REVIEW:
The Singer is book two in the Irin Chronicles. This book is an exceptional follow up to the world established by Elizabeth Hunter in The Scribe.
Having discovered that she is an Irina, Ava travels to learn more about and train with one of the few communities of Irina's left in the world. She is mourning the loss of Malachi and forging forward to create a life for herself in this new and confusing world. Malachi, having returned without his memories, struggles to be reunited with Ava and regain the memories that made them a blazing couple.
Elizabeth Hunter is an amazing writer. Her prose is lyrical - she writes with such beauty. She creates a complex tapestry of history, love, cruelty, magic, rivalry, and politics, in exotic and spectacular regions around the world. The mystery is complicated. It keeps the reader involved and engaged throughout.
We learn more about the world of the Grigori and Irin - their origins, their purpose, their politics, and it is fascinating. What strikes me is the debate that ensues around the reintroduction of the Irina into Irin society. With their increasingly important, but precious standing, there is a lot of tension. It reminds me of the contemporary issue of security/safety vs. freedom. In this case, how much of the Irina's freedom and self-determination are the Irin willing to take away, even to the point of sequestering them, in order to protect them? And all of this done in the name of love. How will this issue be resolved? Will it fracture the Irin people and give the Grigori their ultimate victory?
How will Malachi and Ava's agonizingly sweet relationship influence the final outcome? Who is Ava? There seems to be much more to her story than we originally led to believe.
IN A NUTSHELL:
This story moves me, intrigues me, provokes me, and makes me impatient for the next installment. It is one of my favorite reads of the year. If you haven't started this series, you are missing out.
AN EXCERPT:
Ava. The name fell into his
mind and filled it. It brought the memory of air tinged with cloves and roasted
hazelnuts.
“Who is she?”
The old man looked at him,
pity in his eyes. “She is your mate. You remember nothing of her?”
“My mate?” Not a wife. More
than a wife.
“Your
mate. Your reshon. It is a sacred union.”
“Reshon?”
“Your souls were created
for each other. And when you marked her with magic, they bonded.”
“Where is she?”
Evren and Rhys exchanged a
look. Rhys said, “We don’t know, but we’re going to try to find
her. We will find her.”
She wasn’t here.
He felt as if he were stumbling through the dark, looking for something just
out of his reach.
“Malachi,” Evren asked. “When
you woke, you were like this?”
Malachi frowned. “I was by
the river. There was nothing around. But I followed the water and found the
farm.”
“The old retreat,” Evren
said. “He woke near the old retreat. I think when he came back, he was reborn
in the exact place he was born the first time.”
Rhys said, “You think Ava—”
“It must have been. I don’t know
how, but it is the only explanation.”
“No Irina has the power to—”
“No Irina is like Ava. She
has no training. She has never been told what she may not do, so who
knows what she is capable of?”
Malachi broke into their
quiet conversation. “You’re
telling me I died?”
Evren and Rhys turned to
him.
“I
died?” he
asked again. “Truly? I died. And I came back to life?”
“What do you remember?”
“Nothing. I remember nothing.
Just her voice on the wind and the stars overhead. I’ve been getting flashes
here and there, but I don’t remember her. How could I
forget her?” He felt torn. Incomplete. And it wasn’t just the memories he was
missing. “And you think she did this somehow?”
Evren said, “We don’t
know. Not really. But there is no other explanation. Your brothers saw you die.
Saw your body turn to dust. Your mate saw you die—felt you die.”
“But why would Ava be able
to—”
“She said the words,” Rhys
said. “The words she had heard her whole life. From the souls of everyone who
mourned. She came to me before she left. Asked me what it meant. Vashama canem.
Come back to me.” He turned to Evren. “I had no idea. How could I?”
“There was no way of
knowing she could do this, Rhys. No way—”
“Wait!” Malachi felt a chill
creep along his skin. “You’re telling me she spoke
this command and I answered. Even from beyond death?”
