I was charmed by the first book in L.E. Modesitt's Spellsong trilogy. I discovered the first book, The Soprano Sorceress at the library while on maternity leave. It left me wanting to read more about the fascinating universe and powerfully strong protagonist.It would have been better if Modesitt had left me wanting more. By the time he gets to Darksong Rising, the third and final book in the series, he's doing nothing but practicing his very skillful narrative to give us more of the same.The UniverseThe Spellsong Trilogy takes place in a land where music is magical--literally. The protagonist, Anna, is ripped from our world where she was sorrowfully regretting her tedious life as a professor and mourning the death of her child and the estrangement of her husband.Anna finds herself in a land where women are seen as property or worse. Yet, she has a power that will make her the strongest force in all of the lands. Her singing is able to turn people to flame, direct arrows to their targets, build fortresses, and make land masses dissipate. The CharactersCharacters in Darksong Rising change for no apparent reason. It is almost as if Modesitt wanted there to be character development, but didn't want to take the time to provide credible motivation for those changes.Then there are the characters who don't change even when it seems as though they should--not just because the reader thinks the character should, but because it would be consistent with everything else that character has done and thought so far.In the first two books, the intrigues are less obvious and the dialogue reveals fascinating characters with great depth. In this book, the dialogue is cardboard and characters lack even that much substance.Conflict and ResolutionsThe conflicts in this book are built up suspensefully and with powerful descriptive detail. Unfortunately, they are too easily resolved. There are no challenges for Anna, and we're left wondering why we should worry. Indeed, the reader slogs through the final few conflicts in the book because there is no question about the outcome. It is merely the same battle over and over again.It is also tiresome the way every last thread must be knotted and tied off. Every problem is resolved, and there is no need for anyone to wonder about any detail. While it shows a strong work ethic on the part of the author, it certainly stifles any creativity on the part of the reader and leaves the reader with nothing about the novel that he or she can claim for his or her own imagination.Themes and ToneThis series has been called feminist fiction as it tackles issues of sexism and gender equality head-on. In the first two books, the issues are handled very well. They are an integral part of the story, yet there is no preachiness on behalf of the article. By the third book, Modesitt is merely repeating the same concerns over again. There is no new analysis and no new revelations.The book is also much too gloomy. There is not a moment of untainted happiness or pure laughter for anyone. Problems are resolved, but always with a dark overtone and a lingering guilt and frustration.Thankfully, the series is over. The richly textured world is left only partially explored and the universe's potential horribly squandered. My recommendation to anyone would be to read the first in the series and then stop. Your imagination will reap much riper fruits than it will if you satisfy your curiosity by reading the rest of the series.
This is an enjoyable and entertaining story. Especially when added to the first two books in the series. That being said, there is little new in this story, and it is entirely predictable. The diminuative plot can be summarized as: people attack the sorceress and she defeats them. Not much to it. The battles and intrigue in this book are almost negligable, especially compared to the first two books. The sorceress destroys opposing forces in less than a page each time. She calls the spell and they're gone. The enjoyable portions were the continuing saga of the characters to which the reader has become endeared in the first two books, and the development of new ideas by the sorceress in this world, for example, the creation of a pony express type of mail system.Again, though, the book is enjoyable and entertaining, and I'm starting the 4th book immediately.
What do You think about Darksong Rising (2001)?
A world where song is the most powerful force to be reckoned with should appeal to any who claim a great affinity for music, or feel it is true here. In Modesitt's Spellsong Cycle, this is true, where one must be careful of the words they sing. In the third installment, the story continues to follow Anna's(a music teacher from Earth pulled to the medieval Erde where she is suddenly one of the most gifted, or cursed) trials as she tries to bring misogynistic, stubborn rulers to see her views on equality and justice. Between the thirty three provinces and the four countries surrounding the landlocked Defalk, this is a thankless, tiresome task. Her initial intentions start her on a path that lead her to commit more destruction than she ever wished or knew she could. The inner monologue lines get a bit worn because she seems to run over the same concerns continuously. That does lend the reader a taste of the frustration that Anna must be experiencing. However, about midway through, it does lose a bit of it's pull and ends up being more annoying than heart rending. There is also the element of romantic interest, with the lover, for various reasons, kept at bay. Spoiler alert: The final chapter does include one of the more touching, less nauseating surrenderings to such feelings that I have yet encountered. So a good story idea and overall plot, repetitive on the bulk, but a redeeming and happy(though not truly concluded) ending.
—Mackenzie
Modesitt Jr.'s writing style is sensitive, and detailed, but I found this book, as well as the second in the series a little tedious. The story is mostly one attack after another on different forts, with the herione, Anna having pangs of conscience the whole time. It's actually nice that the main character has little or no trouble overcoming her enemies, but she has had has much trouble overcoming her own guilt, to the extent that there was little or no joy to be had in any of the victories. Although a decent amount of wordiness was used, it was not enough to rendure the surroundings emmediate, and the lands Anna travelled through failed to come to life, while the people she met, remained wooden. The excitment engendured in The Soprano Sorceress, ended up bellyflopping in the following two books of the series, which do not differ from each other significantly enough to even merit their own volumes. Anna seems isolated in her own realm, and I found it somehow disappointing to be introduced to Anna's enemies, and their thoughts and feelings, to then have them defeated summarily, without Anna really having a clue as to what was driving them. I am reasonably fond of rabid feminist fantasy, but this one ran out of steam for me.
—Aaron Carson
