Songmaster

Book Details

64.3% complete

Author(s):

Orson Scott Card

First Pub:

1980

Genre(s):

Science Fiction

First Read:

1982

Times Read:

2 times

Rating:

Chapters:

See 11

Prologue

Esste

Chapters 1-26

Mikal

Chapters 1-23

Josif

Chapters 1-10

Kyaren

Chapters 1-5

Rruk

Chapters 1-11

Internal ID:

162

Series:

No series

Copyright:

Dedication:

To Ben Bova,
a songmaster who takes as much care
to develop younger voices
as to sing his own songs.

First Sentence:

Nniv did not go to meet Mikal's starship.

Last Sentence:

May contain spoilers

And now a powerful undercurrent in those voices would be Ansset's life, which he had given them irrevocably, forever theirs and forever powerful and forever full of beauty, pain, and hope.

Comments:

No comments on file

Extract not on file

Added: 29-Dec-2002

Last Updated: 16-Sep-2024

01-Oct-1987

Tor Books

Mass Market Paperback

Date Issued:

Cir 01-Oct-1987

Format:

Mass Market Paperback

Cover Price:

$3.95

Pages*:

377

Read:

2 times

Reading(s):

1) 1 Jan 1982 - 1 Jan 1982
2) 9 Mar 2021 - 24 Mar 2021

Cover Link(s):

Internet Speculative Fiction Database

amazon.com

Internal ID:

1736

Publisher:

Tor Books

ISBN:

0-812-53255-4

ISBN-13:

978-0-812-53255-5

Printing:

Country:

United States

Language:

English

Credits:

Dennis Nolan - Cover Artist

"Orson Scott Card is a fine writer, with great insight, great idealism and love." - Science Fiction Review

SONGMASTER

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 developes 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 he 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 conquerer, or drive him, and the universe, into mad chaos.

The Songmaster is a haunting story of power and love - a 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. Orson Scott Card is the award-winning author of Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead.

Cover:

Notes and Comments:

First Tor printing: October 1987
First printing based on the number line
Canada: $4.95
Canada ISBN 08123532562

01-Oct-1987
Tor Books
Mass Market Paperback

Book Links

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Author(s) Links

Orson Scott Card on Good Reads

Orson Scott Card on IMDB

Orson Scott Card on The ISFDB

Orson Scott Card on Library Thing

Orson Scott Card on Twitter

Author(s)

Orson Scott Card
Birth: 24 Aug 1951 Richland, Washington, USA

Awards

No awards found

I try to maintain page numbers for audiobooks even though obviously there aren't any. I do this to keep track of pages read and I try to use the Kindle version page numbers for this.
Synopses marked with an asterisk (*) were generated by an AI. There aren't a lot since this is an iffy way to do it - AI seems to make stuff up.
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Page numbers on this site are for the end of the main story. I normally do not include appendices, extra material, and other miscellaneous stuff at the end of the book in the page count.