Son of Spellsinger

Rating:
Summary: not as good as the father [no spoilers]
Review: "Son of Spellsinger" is the seventh volume in the Spellsinger series, this time with the son of Jon-Tom alongside the two otter cubs of colleague Mudge.

Back cover of book:

Call Him - Spellmaster B

Much to Clothahump the Wizard's distress, ex-hippie Jon-Tom and otherworldly Talea's son Buncan wants to be a questing hero, but not a spellsinger. Instead, he forms a band with Mudge's kids, otters Nocter and Squill, one that creates a wild, unpredictable magic - based on rap!

Then an anteater arrives with rumors about a dangerous legend. Soon the young rappers, aided by a drunk rhino, are off on an odyssey to a fortress where evil sorcerers threaten the world. And where only the unknown power of Buncan's beat can stop the hordes of hideous hybrids.

Son of Spellsinger

The next generation of mayhem and magic begins...

End back cover of book.

Even though at the end of "The Time of the Transference" Mudge had more than two cubs, it is understood he has only two. Also Nocter on the back cover is called Neena throughout the novel yet in the next volume "Chorus Skating" is back to Nocter. Such inconsistencies are unforgivable.

Overall I believe the story would have been more enjoyable had the author stuck with what worked, Jon-Tom and Mudge. Any offspring of the great duo does not seem proper when one is a cheap clone of the parent with the equivalent idiosyncrasies. It is the same brand of humor and problems but different individuals.

Other new characters are likable and the object of the quest is very witty. The nature of otherworldly devices in a magical world continues to amaze but having the rapping offspring tackle the adventure grew tiresome.

Thank you.

Rating:
Summary: Great author, okay sequel
Review: Don't get me wrong, the Spellsinger series was great and will forever be one of the best fantasy series i've read. So when I heard about the sequel to it, and it was going to be about his son, I got really excited. It was an okay book to be honest. Not spectacular, not completely horrible. Big problems with it though. The idea to make it about rap music seemed a bit contrived, don't get me wrong I love hip-hop, but when reading it the rapping just seemed silly. This book was okay give it a try if you liked the Spellsinger series, maybe one of these days Mr. Foster will write a better sequel (don't get me started on Chorus Skating...._

Rating:
Summary: Great author, okay sequel
Review: Don't get me wrong, the Spellsinger series was great and will forever be one of the best fantasy series i've read. So when I heard about the sequel to it, and it was going to be about his son, I got really excited. It was an okay book to be honest. Not spectacular, not completely horrible. Big problems with it though. The idea to make it about rap music seemed a bit contrived, don't get me wrong I love hip-hop, but when reading it the rapping just seemed silly. This book was okay give it a try if you liked the Spellsinger series, maybe one of these days Mr. Foster will write a better sequel (don't get me started on Chorus Skating...._

Rating:
Summary: Plot's fine; rapping very much less so
Review: Whilst the plot of the book is perfectly passable, the problem with this book is very simple.

Alan Dean Foster knows, fundamentally, nothing about rap. Whilst in the previous books the musical connection was obviously based on things that he knew about, this attempts to update itself by changing the musical style used from rock and roll to rap. Unfortunately, the attempts to create convincing rap lyrics fall completely flat. This results in a book which continually shoots itself in the foot by juddering to an awkward halt each time this occurs.

For heaven's sake -- I've read better parodies of rap music in Mad magazine..