Part one of this is a review of the book on its own merits, afterward, I will talk about my feelings on Orson Scott Card and his political activities. Songmaster was published in 1980, and as such, it’s the earliest work I’ve read by Card, and this is evident because it is also the worst thing I’ve read by him. It has a strong opening section, that really gets me interested in the premise and had me caring about the characters, but the sections that follow are a seeming random parade of events that lack any real structure and like the film Robocop 2 too much action actually becomes boring when there is no break, and I actually find myself not caring about any of these characters although I identified with them strongly at the start. I had just come off reading two of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation prequels and in Card’s defense, these were both written after Songmaster (although the Foundation series itself is much older) but I really was ready for a change of pace, but sadly, I found this to be a very similar book to those. For one thing the story plays out in short episodes, but also they share many elements, such as an empire in decline, a sympathetic emperor, planned attacks made to look random, brainwashing, a throneworld divided into nationalistic communities, an institution that is exempt from imperial interference and the most unlikely people displaying badass fighting skills. We also see hints of things to come in Card’s work, as Songmaster is particularly reminiscent of Ender’s Game with it’s themes of a child removed from his loving family at a very young age to be trained for a serious task, often with adults conspiring to manipulate his progress without his knowledge. It is a common thing in Card’s work in general for a hero to begin his labor during childhood. (Also see Seventh Son and )Card had a strong premise about the manipulative power of music taken to levels we haven’t seen in the real world, and its role in this future society. If he had stuck with this premise, focused on it, this could have been a great book, but that premise gets lost in a machine-gun barrage of ideas and the chaos becomes dull quickly with abductions, human weapons, statisticians uncovering pension fraud, children thrust into high ranking political office and crippling orgasms. ****I read books as a child, I remember particularly enjoying Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Oz books and several of Roald Dahl’s books for younger readers. As I grew into my teenage years I got lazy and distracted by less intellectual pursuits until my favorite aunt gave me a gift of Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead. These books hooked me instantly and I am a reader today because of them. Card was my favorite author in those days. It was only in the last few years that I started hearing people call Card a “bigot” although they were being rather general, and my liberal friends seem to show less tolerance toward Mormons (Card is one) than any group except Scientologists. So when I saw something vague on Wikipedia saying that Card was sometimes accused of bigotry because of his far right politics, I let the matter go. I’m not a conservative, but I generally tolerate right-wing opinions if they aren’t unreasonable. I did find it hard to believe he was that hard right considering the themes of his books. For example in Lost Boys (a novel with no relation to the film of the same name) the mane character is the head of a Mormon family (and Card actually cast himself in the role in the short story version.) This character is shown to be very impatient with the older women who are the Mormon equivalent of “church ladies” at the temple his family attends, in other words, conservatives. In The Tales of Alvin Maker franchise, conservative traits are common in the villains of the series, including Confederates, politicians after Indian land and a preacher who’s devoutness leads him to persecute others (and inadvertently serve The Devil.)Anyway, it is with the approach of the Ender’s Game movie that the shit has hit the internet fan and the accusations of bigotry have become much more specific. Orson Scott Card stands accused of being anti gay, particularly in being quite vocally against the legalization of same sex marriage. Furthermore there are claims that he is spending his own money to fund a group who’s purpose is to stand in the way of marriage equality. These accusations strike very close to my heart as a very close friend of mine will be exercising her newly won right to marry this fall, and I take exception to anyone who would condemn this wonderful person for that. So I researched it, and...yup...it’s pretty much all true. Except for claims that he threatened to commit violent revolution. That was a misquote, but everything else is true. In Cards blogs he is a strange contradiction. He starts out very compassionate and understanding towards homos, but then quickly descends into hateful condemnation. He acknowledges that being gay is not a choice. He acknowledges that it is natural. He acknowledges that gay people aren’t bad in any way just because they are gay. Then he turns around and condemns them, demands that the law deny them basic rights and accuses them of trying to turn him gay or destroy his marriage. It’s as if he’s two different people. When I came across the below quote, I decided to read Songmaster to try to understand what exactly is going on in his head. In Songmaster (and also in the third Homecoming novel, The Ships of Earth, the only other place where I have dealt with homosexuality in my fiction) I attempt to create real and living characters. I find it nearly impossible to create a character that I do not end up understanding and sympathizing with to some degree. Thus it should surprise no one that I treat homosexuals in my fiction with understanding and sympathy. - Orson Scott Card, 1990The Ships of Earth is a book about a group of pilgrims. God, who is actually a character in the book, let’s them know that there group must have an equal number of male and female members who must pare off and remain faithfully married in order to repopulate the Earth. Zdorab, a minor character, is a librarian who through sheer accident, finds himself recruited to the group against his will. When he reveals to Nafai, the groups Christ-like leader, that he is in fact gay, Nafai convinces him to resist his own natural drives and he agrees to marry the groups resident ugly chick and procreate with her, because it’s what God wants him to do. The two have a child or two and Zdorab’s decision is treated as his own conscious