Dawnsinger a review

[Tracy Krauss]

Dawnsinger is one of those books that draws you in and won’t let go. It is definitely allegorical but not to the extent that it becomes cliché. Shae, the heroine, is whisked away to the Faeraven by her brother Kai, in service to the dying queen. An epic adventure ensues – too much to go into detail here, but suffice to say that it embodies the quintessential struggle between good and evil. I will be reading the sequel Wayfarer as soon as I can get my hands on it. After about page two, I literally didn’t want to put it down, and although ‘real life’ kept me from reading it non-stop, I found myself thinking about it in between reading sessions. It is a fantasy in the style and scope of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings without some of the tedious parts. (Sorry, JRR, but some of the poetic parts in L of the R drag for me…) There is some poetry in Dawnsinger and author Janalyn Voigt certainly has a very ‘poetic’ style of writing, but everything flows so beautifully that it is never, never tedious. One of the things that surprised me about this book is that despite the extensive use of ‘foreign’ words I never found myself confused. (The fantasy language invented by the author seems to have a Gaelic cadence if I am not mistaken.) The use of this ‘language’ seemed natural and added to the overall beauty of the story. Another thing that I loved were the detailed descriptions. I hate to keep using the word ‘beautiful’ but I’m not sure how else to say it. This is a beautiful book. I won’t go into the finer points of the plot here – you can read the description of the book for that - but may I say that the plot is well thought out, the characters are well rounded and deep, and the description is magnificent. There is action, intrigue, and romance. I wish I could give this book ten stars instead of five. It is that good.