After Reading: Spellsinger

By: Meradeth Houston on 5:31 AM

by Alan Dead Foster

In a world of sentient animals and humans, the hardheaded (and hard-shelled) wizard Clothahump searches across the dimensions for another kind of wizard to help defeat the looming threat posed by the armies of the Plated Folk. What he gets is Jonathan-Thomas Meriweather, part-time would-be rock guitarist and janitor, who finds that with the use of a unique instrument called a duar, he can perform magic by playing and choosing from his well-worn repertoire of rock. Trouble is, while the lyrics he sings may be righteous, the magic they spawn is all too often something else.


You know, this is one of those cases where the blurb doesn't really give an accurate picture of the book. That's fine, really, but reading it on goodreads I was like "wait, was that what I read??". Anyhow, I haven't read any adult books in a while and was thinking I should probably do something about that. I picked this one up thinking it sounded kind of interesting, and it was pretty fun. Not exactly riveting, though. I enjoy high fantasy from time to time, but this didn't quite hit the mark. The talking animals kept making me think of picture books, haha! Also, things never really went anywhere. Like, the main character wandered all over, gathered a crew, and arrived at the city, but the impending invasion by the enemy wasn't even close to happening. Strange, but I like my books with a little more action :) Anyhow, it was well written, and entertaining at points, but I'll be returning to YA with pleasure!