choice to do what’s right and a noble sacrifice. He’s a hero because he found the will in himself to stop being gay. Through most of Songmaster I found myself wondering exactly what sympathetic portrayal of gay characters Card was talking about, since the only thing gay going on was several adults lusting after an eight year old boy. (Stay classy Orson.) Finally in the last third of the book the gay (and once again minor) character is introduced, Josef, and the first thing he does is seduce a woman. The only thing really sympathetic (more like pathetic) about Josef’s gay aspect is that he whimpers to the girl, Kya-Kya, about how difficult life has been because he’s gay, until she agrees to have sex with him. From here on out they are a couple and basically our “sympathetic gay character” is simply a straight guy with a girlfriend and like Zdorab, he becomes a protagonist since as a team the two proactively start making the world a better place...until. Ansset, the book’s main character enters the equation and Josef is instantly smitten. Up until this point, Ansset, whom I interpret as being severely autistic, has shown no sign of sexuality whatsoever, but as he is want to do, he can read Josef’s desires and wants to fulfill them, which eventually happens. When Josef finally gives in to his desire the consequences are both swift and severe resulting in instant permanent bodily harm to the object of his desires followed shortly to an even worse fate for himself. Card’s sympathetic view of homos is clear to me now. These characters are well meaning, good hearted, even innocent people, but it is their own nature that Card portrays as a challenge to be bravely overcome. Card portrays homosexuality like an addiction. Some people are burdened with it and it is a difficult struggle but they must resist it or it will destroy them and the people they love. God and nature are distinctly separate entities to this viewpoint and resisting nature is what god wants you to do. Card has displayed the ability to understand his fellow human beings, and yet he continues to crusade against a group that had picked no fight with him. I would be more understanding of the six-toothed hillbilly who was conditioned from birth to believe that the word of the Bible is fact, even though he never did learn to read it. That’s just ignorance. Card is intelligent and educated on the subject, he has no excuse. Yet, it also means he has the potential grow out of his hate. He’s smart enough, just stubborn I guess. In the mean time, after all I’ve learned from this, I wonder if I’ll still be able to enjoy his books. I read The Ender Quartet multiple times in my teens and twenties. Since then several more Ender books have come out, including the first three Shadow books that have sat on my shelf for years. If I get around to reading them will the experience be untainted by Card’s assholery? There are other books by him that are not in my possession, that I was looking forward to getting around to, such as The Crystal City, the most recent, and possibly final book in the Tales of Alvin Maker series, which wasn’t out yet the first few times I read through those, and I should be excited that Card is now actually chronicling The Formic War in a series of Ender prequels. Card’s views wouldn’t actually bug me at all if he weren’t actually taking negative action. Since he’s spending his own money to hurt people just because they are gay, if I do buy any more of his books, I’ll certainly buy them used rather than contribute to his livelihood until he sees the error of his ways.Sometimes you think you know someone.
This was one of four or five books that I started the year with, all reading at the same time, in different spots in my home. Once I got past the first chapter or two, I felt compelled to finish this, to the exclusion of others.Songmaster is set in a world with Earth, but significantly different from the world we know. Earth is both the armpit of the universe and the home of the Emperor of Everything. What a dichotomy! Earth is a government of continents, not countries, and the US is divided into Western and Eastern America. Some American nameplaces are familiar, and a few references are made to other recognizable places on Earth.Communication at its best is done by Singers, and Singers are trained in the Songhouse on Tew, which is a planet. People still talk, but Singing communicates at a subconscious or subsonic level and affects people's feelings, attitudes, actions. Frankly, I'd hate to live in a world where I could not sing (I CAN sing, but you really don't want to have to listen to it), even to myself. In this world, only Singers can sing (unless you are very small and don't know better), and you can only become a Singer by being raised in the Songhouse.OK, enough about that.The book follows main character Ansett, a supremely gifted Singer, from his beginning as he is separated from his mother, to his death, and slightly beyond, in vignettes, some longer, some shorter. Details are never glossed over, but neither are unimportant things included. I don't need to know the minutiae of his life, endlessly recycled, to know that three years have passed. You understand?At times I found myself identifying with Ansett. He was by turns pampered and abused, praised and vilified. I was able to get into his skin, so to speak, and memories would scamper across my mind, much too quickly to be conscious, but passing through and leaving food for contemplation. Reading this was similar to reading Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein many years ago. I find myself mentally chewing on something days after reading, and learning things about myself I did not know.Orson Scott Card is famous for his Ender books in particular. I've read Ender's Game, which left me glad I'd read it, though I was confused throughout. I've tried reading other Orson Scott Card books and been unable to get into them. Without a doubt, he has a way with words, and sometimes, my brain is just not ready for that train yet.If you've liked other Orson Scott Card books, I recommend this one without reservation. If you've never tried an Orson Scott Card book, this might be a good one to start with.P.S. Others have tagged this gay fantasy or gay romance, and though it does exist in this book, it's mentioned in passing, in a chapter or two, definitely not part of the main plot. If you're not into that, this shouldn't discourage you from reading this book, and if you are, just remember, it's a very small part of Ansett's life. Personally, I loved that it was so casually a part of the background, and not overthought.
