Aug 02 2007
Soul Song by Marjorie M. Liu
Soul Song by Marjorie M. Liu
Mass Market Paperback, 336 pages
ISBN: 0843957662
Available Now
Retail Price $6.99
Marjorie Liu is known for taking readers on journeys to exotic locales such as Asia, Russia, Las Vegas, and now… Canada.
Hey, when Marjorie Liu takes you to Canada, it’s exotic. She brings a setting to life the way few authors can. When she makes the heroine walk through a bad neighborhood, you urge her to quicken her pace. When she imprisons a character in a filthy cell, you gag in sympathy. She always manages to find that one detail—often an uncomfortable one—that makes the setting real.
Ms. Liu can never be accused of flinching from unpleasantness. Not only are her characters immersed in ugliness from the moment of introduction, but even the good guys do ugly things.
M’cal is a Krackeni (a much more impressive-sounding handle than merman) whose song can manipulate life and bring death. Enslaved by a witch, compelled to collect souls for her dining pleasure, he detests what he has become, but even death is no escape for him. He has lost all hope, until the witch for the first time commands him to bring her a specific soul.
Kitala Bell is a gifted musician whose song resonates with power, but she also has another gift—gruesome visions of death. When she chooses to warn the victim of her most recent vision, her interference brings Kit into the line of fire, as well. She instinctively trusts the man who saves her life, even after he tells her he was sent to kill her.
The last thing M’cal wants to do is hurt Kit, but his wants are meaningless as long as the witch is pulling his strings. When he is compelled to carry out the task he was given, Kit’s instinctive defense not only saves her soul but shatters the witch’s hold over M’cal—at least temporarily.
United by a song only they can hear, Kit and M’cal must learn to combine their powers to save each other and defeat an enemy that threatens much more than their own future.
(Gah. This is almost like writing a query letter. Agonizing, but good practice, I suppose.)
Another thing I like about Ms. Liu’s storytelling, in addition to her you-are-here settings and her carefully crafted mythology, is the villain hierarchy:
- Street thugs and corrupt cops, greedy and violent but easily vanquished.
- The wicked witch and her mutant henchman, despicably cruel, persistent as a bad dream, but ultimately displaying a drop of humanity that makes their behavior comprehensible, if no more forgivable.
- Finally, those that are purely evil and simply terrifying, who may be banished for now but promise to return stronger than ever.
It’s that layering of danger that sets up future stories in which everything is going to go to hell—literally.
Ms. Liu became an autobuy for me when I read Tiger Eye, and Soul Song ensures that I will continue to impatiently eagerly await her next release.
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