The Singer of All Songs

       

        I read The Singer of All Songs, by Kate Constable. It was first copyrighted in 2002 by Scholastic Press. It is a young-adult fiction novel. The Singer of All Songs is a Fantasy novel, meaning it has magical powers and creatures that would be unbelievable in the real world. The book takes place in a world with different continents and oceans from Earth. Most people in that world have stopped believing in the power of chantment, but now the world is in danger from a sorcerer. Chantment is the form of magical powers the author uses in the trilogy. Each power of chantment controls one of nine elements. For example, there are powers of Ice, the power of Irons, and powers of Wind. Most people can only sing one type of chantment, but there are legends of one person someday becoming the Singer of All Songs. In the book, an evil sorcerer wants to take over the world by trying to become the Singer of All Songs. Calwyn, Darrow, and their friends must try to stop him before he creates his dictatorship. There is a theme of all different types and races of people needing to work together for there to be peace.
        The story is told in third-person limited. The narrator shows us the thoughts and feelings of Calwyn, the main character. At the beginning of the book, Calwyn is a young priestess of Antaris, a small village in the mountains. Most of Antaris is dedicated to a temple of the Goddess, where all of the priests are women and chanters of Ice. Antaris is surrounded by an enormous wall of ice, which the sisters maintain. During one of the temple's rituals, Calwyn discovers a stranger on the inside of the wall, injured. Darrow has been running from Samis, and evil sorcerer attempting to become the Singer of All Songs. Darrow is saved by Calwyn, but when the Guardian of the temple plans to sacrifice him for breaching the wall, he and Calwyn escape to the Outlands. They journey to the ocean to find Darrow's friends Xanni and Tonno, who have a boat. Xanni and Tonno take them to find chanters of other powers, in hopes of building a force capable of using against Samis. First they travel to Mithates, hoping to find a chanter with the power of Fire to aid them. Instead they recruit Trout, who has no power, but does have a magical artifact he found months earlier. The team starts to follow Samis with hopes that he will destroy himself with his chantment. As they cross and ocean, pirates attack them and they rescue Mica, a wind worker. Xanni is killed by the pirates. When they stop for fresh water supplies on a small island, a mute named Halasaa joins them. Halasaa has the power of Becoming, which heals; however, Halasaa can only use it through dance to heal. The end of their journey to follow Samis leads them to the lost city of Spareth. There, Samis has conjured illusions to slow them down: fog and strange creatures designed to make Calwyn and her friends lose their way. They get through the fog with Calwyn guiding them, and then see Spareth for the first time. It is built like a modern city today, with tall buildings and big fountains. Calwyn leads the group to a tower, where they are almost overwhelmed by Samis in a battle of chantment. Samis is finally killed with a ball from Trout's slingshot. The intended audience is probably early teens to young adults, although people of any age could enjoy it. The Singer of All Songs is fiction, without any realistic elements. The author kept me interested by not revealing ideas until after they had been introduced by the characters' actions. The author's style is to write about events in the order they occur in the story, with occasional flashbacks to help explain a character's past. I think it is effective for the intended audience because the novel is well written, but not childish.
        The book did not affect me that much. I enjoyed it because of the way it was written and the fantasy genre it is in. I felt like it was a calmer version of the popular plot that an evil sorcerer is trying to take over the world so the protagonist has to learn sorcery themselves to stop him. In the story, everyone who performs chantment in the book already knows it; and the quest to stop Samis is already undertaken by Darrow at the start of the book. The novel didn't change any ideas I hold. It doesn't fit in with my personal world views very well because of the differences of our world and theirs. The setting of the story is of a world without technology, comparable to the 1800s here. Women are considered lesser beings, and magic/chantment is a lost art in some communities, while it thrives in others. The novel brought up memories of every other book I have read with a sorcerer in it, the plot is so common. One thing that makes it different is the use of song to power the magic.
        The story The Singer of All Songs would be very enjoyable to anyone who loves a predictable: evil sorcerer tries to take over the world plot. It is very nicely well written, and I enjoyed it as a good read.

Kate Meyer
12/17/2013
Rating: **** (4/5)