Songmaster

Orson Scott Card

Dec 2002 · Sold by Orb Books

About this ebook

A science fiction classic from Orson Scott Card, the bestselling author of Ender's Game

Kidnapped at an early age, the young singer Ansset has been raised in isolation at the mystical retreat called the Songhouse. His life has been filled with music, and having only songs for companions, he develops a voice that is unlike any heard before. Ansset's voice is both a blessing and a curse, for the young Songbird can reflect all the hopes and fears his audience feels and, by magnifying their emotions, use his voice to heal--or to destroy. When it is discovered that his is the voice that the Emperor has waited decades for, Ansset is summoned to the Imperial Palace on Old Earth. Many fates rest in Ansset's hands, and his songs will soon be put to the test: either to salve the troubled conscience of a conqueror, or drive him, and the universe, into mad chaos.

Songmaster is a haunting story of power and love--the tale of the man who would destroy everything he loves to preserve humanity's peace, and the boy who might just sing the world away.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ratings and reviews

I read this book as a child, far too young to be reading it at the great old age of 8-9. There were so many undertones that I didn't get, but it was still so beautiful to me that I reread it until I had a library fine for a late book. I am much, much older now, but I read this book every few years, and never fail to find it more beautiful than the last. I find new wonders each time, but this book is so poignant and powerful that I understood its beauty at eight, and I still cry to this day over it.

Both dark and light. This book grabs and speaks of love and life. After reading it I had to read it again right away to feel it's full depth and I'll read again because I first read it in it's first printing over 40 years ago and it's still just as powerful.

Very well written and fast paced study of training and human emotions. One of the most emotional climaxes in a book I've read. I highly recommend this book.

About the author

Orson Scott Card is the author of the novels Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Speaker for the Dead. Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the only author to win these two top prizes in consecutive years. There are seven other novels to date in The Ender Universe series. Card has also written fantasy: The Tales of Alvin Maker is a series of fantasy novels set in frontier America; The Lost Gate, is a contemporary magical fantasy. Card has written many other stand-alone sf and fantasy novels, as well as movie tie-ins and games, and publishes an internet-based science fiction and fantasy magazine, Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. Card was born in Washington and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, Card directs plays and teaches writing and literature at Southern Virginia University. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card, and youngest daughter, Zina Margaret.