Review: The Singing

The Singing by Alison Croggon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

(This review may contain spoilers.)

After a significant detour in The Crow, The Singing returns to Maerad, and the story then switches back and forth between Hem and Maerad as they search for each other. I enjoyed the return to Innail, the battle with the Landrost, and the warmer friendship between Maerad and Cadvan. Hem's portions were interesting as well - Saliman, the traveling show, the moving army of the Dark. There is plenty of magic and plenty of danger.

I enjoyed it, but the first two are still my favorites. I can't quite put my finger on why. Mainly, I think my hopes and expectations were too high, but it may also have been the effect of switching back and forth between the two characters, where the previous books were always focused on one.

One of the things hampering my 5-star level enjoyment was that the closer we got to the end, the more remote Maerad became to everyone around her. This is just when I felt like she should be getting closer to others and coming to greater understanding of herself, her magic, and the world around her - as she did in the Riddle, but now it should be in a broader sense than before.

Instead, she is no longer capable of thought, so overwhelmed by magic that she can't even open her eyes. She struggles with herself and her visions a lot more than interacting with Cadvan. He just looks at her with concern a lot, and she isn't even aware he's there. The end of the book mostly just happens to her as magic takes control, and Cadvan sits by.

Then it's over and goes straight into the epilogue, which means a distancing from the characters and the story. The epilogue wraps up a lot, but not in the immediate way that the rest of the story is told, and I wasn't ready for that yet.

I will admit that as I read this, I was getting impatient to find out if Maerad and Cadvan were going to have any romance or not. It was exactly what was needed to round the story out (in my fondest hopes). But Croggon stays focused on the quest all the way to the epilogue. Then she finally lets a teeny, tiny little bit of romance in, but it feels distant from the real story instead of part of it. I was disappointed that it didn't get a little more direct attention earlier in the book. The way that Croggon evokes emotion at the fall of a city or the loss of a friend, for example, could have been used more effectively to portray the depth of emotion in love as well. I wanted just a little bit more.

So I suppose my main complaint, other than wishing for romance throughout, is that the story was over too soon - which is not a bad complaint to have. I loved it that much that I wanted it to continue on past the conflict and into peace and happiness. I needed more time to extricate myself from this world without feeling totally lost afterwards. So the epilogue came too soon, and I had the feeling of being distanced from the characters as I watched them carry on into life without me. I am so sad that it's over!



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