What do You think about Songmaster (2002)?
It's been a while since I've read anything by him and I'd definitely forgotten how beautiful how world building is. His prose is so lovely and he'll contrast it by writing in an event or something so horrible or ugly that it sometimes takes another read or two of the passage to comprehend what exactly happened. Songmaster follows one man from events that make his existence significant to his death. The young man transforms from a gifted young singer in an isolated school to the companion of an emperor to a man of great consequence in his own right and finally his return to the home of his youth. There is love, both familial and romantic, cut-throat political maneuvering, bold kidnappings, and whirlwind fight scenes. I really enjoying reading this novel.
—Allisyn
The reviews I’m reading about this book seem to fall into two categories. 1: The reviewer says, “So I went into Songmaster knowing that Card was a homophobic jackass, and I have not changed my opinion. What a jerk. Way to suggest that homosexuals are pedophiles. I hate you, author. I hate you with the fire of a thousand suns.” 2: The reviewer says, “My GOD, I have never been so horrified in my LIFE! There were GAYS in this book! GAYS AND PEDOPHILES!! Orson Scott Card why are you promoting Homosexuals?!”I’m not going to talk about either of those things, although my personal opinion tends to skew sharply towards those of Reviewer #1.Instead I’m going to talk about how this was just… not that good a book, regardless of your feelings towards a certain subject. It was clunky as hell, and seemed to be comprised of three or four separate stories mashed together. I know that part of it, at least, was published serially in a magazine, and maybe as a result the whole book had a tacked-on feel, like the author had realized that he had to fill another 200 pages and wasn’t sure exactly what to talk about. Our main character, Ansset, has at the tender age of seven or eight “the kind of face that melted men's hearts as readily as women's. More readily.” Of course, “melted men’s hearts” seems to also be synonymous with “made everyone assume he was sleeping with the guys who, um, owned him” and also “made people want to grope him” and, wait for it, “made people actually grope him.” Yech. Bad touches.But creepy lust aside, Card has written this character before, and frankly, he’s done it better. If I’m going to read about a super awesome wunderkind who is preternaturally old for his age, has responsibilities far greater than most of the adults in his life, and doesn’t know what to do with his feelings, I’ll go read Ender’s Game. I don’t need to slog through Songmaster. And Ender’s Game features both space warfare and crazy bug aliens, which do sort of trump singers, even if they’re vaguely psychic singers (and even if one of them is apparently really, really good-looking).Plus, when you get right down to it, I like to have a little left up to my own imagination. Just a tad. I don’t ask for much. But in this book, we meet our brilliant really-really-good-looking little hero at the age of three. We watch him progress quickly from I Can Sing Like A Champ to I Can Sing But Have Emotional Issues to Emotional Issues Solved to Hey Guys I’m Singing For An Emperor to (view spoiler)[Oh God They Killed My Emperor to Now I’m Sad But In Charge Of Earth to Now I’m EMPEROR of EVERYTHING to I Think I’ve Fulfilled My Purpose to Guess It’s Time To Die, Peace Y’all (hide spoiler)]
—Monica!
I wanted to like this book, honestly, I did. I'm a fan of Card's 'Ender' books, and the synopsis to Songmaster was one of the most intriguing I've ever come across. While reading however, I found myself constantly questioning the point of the plot. "Songmaster" is quite frankly a poor story. Poorly composed, and poorly told. It's little more than a series of uninteresting things occurring, one after the next, with no larger story arc, and virtually no entertainment value.The various sexual themes/content are also rather unnerving, mainly because there doesn't seem to be any need for it. Anyone who knows anything about Orson Scott Card, knows he's a Mormon, and huge anti-gay whackjob. Why he feels the need therefore, to inject so much homosexuality into this story, is peculiar to say the least. I suspect his purpose was twofold; to make the reader feel uncomfortable about homosexuality, and to portray gays having bad things happening to them. I mean, what would a desperately boring story be, without some unnecessary bronze age preaching to go along with it? This is symptomatic of the puritanical fear/obsession with homosexuality, that small-minded faith-crippled cretins such as himself suffer from.Despite his preposterous religious beliefs, Orson Scott Card is a very talented writer, and story teller, although you wouldn't know it from reading Songmaster. The book showed so much promise, but ended up leaving a sour taste in my mouth, and the knowledge that I'll never get this time back.
—Jamie
