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Summary: One of Card's best.....
Review: This emotionally charged tale of Annsett was the first of Card's books I read. A friend gave it to me during my finals as a way to escape the pressure. I was hooked immediately. The music in each line haunts me still so much so that I return to it frequently to relive the story. To date, I have read the book 8 times. ( I NEVER read books more than once!) It is a gripping story that envolves the reader so much that it is impossible to put the book down. Since reading SONGMASTER, I have read everything of Card's except for PASSWATCH: THE REDEMPTION OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS and SONGMASTER still remains my favorite. Once you read SONGMASTER, you too will become an instant OSC fan
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Summary: Fire, Ice, Power, and Song
Review: The cool purity of Card's style serves to enhance the power of this strange and tender tale of Ansett whose story will divine for its reader the greatest lesson of all, that the song of love, although the simplest, is oft the most difficult and painful to learn. Look not for sentiment from Card, however, but for a sharp and gentle wisdom like a glimmering star, clear and soft at once. Orson Scott Card is a man who knows. Knows it all
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Summary: More emotionally involving that Ender's Game
Review: I first read this book because I had read Ender's Game, and I was interested in other OSC books; by the time I had finished it, I came to care about Annsett as much as Ender. This is a book of raw emotional power, and succeeds in presenting a complete lifetime of struggle and triumph, without ever distracting from the SF/fantasy storyline
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Summary: better than ender
Review: I originally picked this book up only because it was the only Orson Scott Card book (besides Ender's Game of course) that my school library had. I never suspected that I would like it even more than Ender's Game. Its thrilling combination of science fiction, action, and emotion make this book possibly the best that I have ever read. I generally don't enjoy reading, but if all books were as good as this one, I would never stop
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Summary: Read this book - it will make you think.
Review: Songmaster ranks alongside Enders Game - exploring the theme of the gifted child, again with a twist. A great mix of the two genres, but readable by anybody
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Summary: Subtle, emotional sf/fantasy. Unusual & good.
Review: This book is on the border between sci-fi and fantasy.
That is one tough place for a book, but Card wonderfully avoids the pitfalls. The book reads like the smoothest most logical galactic empire scifi, which it is, but is based on the power of song & music, raised to a mystical level. The characters are totally convincing, even when facing those great powers, and through the torturous lives Card planed out for them. A book about power, responsibility, love and of course songs. Might make a grown man cry
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Summary: Sheer brilliance...
Review: This was my first Scott Card novel. I came across a review in Amazon's very clever Listmania. I have actually found a number of "unknown" (to me at least) authors this way, not the least of whom is Orson Scott Card. I LOVE THIS BOOK! I had to get it through Z-shops. How can anything this good be out-of-print? To describe the plot is to do an injustice to all concerned, but I'll attempt to give some idea. The theme of teaching children to use their voices in song as communication, healing, education, destruction is not new, but it has never been done like this. This is what I always hoped to read, but could never find. The characters are complex, beautiful, touching. The unfolding of a story in which such beauty must be exposed to such ugliness, in which such love must endure such betrayal, and yet it ends on such a note of hope, victory, courage, triumph of human spirit and wisdom... I did not want it to end. I'll have to re-read this at least once. And so, a boy is trained to use his talent, and becomes a SongBird. This is the story of his life and the music he makes in strange and sometimes not so wonderful times, in strange and sometimes not so wonderful places. If you want the depth and magic of it, you'd best read it yourself! It is sheer brilliance.
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Summary: This is definitely one of my favourites
Review: I have read about 10 books from card so far. The three that stand out are "Ender's Game", "Speaker of the dead" and "Songmaster".Songmaster tells the complelling story about a boy, kidnapped as a baby and raised in an institution called The Songhouse that is dedicated to singing. The children who are tought there are given to patrons once they are out 10 years old to sing for them. Because Ansset, the hero of the story, is the best Singer ever and has a special talent with other peoples emotions his patron is the Empire of mankind, who has butched millions of people on dozens of worlds to get the throne and who is seeking redemption. The emperor grows to genuinely love the boy. All seems well for some time, but at the place where mankind is ruled complications and intrigue are certain to arise...
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Summary: Strange undercurrents in a haunting book
Review: One reviewer here says s/he objects to Card's negative view of homosexuality. Did we read the same book? "Songmaster" is certainly in the best Card vein, the exceptional-boy à la Ender tradition; but the ambivalence about homosexuality in it is very apparent. The author may object to acting out one's homosexuality, but almost all the scenes between the Emperor, Mikal, and Ansset are heavy with homosexual desire, very well expressed too. (Nothing R-rated; it's elegantly done in undercurrents.) Anssett's subsequent fate belongs straight in the hurt/comfort subgenre. Of all OSC books, this is probably the one that reads the most like quality fanfiction, and I mean this certainly as a compliment: it's satisfying at a deep level of self-fulfillment, almost as if the author was really writing for himself long before thinking of his audience. I wonder if this is why it's out of print now -- some readers might find the subject-matter a little dicey.
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Summary: The Songmaster evokes shock and dismay...
Review:
For many years, since reading Ender's Game at the suggestion of a friend, I have considered Orson Scott Card to be among the great storytellers of our age because of his seeming understanding of the human condition and his ability to relate it through fictional medium. Songmaster quickly became my favorite even above the Ender series, because of the depth of emotion and seeming acceptance and understanding in relation to gay characters (which are oddly ubiquitous in many of his works..strange perhaps for a self-confessed "completely heterosexual" Mormon.) How could I have so horribly mis-interpreted the message in Songmaster?
As it turns out, Card's own personal views are virulently anti-gay, and he makes no apologies for his vociferous opposition in several editorials. This is certaily his right, without necessarily having the word "homophobe" applied. However, once I get over my shock, I will be re-reading Songmaster to see how I could have been so terribly mistaken as to the overall message.
I would have given this book five stars had I found that the man behind the message was actually singing the song that I thought he had been. Amazing fiction, absolutely. Hipocricy in my opinion? Yes.........
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