Readers' rating:
Published Feb 2009
496 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
The climactic volume of the epic quartet follows the Bards of Edil-Amarandh on a vital quest to merge their powers against a nameless evil.
In an increasingly battle-ravaged land, Maerad, Cadvan, and Hem desperately search for one another as they make their separate journeys. The Black Army is advancing north, and even as Maerad faces a mighty confrontation with the Landrost to save Innail, all of the Seven Kingdoms are threatened with bitter and devastating defeat. Yet in Maerad and Hem lives the secret to the mysterious Singing, and legend holds that if they release the music of Elidhu together, they have the power to defeat the Nameless One. Can brother and sister find each other in time to fight this all-powerful enemy, and are they strong enough — even reunited — to defeat him before all is lost?
"Starred Review. Sonorous motifs and resonant archetypes form the backbone of this series conclusion ... Start with the first book (The Naming, 2002)." - Kirkus Reviews.
"From the refinement of character development to the dramatic portrayal of impending doom, the clearly written narrative creates a fitting conclusion to this epic high-fantasy series. Grades 7-12. " - Booklist
Z"While not a starting point for new readers, fans of the series will enjoy seeing the final stage of Maerad's transformation from a slave to her world's savior, and they will once again be drawn into this complex and gripping tale." - School Library Journal
This information about The Singing was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Alison Croggon was born in 1962 in South Africa. When she was four, her English parents returned home, and then migrated to Australia when she was seven, where she has lived ever since.
Croggon trained as a journalist on the Melbourne Herald and is the internationally acclaimed author of numerous poetry collections and plays. Her first book of poems, This is the Stone, won the 1991 Anne Elder and Dame Mary Gilmore Prizes. Her novella Navigatio was highly commended in the 1995 Australian/Vogel literary awards. Her second book of poems, The Blue Gate, was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Poetry Prize. Attempts at Being was shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards and was also nominated for a Pushcart Prize in the US.
The Gift, the first book in Alison's acclaimed young adult fantasy series The Books of Pellinor, was shortlisted for two Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction and named a 2003 CBCA Notable Book. The series has since been released to critical acclaim in the US, the UK and Germany.
Alison is a Melbourne theatre critic for The Australian, and keeps a respected blog of theatre criticism, Theatre Notes. She is married to playwright Daniel Keene, lives in Melbourne and has three children.
Follow Alison at http://www.alisoncroggon.com/
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