THE SOPRANO SORCERESS
by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

Reviewed by Eoghann Irving

No, I don't know if that's a pen name or not.

L.E. (for short) has built up a quite impressive commercial reputation
writing books about the land of Recluce.  Obviously he's finally got bored
of that, so we have a new world to explore.

This new world has some interesting features to it.  Our heroine, Anna
Marshall, is a professional singer from our world who finds herself inexplicably 
in the world of Erde where magic is created by singing.  She finds herself
thrown straight in at the deep end of political maneuverings, sexism, oh
and the odd war.

Its a big book at some 658 pages. Is there some rule I don't know that says
fantasy books must be over 500 pages in length?  Its part one of "The
Spellsong Cycle" of course.

However, despite my cynicism this was a very enjoyable read.  Nice people
die, things don't end happily ever after, characters posses more than one
dimension.

The song magic is interesting and logically worked out.  Anna doesn't
simply forget about her previous life when she arrives in Erde, but
continues to try and contact her daughter throughout the book.  The author
points out some of the less pleasant aspect of living in the middle ages.
By the end of the book I was looking forward to the second installment.

This is a traditional fantasy tale in many respects, although it doesn't
have a big bad "evil" guy.  The writing style if relatively straightforward
concentrating on the story rather than literary tricks.

Basically if you like fantasy you'll enjoy this.

8/10