THE SONGSTER
WhiteBlade Saga, No. 2
By Adam Nichols
Millennium (Victor Gollancz) -  1999
ISBN: 1857985729 - Paperback
Fantasy

Reviewed by: Rachel Hyde, MyShelf.Com

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Young Ziftkin has just lost both his beloved mother, his flute and his home.  His relations don’t want him as he appears so strange and unlike their own stolid selves so they have forced him to leave.  His knows that his father is one of the Fey and soon he encounters this airy being who gives him another flute.  But this one is magic and is capable, Pied Piper fashion, in forcing others to do the bidding of the player.  Ziftkin falls in with the evil Iryn Jagga, leader of the Brotherhood and sworn enemy of Elinor Whiteblade, she of the shining sword and heroine of the first novel.  She is living with her Humanimal friend Gyver and soon realises that her beloved furry friends are in danger from a new lot of evil humans…and from the old lot as well!  Can she save everybody from their bloody fate? 

Nichols can tell a story and this one reads well being a good lively tale with plenty of incident.  If you don’t like cute talking animals then it won’t appeal but the cuteness is balanced out with plenty of gore as the book nears to a close so it isn’t all Disney.  There is a feminist message in here as well and Nichols’ goodies have a tendency to be female and her baddies male – even Ziftkin is a curiously feminine character.  These observances aside I will be eager to find out what happens next.  It’s no mean feat to write a tubby fantasy novel and fill it with as much incident and action as this one has. 

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