Singer of Souls by Adam Stemple
Singer of Souls
Adam Stemple
Tor Books
2005
FT rating 8.3
Douglas, a young drug addict and talented musician, embarks on a journey to get himself clean and sober. This journey leads across the ocean to Scotland and his grandma McClaren’s home where his struggle to remain clean continues. He is a musician and works the streets of Edinburgh earning his keep with his guitar as a busker. One of the people he played for, a faerie princess named Aine, paid him in the familiar white powder he’d run away from; he couldn’t resist….and the story begins.
The powder wasn’t the heroin he thought it was. Instead, Douglas finds he can now see the “fey” folk; fantasy beings such as elves and bogeys, which are all around during the Fringe festival. They respond to him in great numbers and actions and, as expected, cause him nothing but grief. A bogey, a mischievous little trouble maker, enlists his help to rescue Aine from the grips of a priest whose mission it is to capture and torture the fey folk. It is through his struggle with addiction and the grief from the fey folk that Douglas comes into his own and finds his true path to himself.
Singer of Souls is not your typical fantasy story. You know the story: guy meets fairy, guy helps fairy, guy has troubles but gets help, guy becomes king. Instead it is an urban type fantasy, which weaves real world problems with fantastical creatures and the problems in faerie world. *As a side note, I refuse to use the terms grunge or noir fantasy here simply because my reviews tend to not be littered with catch phrases to prove how smart I am .* This book is a real world fantasy and has real world problems which twist into other worldly problems. The characters are believable and real, unique and interesting. Douglas’ journey into the faerie world is quite similar to his former heroin addicted life but with much different outcomes. Stemple blends a perfect balance of real world story telling with faerie world heroics and the far from perfect Douglas is a hero you will find yourself rooting for by the end of this marvelous story. It’s hard to believe this is his first solo offering. Gory yet balanced, I would recommend this adult fantasy.
