The Singer of All Songs
Book one of the Chanters of Tremaris trilogy by Kate Constable.
For her entire life, Calwyn has lived among the priestesses in the city of Antaris, which is surrounded by a wall of pure ice created and preserved by the priestesses via chantments (or magical singing that allows them (in this case) to summon ice ('ice call')). One day, while singing her chantments to mend the Wall, she comes across an injured stranger named Darrow. Soon she finds herself joining him on a journey to stop Samis, a powerful singer of chantments whose goal is to learn all nine songs from the Nine Powers in order to conquer the world and unify it under one ruler--himself.
Tropes used in The Singer of All Songs include:
- Badass Normal: Trout; he especially comes in handy at the end, when he destroys the orb absorbing all the Nine Powers that Samis wants.
- But Not Too Black: Subverted with Halasaa.
- Fantastic Racism: People who have knowledge of chantments aren't exactly loved...
- Heroic BSOD: Tonno falls into a mild one of these after his brother dies.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Xanni gets killed while trying to save Calwyn and Trout from Samis. His brother, Tonno, doesn't take it too well.
- Magic Dance
- May-December Romance: Implied between Calwyn (16 or 17) and Darrow (late 20s to 30).
- Noble Savages: The Tree People.
- Proud Warrior Race: The Tree People.
- Psychic Powers: Halasaa's form of communication involves talking telepathically into people's minds.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Between Xanni and Tonno, the former being easy-going and light hearted and the latter being more serious and down to earth.
- Token Minority: Mica and Halasaa are the only ones described as tan and dark, respectively.
- Tsundere: Mica.
- We Can Rule Together: Samis offers this to Calwyn. She refuses.