Vroege RecensentenJ.M. Landels

The Allaigna’s Song trilogy is a love story, a family saga, and a coming-of-age novel that braids together the stories of daughter, mother, and grandmother.

In the six years since Allaigna left home, killed her betrothed, and joined the Brandishear Rangers, she has hidden her family name and her ability to sing music into magic. Confronted with the dire implications of her grandfather’s exploration into long-forbidden arcana, Allaigna must swallow her pride and summon her courage to return home with the ashes of her cousin to prevent yet another war, or worse, an arcane catastrophe to rival that of the legendary Cataclysm.

Previously in the trilogy

When Allaigna was a child, she nearly sang her baby brother to sleep — forever. Heir to neither her mother’s titles nor her secrets, she inherited her grandmother’s dangerous talent for singing music into magic. Secrets are stock-in-trade for her grandmother Irdaign, who married a prince and turned the gift of the Sight into a double-edged weapon of state, and her mother Lauresa, who disappeared for two weeks en-route to her wedding to the Duke of Aerach.

At the age of fourteen, Allaigna discovered that her nurse Angeley was really her grandmother and former Princess High of Brandishear; and that Allaigna herself is the product of a tryst that occurred when her mother was lost in the Valnirata Greatwood en route to her wedding. Fuelled by hurt and anger, Allaigna stole her mother’s only keepsake of the man who rescued her — his Ilvan dagger — and fled from her home and her unwanted betrothal, hoping to find her father by retracing her mother’s decade-and-a-half-old route.

Captured by her intended husband, Lord Doniver, she avoided rape when she inadvertently killed him with her unschooled magic. Fleeing with her new-found mentor the travelling singer Morran Rhoan, she forged new friendships in both Aerach and the Sandhorn. But any clues to her birth father continued to elude her, and, stricken with grief over the harm she’d caused in her flight from home, she enlisted in the Brandishear Rangers, relinquishing her past and her magic.

Six years later, Allaigna mustered out and took a private commission from her grandfather, Prince High Chanist, which took her and a handful of mercenaries, including her cousin Goff, to the wilds of Oburakor, tasked with exploring the ancient arcane Lothgates, long thought to be inactive. After witnessing the cataclysmic destruction of a gate, Allaigna and her companions travel through hostile territory and mountain passes to make it back to the Ilmar, but not without cost.

Now, burdened by the loss of two comrades and the knowledge that the princes of the Ilmar intend to re-open the Lothgates — an action that will surely incite war and could cause a second Cataclysm to rival the destruction of Ulaonnor Mor — Allaigna must decide where her loyalties lie: with her grandfather the Prince, or with the people of the Ilmar.

Book Two of Allaigna's Song. Allaigna has discovered that her family has lied to about her parentage all her life. Fueled by anger and spurred by her betrothal to a neighbouring lord, Allaigna has packed her saddle bags and stolen away in the night. The perils of the road provide more than a distraction from her fury, and test her ability to sing music into magic to its limit. Unlikely allies, subterfuge, captivity, and assault conspire to change Allaigna’s status from mere runaway to fugitive. While Allaigna charts her dangerous course, the quieter tales of her mother and grandmother unfold in tender, poignant, and heartbreaking vignettes that underscore the political and family tensions of the richly rendered world of the Ilmar. Praise for Allaigna's Song: Overture “Beautiful writing and gripping storytelling throughout.” “Allaigna, Lauresa, and Irdaign are tough, flawed, and appealing heroines” “Superb writing, a gripping tale.” “Great tension, big world, perfect pacing, intriguing politics [and] lovely magic.” “Magically unputdownable.”

You can’t escape magic when it’s in your blood … When Allaigna was seven she almost sang her baby brother to sleep — forever. She may not be heir to her mother’s titles and secrets, but she has inherited her grandmother’s dangerous talent for singing music into magic. As her education proceeds from nursery to weapons ground to the rank of royal page, it becomes increasingly hard to keep her heritage and abilities hidden. Secrets, it seems, are stock-in-trade for her family, and as Allaigna works to keep her own, she uncovers two that will affect both her life and the unstable peace of the Ilmar nations. One is the fate of her grandmother, who married a prince, turning the gift of the Sight into a double-edged weapon of state. The other is the truth behind her mother’s two-week disappearance following an ambush by outlaws en route to her wedding. Allaigna's Song: Overture by JM Landels As she discovers who she is, Allaigna must decide what to become: the skilled courtier her mother wants her to be, the political chess piece her father bargained on, or the hero her grandmother foresaw. Allaigna’s Song: Overture is a love story, a family saga, and a coming-of-age novel that braids together the stories of daughter, mother, and grandmother.