Songspinners

An alternate eighteenth-century England sets the stage for a lyrical novel by the author of the Tears of Artamon trilogy, "an innovative fantasist" (Asimov's).Young rebel composer Amaru Khassian flees from religious persecution to peaceful Tourmalise. Crippled by horrible burns, he can no longer write down his stirring, seditious musicuntil he meets Orial, a girl with a unique gift that enables her to "hear" the sounds in other people's minds.Khassian's music could inspire his countrymen to overthrow their oppressors. But there is a price on the young composer's head, and it's not long before Acir Korentan, an agent of the brutal regime in Allegonde that has tried to repress Khassian's music, tracks him down.Now Orial is in danger tooand not just from the fanatical agents from Allegonde. As antiquarians uncover mysterious traces of an ancient civilization in Tourmalise, she begins to suffer disturbing and revelatory visions. The...