The Spellsong War - L. E. Modesitt Jr

Image from Goodreads

With The Soprano Sorceress L.E. Modesitt started The Spellsong Cycle, an innovative and compelling new fantasy series that won Modesitt tons of new readers. The Spellsong War will enthrall its readers and continue to build Modesitt's increasingly loyal following.

Anna Marshal is regent of the kingdom of Defalk only a few months after a sorcerer pulled her from her boring life as a music instructor in Ames, Iowa to the world of Erde. With her ability and her integrity she saved Defalk from invasion and became it's regent, now she must defend it against the greedy rulers of neighboring kingdoms who see a weakened state and a possible opportunity.

The Spellsong War was ok. I have to say it was my least favourite L. E. Modesitt book of all the ones I've read to date. I've read only a fraction of the books he's written but it still covers a significant number of books. I thought I'd read enough to say that I'd like pretty much any book he wrote, but this book has revised that opinion.

The main trouble I found with this book was the main character. Anna, who in The Soprano Sorceress is a slightly uncertain woman with a reasonably strong moral compass has become a character with such strong moral views that she wants to force them onto other people and is willing to kill in order to do so. I'm not sure if this is a set up of some description for the rest of the series, maybe we'll see her knocked down a peg in a later book, but I'm not sure. She's too willing and eager to justify her actions, and what we're seeing is a dictatorship in the formation.

This book does have plenty to recommend it. The magic system in use is still an interesting concept, although I'm still struggling to get my head around the fact that she's losing weight by singing no matter how much magic it channels. 

Some of the other characters are interesting to see. I particularly like the child characters, they seem well developed for essentially tertiary characters. 

I'm not saying this book isn't worth picking up, but there are other books, and especially other Modesitt books that I would pick up first. When I read the Soprano Sorceress I was immediately reaching for The Spellsong War. On reading The Spellsong War I didn't feel that same drive.

The Soprano Sorceress - L. E. Modesitt Jr

Image from Goodreads

When Anna Marshall is transported from her boring and frustrating life in Ames, Iowa, to the very different world of Erde, she's angry and confused, but soon finds out that for the first time in her life she's uniquely powerful. In Iowa Anna was a music instructor and small-time opera singer, but on Erde her musical ability makes her a big-time sorceress--potentially.

First she must figure out how to use her ability before the big-time rulers who've notices her arrival kill her just because she's an unpredictable new power....Those rulers may wish they hadn't waited as long as they did.

I read this book during the course of 2015 but I picked up the entire Spellsong Cycle from a charity shop several years ago. I'm a long time fan of L. E. Modesitt Jr's work having enjoyed each book I've read from the Recluce Saga and the one Imager book I have managed to read.

2015 saw us move to a home where I've had access to a very limited selection of my books. I wasn't sure entirely which recluce book came next and I like to read at least one Modesitt book a year, he writes such big books so prolifically I would never be able to keep up otherwise.

The Soprano Sorceress as the first book in the Spellsong Cycle didn't disappoint me. It saw Anna transported to a new planet, she had to learn to handle the overwhelming new powers she had gained. It saw her struggle with the balance of power and control.

The Soprano Sorceress saw me turning page after page desperate to get to the end. As a standalone book I believe it worked reasonably well, but at the end of it enough questions were left unanswered to drive me to pick up the next book in the series.