The Harp of Imach Thyssel

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful idea, but not pulled off
Review: This is the sort of fantasy story I adore -- the magical harp, the conflicting desires of the people who play it or wish to, a world with a varied population of races, castles, forests, secrets.... But it isn't quite pulled off. This is the first book I've read by Wrede -- could it be the first she wrote in her imagined world of Lyra? The book seems eager to squeeze the history of vast eras into capsule backstory here and there where, if the author had already been mid-series, it might have been better to leave a bit of mystery and work it out in the next book. Also, the suggestion that the human culture has been static for a couple thousand years is troubling, since everyone we see in this story is lively, full of ideas and ambitions. (For example, in 2000 civilized years, no one has ever thought of establishing a regular postal service? With this many little realms either actually or potentially at war over the years, no one's alchemist is busy figuring out gunpowder?) And the author's voice does not yet seem comfortably settled in this world -- or I should say, voices. It drove me nuts how some characters behave and speak as if they were Arthurian, some as if they were contemporary Americans, and a couple others as if they were 18th century British or French nobility. (And it made me particularly nuts that the story's Duke of Minathlan was lifted -- lock, stock, and elegant sneer -- from Georgette Heyer's Duke of Avon. There are even parts of Heyer's lines in his speeches.) On the whole, the world of Lyra as it appears in this book is interesting enough for me to want to make a return visit, but the book itself sort of annoyed me as much as it pleased me. A magical white harp that may be death or life to play! A music on which turns the fate of kingdoms! That's the stuff of a fantasy classic, but this book isn't it.

Rating:
Summary: Lacking Magic
Review: While "Harp" wasn't hard to read, it wasn't a breathtaking book, either. I've read Wrede's Enchanted Forest series, so I was looking for that same humor and lighthearted fun. Maybe it's impossible to achieve that in an adult's fantasy novel? Nontheless, the commonplaceness of the book was a dissapointment to me.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: _Harp_ is lovely, enchanting, sad, and very well-written. While surely not at humorous as Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles, it has very good dialog and characterization. I liked it largely because I am a harpist myself (the hero is a minstrel), so if you like music I'm sure you'll like this book. I read it twice without pause between :)

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: _Harp_ is lovely, enchanting, sad, and very well-written. While surely not at humorous as Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles, it has very good dialog and characterization. I liked it largely because I am a harpist myself (the hero is a minstrel), so if you like music I'm sure you'll like this book. I read it twice without pause between :)