A high fantasy following a young woman’s defiance of her culture as she undertakes a dangerous quest to restore her world’s lost magic in Ilana C. Myer’s Last Song Before Night. Her name was Kimbralin Amaristoth: sister to a cruel brother, daughter of a hateful family. But that name she has forsworn, and now she is simply Lin, a musician and lyricist of uncommon ability in a land where women are … where women are forbidden to answer such callings-a fugitive who must conceal her identity or risk imprisonment and even death.
On the eve of a great festival, Lin learns that an ancient scourge has returned to the land of Eivar, a pandemic both deadly and unnatural. Its resurgence brings with it the memory of an apocalypse that transformed half a continent. Long ago, magic was everywhere, rising from artistic expression-from song, from verse, from stories. But in Eivar, where poets once wove enchantments from their words and harps, the power was lost. Forbidden experiments in blood divination unleashed the plague that is remembered as the Red Death, killing thousands before it was stopped, and Eivar’s connection to the Otherworld from which all enchantment flowed, broken.
The Red Death’s return can mean only one thing: someone is spilling innocent blood in order to master dark magic. Now poets who thought only to gain fame for their songs face a challenge much greater: galvanized by Valanir Ocune, greatest Seer of the age, Lin and several others set out to reclaim their legacy and reopen the way to the Otherworld-a quest that will test their deepest desires, imperil their lives, and decide the future.
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I lived this book!
Epic fantasy is my go-to during tough times and there’s a limit to how often I can re-read ‘Lord of the Rings’ so I was cautiously excited when I discovered this trilogy. It sounded too good to be true and it’s even complete – hooray! – unlike other fantasy series I’ve started with more enthusiasm apparently than their writers had. Living in lockdown because of Covid-19 has made me want to get lost in a big story, with characters I care about, who are fighting against evil, both in themselves and in their world. And I want endings that satisfy, while making me want to come back for more.
Ilana C Myer delivers on all counts. This is the best epic fantasy I’ve read in years, with all the ingredients you’d expect – a quest, high drama, blood magic, intrigue, loyalty and deceit, friendship and a soupçon of romance in a medieval-type world. The singers, with harp and ring, are reminiscent of the troubadours but the creative act of making music is dangerous in this world of dark magic. Their contest and their academy link them to the forces of evil. The tension is real, the dangers heart-thumping and the ambiguities are pleasing.
Cultural and religious persecution add to the sense that the city of Tamryllin reflects aspects of our own world. Ditto the sexism, which makes us want Lin and, to a lesser extent, Rianna, to win the respect and status they deserve. Lin is easy to love, damaged and talented, daring to flaunt her musical talent in the all-male enclave of musicians, chosen by a ring-bearer to carry the burden of the quest. Rianna is easier to dismiss at first as a fluff-head, set up for the stereotypical role of medieval maiden wanting romance, not her arranged marriage, and then events take an interesting, unexpected turn.
‘The Last Song Before Night’ echoes Guy Gavriel Kay in its style and in the emphasis on moments where destiny is in play, but these echoes make it richer not derivative. Myer writes lyrically, tantalising the reader with mystery and metaphor. Most of all I enjoyed Myer’s rich imagination, the scale and complexity of the world she has created, her superb descriptions of place and detail. She puts the reader in the scene. ‘The candle danced, enlivened by his breath.’
My nitpicks would be that the timeline requires a stretch of the imagination for all Ned’s experiences at sea to have happened and the characters’ changes of heart are sometimes abrupt but the storytelling sweeps you along.
I lived this book and am halfway through the second in the series. It’s even better!
A lovely book with fascinating characters, Last Song Before Night offers two vibrant heroines: One who voluntarily rejects traditional femininity to pursue her art, and one who is must learn to protect herself rather than depend on others to be protected. It is also about the magic of poetry, and many other things.
In prose both lush and lyrical, Ilana C. Myer presents her stirring opus of singing truth to power. Superbly paced, with vividly drawn characters and a fearless dramatic heart, Last Song Before Night is at once elegiac and triumphant. It’s one of the most impressive debut novels I’ve ever read; I am in awe.