Spellsinger
by
Alan Dean Foster

Warner Books, June 1983, 347 pp.
ISBN: 0-446-90352-3

Genre: Fantasy
Reviewed: 9/7/2003

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Excerpt

"I'm not a spellsinger," Jon-Tom finally told them.

"I'm still not sure what that is." He was surprised at the humbleness in his voice. "But I always thought I had something in me. Every would-be musician does. There's a line that goes, 'The magic's in the music and the music's in me.' Maybe you're right, Talea. Maybe Clothahump was more accurate than even he knew.

"I'm going to do what I can, though I can't imagine what that might be. So far all I know I can do is make this duar shine purple."

"Never mind 'ow you do it, mate." Mudge swelled with pride at his companion's accomplishment. "Just don't forget 'ow."

"We need to experiment." Talea's mind was working furiously. "You need to focus your abilities, Jon-Tom. Any wizard . . ."

"Don't . . . call me that."

"Any spellsinger, then, has to be able to be specific with his magic. Unspecific magic in not only useless, it's dangerous."

"I don't know any of the right words," he protested. "I don't know any songs with scientific words."

"You've got the music, Jon-Tom. That's magic enough to make words work." She looked around the forest. Dusk was settling gently over the treetops. "What do we need?"

"Money," said Mudge without hesitation.

"Shut up, Mudge. Be serious."

"I'm always serious where money is concerned, luv."

She threw him a sour look. "We can't buy transportation where none exists. Money won't get us safely and quickly to Clothahump's Tree." She looked expectantly at Jon-Tom.

"Want to try that?"

"What? Transportation? I don't know what kind . . ." He broke off, feeling drunk. Drunk from the after effects of the music. Drunk from what it seemed he'd done with it. Drunk with the knowledge of an ability he hadn't known he'd possessed, and completely at a loss as to what to make of it.

Make of it some transportation, dummy. You heard the lady.

Synopsis

Jonathan Thomas Meriweather is a college student and wanna-be musician studying law. One night, while hanging with some friend and getting high, he wakes up in a field when someone trips over his foot. He looks up in confusion and sees that it is a 4½-foot tall otter wearing a hat and holding a small sword. Mistaking this occurrence as a spin off of his night of smoking pot, Jon is quite shocked with the otter stabs him just above his belt line. The otter, Mudge, takes Jon to Clothahump, the local magician, who just happens to be a turtle. After healing Jon-Tom, as he is now called, Clothahump explains that he had been searching Jon-Tom's dimension for an engineer who could help that with a serious problem.

Jon-Tom, confused about being mistaken for an engineer, finally realizes that he does work on the side as a sanitation engineer. All are disappointed by this revelation. Since Jon-Tom is much taller than any animal or human in this dimension, Mudge takes him north to Lynchbany Towne to get an outfit made for him. There they meet up with Talea, a small human associate of Mudge.

After being involved in a pub brawl, all three are kicked out of Theive's Hall and find an abandoned duar (kind of like a guitar) for Jon-Tom. When he plays a Hendrix song, it is discovered that he might be a type of magician called a spellsinger. Upon returning to Clothahump's Tree, Clothahump joins them on a trek east to stop an invasion that is brewing beyond Zaryt's Teeth. The only problem is that all previous invasions over the last few thousands of years have failed and no one seems willing to help this strange band.

Spellsinger is the first book in the Spellsinger series by Alan Dean Foster, which currently sits at eight books. This is a story about a young man thrust into a new world that he is a little hesitant to accept. Finally he realizes that while in his original dimension he may have been nothing, here he can make a difference as a spellsinger. The main characters in this story are: Jon-Tom - A college student from a different dimension who want to be a musician and finds out he has magical powers when he sings, Mudge - an otter (with an English accent) that only seems to think about making money, Clothahump - a turtle that is rather an absent-minded magician, but still extremely powerful, Pog - a bat that is Clothahump's indentured servant, Talea - a human female that is Mudge's associate and kind of falls for Jon-Tom, Falameezar - a black dragon that is convinced that communism is the only way to live your life, and Caz - a diplomatic rabbit who joins the group because he knows it is the right thing to do.

Review

I first read this book back in the 1980's, right after it came out. The first three books in this series were all published together in a single hardback. I remember greatly liking the characters, but that is all. It has been too long, and too any books have been read, for me to remember the plot. But I always did remember Jon-Tom being stabbed by Mudge on the second page of the story.

Reading this book again, I was quite pleased with this storytelling and remembered why Alan Dean Foster was one of my favorite writers in the 80's and 90's. Spellsinger is the beginning of a storyline that pits together a rather unlikely band of misfits to try and stop and invasion of praying mantis-like creatures who would like to live where they do.

The story is fun, but a little slow, and a building book for what is to come in the following books in the series. To tell the truth, I don't remember the cussing, but it is in the book and only adds to the favor of the story.

Overall, Spellsinger by Alan Dean Foster is a good fantasy tale and I look forward to the next book in the series, The Hour of the Gate.

I rated this book an 8 out of 10.