“He’s telling you words have
power,” Evren said. “Ava asked you to come back to her. And you did.”
1.
MUSIC!
Music
has been hugely, hugely important to this series. The original spark for the
series came to me when I was chilling out and listening to Loreena McKennit’s
song, Beneath a Phrygian Sky, which has really become the embodiment of
the series to me. The lyrics, the music, both just fit so well.
So many
artists and groups were on the soundtrack, but if there was one artist who
could embody the soundtrack for THE SCRIBE, it would be Loreena McKennit. For
THE SINGER, it would be Sigur Ros. For THE SECRET? Well, that would be telling,
wouldn’t it? But Dead Can Dance is also very prominent on all my writing
soundtracks for this series, as well as the soundtrack for Vikings (History
Channel drama series), Ellie Goulding, Sarah McLachlan, and so many more.
2. Turkey
I don’t
think anything could have prepared me for Istanbul. It’s intoxicating. It’s
everything the travel sites tell you and so much more. Added to the history and
art and architecture is the tremendous hospitality of the Turkish people, who
were so welcoming and so happy to share the rich history of their country. I’d
recommend traveling to Turkey to anyone.
3.
Israel
I’d
been to Israel before, while I was in university, so I knew that I loved it.
But it was even more wonderful to go back to the country with a specific
research focus, and also in the company of wonderful friends. I was able spend
some fantastic time in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem where I finished
sketching out the plot arc for the trilogy. I was also able to watch a scribe
copying a Torah scroll in the ancient scriptorium at Masada in the Negev
desert. Wonderful, rich experiences that really shaped the first book in
particular.
4.
Nephilim mythology
“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and
also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they
bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of
renown.”
Genesis 6:4 is probably the most well known of the
ancient texts that mention the Nephilim, and there are many works of fiction
that reference this and play with the story of angel and human offspring. I’ll
be completely honest that I haven’t read a lot of angel fiction! After I got
the idea for the series, I specifically avoided it, so I wouldn’t be influenced
by other authors’ idea. But there was one question that I kept coming back to,
over and over, having read the verse that mentions these “mighty men of old.”
Who said the angels only had sons?
5.
Language
I love
language. I was a linguistics major in college, which means I studied language
and its concept (not any specific language), and I’ve always been fascinated by
the relationship between written and oral language. They’re tied together, but
also in conflict. Much of that conflict plays out in the fictional conflict of
the Irin and the Irina.
6. Jewish Scribe tradition (“Sofer”), and the
Essenes
It’s
really impossible to detail the complex history of Jewish scribe tradition
here, so I’ll just say that it is unique in history. The meticulous training
and dedication of sofers, the trained scribes who copy the Torah and
other religious texts, is something you could spend years studying. That
tradition was a very important part of the inspiration for the Irin Scribes,
along with the Essene sect that resided in Qumran, the site of the Dead Sea
Scrolls.
7.
Norse Saga tradition
Like
the sofers and their traditions, the oral history embodied in the Norse
saga tradition was hugely influential when I was crafting the concept of the
Irina Singers. Oral story traditions are wildly different than written stories.
And even though many of the sagas were written down, they were oral stories
first, and that has to be taken into account when you read them.
8. The
Alphabet Versus the Goddess by Leonard Shlain
It’s a
provocative book that theorizes the shift from oral language tradition prior to
the human advent of writing actually affected a change on the brain as
civilization shifted to writing as our primary means of transmitting
information. Fascinating and controversial. If you’re a really big
language nerd like me, give it a read.
9. Art: The Kiss-Rodin
Art is
always inspirational to me, but The Kiss by Rodin really tugged at me through
this book. There’s something so utterly complete in the couple’s embrace. If
you try to picture the Irin and Irina embracing in the manuscript Malachi gives
Ava in THE SCRIBE, it looks a lot like The Kiss in my mind.
10.
Music
Did I
mention music was important? It really, really was.
