The second novel in the captivating Chanters of Tremaris trilogy follows Calwyn and her friends to the desolate Merithuran Empire. As they search for a group of kidnapped children who have the gift of chantment, they must negotiate both the unforgiving desert and the even more treacherous Palace of Cobwebs, where they uncover the dreadful secret that holds the Empire together. Meanwhile, Darrow has broken away from the group to form a new alliance of his own. Can he still be trusted? In this book, Calwyn’s quest for peace and justice has greater consequences than she ever could have imagined.
336 pages
Scholastic
published in 2003
- The Singer of all Songs
- The Waterless Sea
- The Tenth Power
I read this book almost immediately after having finished the first so I didn’t have problems catching up with the story at all. About half a year has passed since Calwyn and her friends returned from their first adventure. They are now busy hunting down pirate ships and rescuing chanters. They settled down in a quiet little village and are about to start a school for chanters. Everyone is happy, yay!
… Nah, not really. For once, Darrow is gone, and no reason is given at first. Calwyn is missing him and annoyed because he left without telling anyone, and so am I. I was looking forward to more slow-burn romance, but nope. Not in this book. They are separated for most of the story and when they are together they are acting all stupid. The drama between them felt a bit forced and was in the end disappointing.
While we mostly follow Calwyn and the group on a quest to rescue some children, we also get chapters on Darrow’s upbringing, that were actually not too bad. Made him more of a distinct character. Both storylines also connected in the end, so I wasn’t mad about it.
On their way to rescue the chanter children, Calwyn learns more about different kinds of magic and struggles with the knowledge that she might me able to master more forms of chantment than should be possible.
I thought it was a very uneventful book and was bored a couple of times. If I was watching a TV show, I’d say it was a filler episode, although there were a few developments.
It did have some interesting twists in the end and that is why I will definitely finish this trilogy. The books are pretty short as well so it shouldn’t take long.
Please be better again, book 3 🙂
★★☆
fyi, I am starting a Sackett book by Louis Lamour and then it is on to Deadhouse Gates. Want to plan on starting next sunday? Or will another day be better?
And if you have any thoughts on how to do this, please let me know…
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The coming sunday would be good! I will be done with 2 of my 3 current books by then.
I thought about posting a couple of read along posts while we are reading it? Like i did with dune. Were you planning to do the same? That way we could see how far the other one is & share our thoughts and discuss. I am not a very fast reader so it will probably take me a bit to finish it.
Do you have any better ideas how to do it?
I’ve only ever taken part in read alongs that were hosted by online forums 😀
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I like the idea of posting updates. It gives the readers of our blogs a chance to see what we’re doing.
I recommend some sort of common tag that we both use.
The way this month has been going, my reading is slow as well. I’ll match your pace though and just weave other books in between as needed.
Other than that, I’ll be inviting anyone else who follows me to join in [I’m not expecting anyone to actually join, but at least I can ask] and will link to you and any updates we both do.
If you can come up with a clever tag, we’ll use that. I’ve got nothing more than Deadhouse Gates Readalong. Not exactly catchy 🙂
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I like everything you say 🙂 sounds like it’s going to be fun!
Let’s take until saturday to do some brainstorming on the name and then we do our ‘introduction’ post on sunday?
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I just remembered that Sunday is Easter. I might end up posting it Saturday night as I’ll be rather busy most of Easter.
Also, should the need arise, I can be reached at bookstooge at gmail dot com
Brainstorming the rest of the week sounds good.
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Cool cool! I’ll be working the weekend, but only half days, will keep an eye on your blog and think of a name the next days!
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