“There is a song you dare not sing – a melody that you dare not play, a concerto that you dare not hear: It is called a Song of Power. It is a gateway to another world – a gate that will lock behind you as you pass, barring you from the Earth forever. Resist at all cost. For it is a world of great danger and great beauty – and it is not good to be human in the Realm of the Sidhe.”
Title: The Infinity Concerto
Series: Songs of Earth and Power
Author: Greg Bear
Page Count: 323
Genre: Science Fiction Fantasy
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Date Read: October 6th, 2022
| To be honest, I didn’t really know much about The Infinity Concerto or it’s author prior to this read. This ended up being the buddy read for the month of October with a group of friends. When it was initially selected a couple of months ago, I wasn’t really interested. Fast forward a couple of months and realizing I had time to squeeze it into my TBR this month, I dove right in. I will add to my initial lack of interest and say that continued the first chapter or two as I was struggling to find my connection with this book. I’m not a huge music or poetry fan and that seemed to be the focal point here. I also struggled with the writing style at the beginning. I ended up describing it as reminding me of the old text based adventure games like Zork. Where you enter a room and everything in the room is described in short sentences to let you know where you stand and what you can do next. With that being said, the story itself did begin to grow on me and the world expanded a bit more into the fantastical. And wow did it become quite fantastical. There is even a chapter that I described as thinking Greg Bear must have been tripping on acid when writing at least that portion. By the end I definitely ended up enjoying this read much more than I had anticipated. Our group was a mixed bag as well. It’s certainly not a read for everyone. The character development wasn’t bad at all. In fact I feel it was actually quite well done. I just had a difficult time caring about the characters for awhile. It seemed specifically targeted to a specific reader perhaps. I’m not sure. The pacing was solid. There were a couple of slow parts but I think this is rather common for the time period this book was written in. Which is one of the reasons I was hesitant on joining this buddy read in the first place. My older written book reads are very hit or miss. But I feel the author did keep the story progressing well. The world building was probably my favorite part because it was really what sucked me in. As I mentioned though, this world and the story may not be for everyone as it is very weird and trippy at times. But it kept things unique enough for me to gain interest and ultimately wish to continue the series. I think fans of authors such as Robert Asprin or Piers Anthony might enjoy this series as I have a couple series from both of these authors on my shelf and it kind of gives me similar vibes. If you want something out of the ordinary into that wild and fantastical vintage story feel this might be right up your alley! I do plan on continuing this series with the Serpent Mage hopefully by the end of this year. World Building 4.5/5 Pacing 4/5 Character Development 4/5 |
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