Songmaster

I love to sing, and I've always played a little piano and viola. I'm just enough of a musician myself to appreciate the way music can stir the soul. It's one thing to hear and appreciate music, but it is another to feel the music pass through you, hear it as it expands and vibrates the air around you. Singing, I feel closer to God than I ever can feel in the silence of prayer.

When I read books that capture the power of music (which admittedly is a difficult thing to do with mere words), I become entranced by the story. Songmaster, by Orson Scott Card, swept me up and spun me around. I was drawn in by the initial concept: a school/orphanage that trains singers from infancy. They live in song in everything they do. They speak with music, each note singing their thoughts and feelings in a way that spoken words could never do. The story followed one singer who became the best of them all, who could sing back to a person whatever they were feeling. But as with any genius, his ability came with a price. The story is so human, the characters are so true. I read the whole book in the course of three days and I was sad when it was over. What could I possibly read next that could be this good? But then Orson Scott Card's books usually have that effect on me.

P.S. The picture above is the Polish version, I think. It had the best picture on the front.