|
The Wild Hunt Trilogy — (2011-2012) Publisher: Novice knight Gair has a gift: he can hear the songs of the earth, and weave that music into magic. But in the Holy City, that makes him a witch, and that means he must be tortured until he gives up the name of his demon master... except that he has no demon lord; it's just something he can do. After the Questioning comes the court, and Gair himself is as shocked as the knights to find his death-by-fire sentence has been commuted to excommunication, branding and life banishment — but only if he can make it over the boundary by sundown. Gair may be starved, broken in body and with a festering new brand on the palm of his hand — but his spirit has not yet given up, and with help from an unlikely source he escapes to the Western Isles, where he hears about the Veil that separate the worlds, and the Guardians who protect it. But this peaceful haven is threatened by Gair's arrival. Those who condemned him set an implacable witchfinder on his trail, for they want him dead. And a renegade Guardian is striving to tear down the Veil, releasing evil, unearthly monsters into the human world. Before his training is complete, Gair must take his place in the frontline against these forces — and he will pay a terrible price.
 
Book 3: The Dragon House
 Songs of the Earth
CLASSIFICATION: Songs of the Earth is a PG-13 traditional epic fantasy novel
that reminded me at times of Terry Brooks, David Eddings’ The
Belgariad, and Gail Z. Martin.
FORMAT/INFO: Songs of the Earth is 480 pages long divided over 37
numbered/titled chapters and an Epilogue. Narration is in the third person,
mainly via the protagonist Gair, but there are also several minor POVs. Songs
of the Earth comes to an acceptable stopping point, but leaves many
matters unresolved and is the first book in The Wild Hunt trilogy,
which will be followed by Trinity Moon (Book 2) and The
Dragon House (Book 3).
June 16, 2011 marks the UK Hardcover and Trade Paperback publication of Songs
of the Earth via Gollancz.
The North American version will be published by Tor in Spring 2012.
ANALYSIS: According to Gollancz,
Elspeth Cooper’s Songs of the Earth is “the fantasy debut of 2011”. If only that
were true. Instead, Songs of the Earth is a mediocre fantasy offering that fails on
many different levels.
Originality is the novel’s most glaring problem. Not only is the magic system
in Songs
of the Earth highly derivative — shape-shifting, weaving shields,
creating illusions, healing, speaking with the mind, controlling the four
elements, etc. — but the world itself is sorely lacking in the creativity
department, with races (Nordmen, elves, desertmen), religion (think the Roman
Catholic Church) and various other aspects of the world (chess, hypoglycemia)
culled from obvious sources. In fact, it seems like the only effort Elspeth
Cooper made in creating her secondary world was to change the names of things
and alter a few minor details.
To make matters worse, world-building is practically nonexistent. For instance,
it takes the author over 300 pages to reveal that Astolans are not human, while
important concepts like the Veil, the Hidden Kingdom, the Founding Wars and the
starseed are barely skimmed over. Then there’s the story, which is bloated with
commonplace ideas like the hero blessed with incredible power, a school for the
magically gifted, insurrection among the church’s leaders, a magical boundary
that is weakening, and a power-hungry villain who once was a student of the
good guys, the Guardians of the Veil.
Writing-wise, Elspeth Cooper’s prose is accessible and impressive at times —
especially whenever the author is describing scenes of sword fighting, shape shifting,
using the Song and romance — but dialogue and similes/metaphors are simplistic
and seem more suited for a children’s book instead of an adult audience.
Characters, meanwhile, are difficult to visualize apart from vague impressions
(old, young, tall, strong, fat, dark-haired, etc.), while understanding how a
character thinks or feels is only marginally successful. This is particularly
disappointing because the book contains a number of interesting themes that
could have been explored in greater detail: Gair haunted by the memories of his
torture; Gair’s church upbringing suddenly challenged by a different lifestyle
and different beliefs; Aysha’s handicap; human/non-human prejudice; and Alderan
committing evil in the name of the greater good. On the positive side, Gair is
a charming protagonist while the relationships he develops with Aysha, Darin,
Alderan and the like are reasonably convincing.
Structurally, Songs of the Earth suffers from POVs that shift between
characters without any rhyme or reason, such as Alderan disappearing from the
book for long stretches at a time; subplots that either take too long to
develop or fail to reward the reader (Masen’s journey to warn the Guardians of
the Veil, the coup against Preceptor Ansel, Elder Goran’s motive for hunting
down Gair, etc.); and several questionable choices made by the author,
including her decision to withhold key pieces of information (Gair’s shape
shifting ability, Tanith’s royal heritage, Savin’s evil nature and dark goals)
for no logical reason that I can see, except maybe to provide extra drama
during their eventual unveiling. As a result, Songs of the Earth feels
very disjointed, like the author didn’t quite know what she was doing and just
ended up haphazardly putting together pieces as she was writing her book. These
structural issues also cause the book to suffer through several periods (Gair’s
journey to Chapterhouse, Masen’s journey, Gair’s life at Chapterhouse) that are
just downright tedious.
Admittedly, the novel redeems itself some during the last fifty pages or so
with tragic events that end Songs of the Earth on a powerful
note, while introducing a number of interesting developments to be explored in
the sequel. By that time though, it was a little too late, as the book did not impress
me enough to justify reading the second volume of The Wild Hunt trilogy.
That said, I believe Trinity Moon has the chance to be
much better than its predecessor, if Elspeth Cooper can improve her craft and if she can write a more focused and compelling narrative. Unfortunately for her
debut, Songs of the Earth is a pedestrian fantasy novel plagued by
unoriginality, simplistic writing, and structural flaws.
—Robert Thompson
|
Elspeth Cooper Elspeth Cooper (Ellie) was born and raised in Newcastle upon Tyne. Ever since she was read IVANHOE as a bedtime story, she has been fascinated by storytelling, even declining a place at university because she was more interested in writing than studying — much to her parents' chagrin. Now her lifelong fascination with language has been put into practice with SONGS OF THE EARTH, her first novel, and the first of The Wild Hunt series. Ms Cooper lives in Northumberland with her husband and cats. Here's Elspeth Cooper's website.
links. Or donate.
