different from our own world and that makes it ring more true. I hope book 2 is just as exciting.

Cover.
It looks cool when I see it irl


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And I am over at Alternative Read with a review of Dark Enchantment by Anya Bast

23 comments:

  1. oooh. Sounded like one heck of an adventure. Happy Fat Tuesday!!!!

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  2. Happy Fat Tuesday Carole :)
    I have already eaten fat yummy things, mmm.

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  3. I forgot it was fat Tuesday! Thanks for htat reminder. The review was great too. Sounds like an interesting series. I'm so glad I stopped by today.

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  4. Sounds like this is a really intriguing and solid start to this new fantasy series! Love the cover:)

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  5. Oh I love Witch stories. R.P.'s do equal the perfect baddies because they are so narrow minded and evil! Great Review!

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  6. This does sound good! I have never heard the term Fat Tuesday, so I will now have to look it up.

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  7. The blurb sounds great, glad to see the book lived up to it.

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  8. This does sound like a fun new series!

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  9. Oh, I love stories that are familiar yet they still ofter something different. Those are always fun. Glad you found a good new series.

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  10. Chris
    Sorry not yet


    Dana
    Happy Fat Tuesday :) And got something yummy to eat today, yay

    Jenny
    It was a cool one :)

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  11. Felicia
    Evil narrow minded people, they do drive me utterly insane!

    Viv
    We call it..oh, dunno what the translation would be in the end.


    Carol
    That is always a good thing


    Amused
    It is :)


    Missie
    I like that too, it feels like home, yet not

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  12. I think this sounds like the making of a great fantasy series. For some reason I have been avoiding them big time. Probably because I have a few that I need to jump back into and then finish!

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  13. I like it when it is close to our world, but yet is different. Gives you hope that things may turn out a bit differently but still close enough to connect. Yep, this one is for me.

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  14. Great review Blod, this sounds like an exciting start to a new series.
    That is a cool cover.
    haha, I just realized it's Fat Tuesday.

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  15. Oh my goodness, why does everyone hate witches so much? I just finished a book set in an anti-witch world as well.

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  16. I am not that fond of books with religion, and yes, those church people make great bad guys. Even in real life.

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  17. Staci
    You really need to come back to fantasy, I say it all the time, but it's just the best genre in the world


    Melissa
    I do hope things will work here, maybe saving the world with magic and showing that they are good.


    Naida
    I do hope the other books will be good too


    Steph
    Those poor witches. Taking all the blame

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  18. Aurian
    I am not big om them either, except in fantasy because there it is different :)

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  19. This sounds like a great start to a series and one I'd enjoy. I'll have to check this one out further. Glad you enjoyed it.

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  20. Hmmm, magic you say? Church you say? Sounds interesting to me. :) Thank you!

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  21. Reading from your review, this book sounds like it ended in a sort of cliffhanger...

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  22. Darlene
    I hope you do :)

    Melissa
    Magic, church, evil idiots, evil magic too, an academy of magic, you name it.


    Cherry
    I would not say that....

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