I’ve reviewed the other three books in this series — the Books of Pellinor — previously, here, here, and here. Smart readers might recall that I particularly adored the first book; I liked the second and third books well enough, but I thought The Naming (or The Gift in the UK) was outstanding. This book will not be released in the U.S. until March of 2009; I got impatient and ordered in a copy from England. Allison Croggon is a poet and playwright; she also writes opera libretti. She lives in Australia with her husband, also a playwright, Daniel Keene. According to her blog, she has just started a new novel — a fantasy novel, like Pellinor, but much shorter. At this point, she’s not sure if it’ll turn into a series or just a standalone, but I have to admit, I’m excited to hear she’s even writing another fantasy novel.

As The Singing is the fourth novel in the sequence, I’ll cut the plot description for those who haven’t gotten this far. When we last left Maerad and her brother, Hem, they were separated. Hem had just survived the Fall of Turbansk down south, and was slowly making his way north with his mentor and a couple others. Maerad had just survived the Winterking up north, and was making her way south to Innail with her mentor, Cadvan. Each sibling holds half the knowledge of the Treesong, the ultimate goal of their quests, and they must meet, to unite the halves, release the Treesong, and defeat the great Darkness that is threatening the entire world. Will they find each other before it is too late? And will they be able to unite the halves of the Treesong?

Yes, all right, this is yet another volume of epic fantasy where I don’t really need to tell you the plot. It’s — epic. And fantasy. There’s a spunky teen (this one has a brother) who needs to save the world from the great darkness; she has powers which she knows very little of, and a scary childhood. Help comes in the form of a mentor, with whom there may or may not be a romantic attachment; things try to kill her, but she survives. Normally, I don’t really like epic fantasy, at least the stereotypical kind; it’s usually a ton of world-building, a standard plot, and very little character development. (It’s also usually written by men, for men, which results in ridiculous things like a main character who somehow manages to get all the supposedly strong women in the series to agree to be his wives in a polygamous relationship. Yeah, I was burned by Robert Jordan a long time ago.) I like character development; I like romance, and I like beauty of language. A lot of these things seem to be sacrificed in epic fantasy, for the Ultimate Doom.

Right, well, as I’ve said before many times: not in this series. There’s an awful lot of character development, and surprisingly little world-building. I suppose it’s only ‘surprisingly little’ compared to what other four-volume epic fantasy series might do; there’s certainly enough, and some chapters (especially in The Crow) read as if they’re a love song to a city that never existed. More importantly, though, Hem and Maerad certainly change, but not specifically because of their Ultimate Destinies; it’s mostly because of growing up and a changing situation. In other words, Maerad doesn’t become a Legend; she becomes a woman who makes hard, real choices (insofar as magical choices can be ‘real’ ones). She is also frequently frightened, frequently sad; she frequently chafes at her destiny, and doubts herself. In other words, she is a full, round character, as is Hem.

I’ve mentioned the beauty of language before; it’s so hard to pick out a single example of it, but I can say that it doesn’t feel stilted or unrealistic. Overall, it flows beautifully, and I’ve always maintained it’s because Ms. Croggon is a poet. I would like to point out that despite all these compliments, there was a thing or two that bothered me about The Singing. First, Maerad and Cadvan’s bickering seemed silly, like they were having a fight about absolutely nothing. I enjoyed it in the first two volumes, as they had not been around each other very long, but by this point, one of them should realize that they’re fighting about, essentially, nothing. Second — well, Maerad spent the three volumes concerning her in the Power of the Month Club (she really did gain powers at an alarming rate) and that seemed to be tied up a little too neatly for me. Overall, though, those are niggling concerns, and I still feel that I can easily award this book 4.5/5 stars. Recommended, but read the first three first.