Just Arrived: “Last Song Before Night” by Ilana C Myer
I met fellow author, Ilana C Myer, through Twitter and a shared enjoyment of the fiction of Guy Gavriel Kay, so of course I’ve been very interested to check out her debut novel, Last Song Before Night.
It came out a few weeks ago in the US, but I was delighted to receive an Advance Reading Copy, also known as an Uncorrected Proof, just last week.
For now, here’s what the back cover (abridged) has to tell me about the story:
“Her name was Kimbralin Amaristoth: sister to a cruel brother, daughter of a hateful family. But now … she is simply Lin, a musician and lyricist of uncommon ability in a land where women are forbidden to answer such callings — a fugitive who must conceal her identity to 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 … 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 … and Eivar’s connection to the Otherworld from which all enchantment flowed was broken.
… Now poets who thought to only 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 lost heritage and reopen the way to the Otherworld — a quest that will test their deepest desires, imperil their lives, and decide the future.”
A classic epic fantasy story — but Last Song Before Night is no multi-book tale. This, dear readers, is that relative rarity in the contemporary genre, a standalone novel.
To find out a little bit more, you can check out Ilana’s interview with Paul Weimer, on SF Signal:
Thanks for the plug, Helen 🙂
It’s an interesting interview.:)
I’ve heard very positive things about this book in another podcast hosted on the SF Signal website.
I look forward to finding out what you think of it. It is the sort of thing I might read.
I am hoping that I may get to do an interview with Ilana myself, posting it either here or on the Supernatural Underground.