📚 Reviews update week Reads: The Innkeeper's Song

5 stars 🌟

After reading this one I had to go research it and the author. Besides being the author of the great The Last Unicorn, and the fun I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons.

This standalone is inspired by a song the author wrote. He is also a lyricist and screenwriter (he co-wrote the Lord of the Rings classic animation that we love from our childhood).

The song speaks of three unique women who arrive at an inn and the plot is quite epic and at the same time contained in space and psychological exploration rather than going on a rushed physical journey. It explores gender for example one of the women is actually a man and she goes to bed with another character to wake in the morning surprised with the transformation

The entire book has a panoply of themes, wit, lessons, and life values.

Quite complete with the non-linear story and the way that the author makes all POVs to feel like the main plot. Also this author does not write within tropes, expected formulas or parameters.

Quote; will update this post with my fav quote here

With a great cast and multiple POVs, we follow each one's situation, purpose, and actions. Some actions seem simple but they develop into greater consequences and an epic climax.

Sacrifice, love, loss, bitterness...

What is the book about? A master wizard has a great passion for his student but knows he must be defeated, this student only wishes to be powerful enough to surpass the master and do terrible things. It's also about a simple young man who goes on a journey to find out what happened to the young woman he loves, the one who drowned but doesn't remember for she is now resurrected but incomplete. It is also the story of a Innkeeper that if he knew what was going to transpire in his Inn he would have tried harder to keep those three away. It is also the story of a fox who is more than the eye can see.

There are companion short stories that will give an extra layer to this book (Giant Bones) a volume in the same world as this one.

"Is there anything you fear, Tikat? (...) "Tell me what you fear. (....)

"Nothing, nothing. Before... before, I was afraid of everything in the world, everything that had the least chance of parting Lukassa and me. Now the worst that could have happened just happened, and there is nothing left for me to fear. (...) I truly wish there were. I don't think it can be right, to fear nothing at all."

"You see, the thing you are most afraid of is always the thing that happens - always."

"We make it happen (...) though I could not tell you how."