Singer of Souls, by Adam Stemple
Sep. 9th, 2005 08:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiI finished reading Singer of Souls, the first solo novel by Boiled in Lead singer/literary progeny Adam Stemple last night.
On the one hand, it's a damned impressive first novel, with an interesting cast of characters, a nice take on the oft-trodden "human caught up in the battle between the fae." It treads some familiar ground (you can't put a musician in the middle of that battle -- particularly in a city -- and not bring up War for the Oaks comparisons), but does so in a nicely unique manner. The protagonist, a newly-clean (and still jonesing) heroin addict and musician named Douglas, decides he needs to get away from Minneapolis to stay clean, and moves overseas to Edinburgh, to live with his grandmother and spend time as a busker.
That said, the final fifty pages are incredibly rushed, and probably need another 50-100 pages to truly flesh out what Stemple was trying to do. The book shifts into an incredibly dark tale near the end, and does so much too suddenly for the sake of the novel. Part of that was clearly a deliberate statement on Stemple's part -- that the fae aren't happy fun creatures, and those who deal with them often suffer greatly and change drastically -- but without enough of a transition, it's like reading Eyes of the Dragon, only to find that the final fifty pages are from 'Salem's Lot.
That's not to say I don't recommend it -- I'm frustrated because it should have been better, not that it wasn't good. As first novels go, it's a doozy, and I'm intrigued enough to want more (and I can't imagine that there won't be a sequel). That said, if you don't get it at good discount (Amazon's got it on sale for under $16), it's probably worth waiting for the paperback. If you can only buy one hardcover novel by Stemple this summer, his YA collaboration with his mother, Pay the Piper, is a much better one.
On the one hand, it's a damned impressive first novel, with an interesting cast of characters, a nice take on the oft-trodden "human caught up in the battle between the fae." It treads some familiar ground (you can't put a musician in the middle of that battle -- particularly in a city -- and not bring up War for the Oaks comparisons), but does so in a nicely unique manner. The protagonist, a newly-clean (and still jonesing) heroin addict and musician named Douglas, decides he needs to get away from Minneapolis to stay clean, and moves overseas to Edinburgh, to live with his grandmother and spend time as a busker.
That said, the final fifty pages are incredibly rushed, and probably need another 50-100 pages to truly flesh out what Stemple was trying to do. The book shifts into an incredibly dark tale near the end, and does so much too suddenly for the sake of the novel. Part of that was clearly a deliberate statement on Stemple's part -- that the fae aren't happy fun creatures, and those who deal with them often suffer greatly and change drastically -- but without enough of a transition, it's like reading Eyes of the Dragon, only to find that the final fifty pages are from 'Salem's Lot.
That's not to say I don't recommend it -- I'm frustrated because it should have been better, not that it wasn't good. As first novels go, it's a doozy, and I'm intrigued enough to want more (and I can't imagine that there won't be a sequel). That said, if you don't get it at good discount (Amazon's got it on sale for under $16), it's probably worth waiting for the paperback. If you can only buy one hardcover novel by Stemple this summer, his YA collaboration with his mother, Pay the Piper, is a much better one.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-09 01:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-09 01:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-09 01:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-09 07:18 pm (UTC)Well, that makes it even more interesting for me, after that splendid review. ^_^
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-09 04:50 pm (UTC)Opinion seems to be divided over the abrupt left turn in the last part of Singer of Souls. I thought it was startling and effective. Quite possibly, people who read the book along with its sequel in years hence will have yet another take on it. (I've been thinking about these issues of "timing" in serial artworks a lot lately.)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-09 06:40 pm (UTC)I wouldn't be surprised at all if the sequel eased my qualms about the ending. I've noticed similar reactions when I read the Lemony Snicket books, and then there's the eternal comics vs graphic novels issue.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-09 05:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-09 05:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-09 06:11 pm (UTC)