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