The Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable

Calwyn has never been beyond the high ice wall that guards the sisters of Antaris from the world of Tremaris. She knows only the rounds of her life as a novice ice priestess, tending her bees, singing her ice chanments, and dreaming. But then Calwyn befriends Darrow, a mysterious Outlander who appears inside the Wall and warns of an approaching danger. To help Darrow, to see the world, and perhaps save it, Calwyn will leave the safety of teh Wall for a journey with a man she barely knows–and an adventure as beautiful and dangerous as the music of chantment itself.

This is my third time reading this book, and I’d have to say that third time is not the charm. Not that I didn’t like this book. I just didn’t like it as much as I did the first and second times. But I still liked it a lot.

The writing was just as lovely as I remembered. I do like Constable’s prose very much. It flows and is descriptive and lyrical and greatly fits the story.

The characters…there lies one of my problems. I’m not going to say they were one dimensional or lacked distinguishing traits, because that’s not at all true. They just…were flat anyway. Maybe it’s because Calwyn is your stubborn fantasy heroine with determination and strong magical powers and Darrow’s that mysterious, brooding hero that you know the heroine will end up in love with. So what’s there really to like when you can read similar characters in so many other fantasy books? The supporting characters were better. Mica’s my favorite (she’s sassy) with Trout the skeptical inventor a close second.

And then the ending…is sort of bizarre. Maybe rather anti-climatic. I wouldn’t say it’s a let down, since I didn’t notice that there wasn’t something right about the ending until reading it a third time. It just could have been wrapped up better. And then maybe the book could stand along and there wouldn’t need to be a second and third book (though I like the second book more and am reading the third now).

Mainly, the book just seemed to lack emotion. It’s hard to describe. For however much I like this book, something wasn’t quite right this time around. I just rarely felt what Calwyn was feeling or felt that she was angry or upset or nervous or whatever. It wasn’t convincing.

But like I said, I still really like The Singer of All Songs and recommend it if you’re looking for a lovely fantasy book to race through. It reads very quickly.

Review of The Waterless Sea will be coming soon, as well as one on The Adoration of Jenna Fox, a most wonderful book. For once, I’m behind in reviewing.