The Music Mage

The Ravanmark Saga #1

by Sandra Miller

Art is power,
Music is magic,
And no one is what they seem.

When powerful and charismatic painter Lord Malrec brings newly-unemployed music teacher Alannys Gale to Ravanmark, it seems to be the answer to her prayers.  She's had all she can stand of the power plays and politics at the middle school where she used to work.
But Lord Malrec has plans for her...plans that may not be as noble as they appear. The more she sees of Ravanmark, the more it looks like she may have jumped from the frying pan into the proverbial fire--power plays and politics surround her from the first breath she draws there.  And it looks like the biggest player of all...may be her.
In a land with magic whose true power is shrouded in the mists of time, one ordinary woman must save the world...to save herself.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Amazon, Ebooks

531 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Sandra Miller is an author. She's that girl you knew in school who always had a notebook in one hand and a pen in the other, and spent every spare second experimenting with ways to put them together.

She's also a violinist who has performed with the Las Vegas Symphony Orchestra, the UNLV Symphony Orchestra, and played in the band for a Kenny Rogers show. She's done productions of Oklahoma!, Le Nozze di Figaro, Madame Butterfly, and too many others to list. She's been playing and teaching music for nearly thirty years.

Her fiction works have previously appeared in Alienskin Magazine, Long Story Short, and Bewildering Stories.

Her poetry has appeared at Storyhouse, and one of her poems won the Grand Prize in the FictionAddiction 2002 poetry contest.

Her non-fiction articles have appeared in Writer's Journal, Music for the Love of It, Antiques & Collecting Magazine, Writing World, Vision for Writers, and Writer's Forum, a Writer's Digest publication.

She can be found on the web at www.sandra-miller.com

Reviews

[Tammie]

I think I'm going to abandon this one, at least for now. It just isn't holding my interest and I just can't take it seriously. The main character doesn't make any sense to me. One minute she wants something, the next minute she doesn't. And there was a part where a guy comes in through the window to rescue her that just felt really cartoonish to me. For now I'm not going to rate it. Maybe I'll pick it up again some time when I'm really bored.

[Nick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok. This book was infuriating. Partly because I had such high hopes for a musical approach to a magic system, and partly because of the idiotic things that the characters did throughout the course of the book.

First, a quick summary: The Music Mage is about Alannys, a music teacher, who is transported to a world where musical ability (and, in fact, all art) produces magical effects. Musical ability is extremely rare and also taboo because of the power that can be wielded. A maniacal bad guy is trying to capture her for nefarious purposes, and she meets a handsome prince in the process.

I considered not finishing the book about seven times, but each time plowed ahead anyway. The actual writing was fine, as was much of the dialog and character development. However, I have major problems with the way the premise of the book was executed, especially being a musician. I also have problems with characters making decisions and doing things that are just irrational.

Major spoilers ahead.


So, the premise of this book is that singing and music in general are magic. Fine. We have a music teacher transported to this world. Ok. This promises to be interesting, especially because she is an expert in all things music - singing, many different instruments, music theory, etc. Allanys is told that music is magical and she accidentally stops it from raining by singing "Rain, Rain Go Away."

Any rational person at this point would sing! A lot! To figure out what she could do, to understand her limitations, to see if particular approaches to singing yielded better results, to see if old nursery rhymes hold power, to see if she could sing-song anything she wanted or if it had to rhyme... It actually pained me that Alannys made it stop raining accidentally and then didn't sing at all again for several days. I am a dorky computer programmer and amateur musician, and I sing, whistle, or hum several times a day without even thinking about it.

So the bad guy, Malrec, who called Alannys into this world through a painting (more art-magic) starts to charm and seduce her. They go on a carriage ride into the forest, then for a walk, and then he tries to rape her. She doesn't sing. She doesn't really know what she can do (see above rant). However, she threatens to sing, and this stops the bad guy. He leaves her in the forest. So she's alone, and cold, and wearing a dinner gown. It is dark, so she tries singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" but realizes that she's in a forest and can't see the stars. Bummer. So she gives up!!! AAAAAAAARRRRRRGHHHH!!!!!! She just wanders in the forest. How about singing a song about a campfire? Or singing a song about a torch? Or a bunch of fireflies? Or a Flashlight? Or a winter coat? Or a tent? Or just being warm? Or on the beach? Or that it is sunny outside? Or that there is a magical path through the forest that she can follow? At that point in the book I thought of dozens of things that might be able to help her, but she just wanders in the dark. Like, I get it if none of that stuff would work for some reason, or the author didn't want them to work for some reason, but seriously - why would she not try any of that?

So Alannys is wandering through the woods, and happens upon the horse groomsman from Malrec's castle. He gives her a ride, and they start going back to the castle. He tells her this, and she says "no I don't want to go there." But she goes anyway. Back to the place with the man who just tried to rape her. I think that is some pretty bad logic.

Anyway, all of this takes place in the first 20% of the book. I can't believe that I kept reading after this point, but I did. I finished the book. She meets some friends, has some adventures, and... stuff. Every chapter contained similar terrible decision-making, and also had me flummoxed as to why she didn't sing.

Much later in the book, Alannys decides that she needs to go back and get her violin from her world, because it is her favorite type of instrument to play, and this world doesn't have instruments because music is rare and forbidden. Her and her friends sneak back into the bad guy's castle, they use a painting to send her back to her world, and she goes and gets it. AND THEN NEVER PLAYS IT THE REST OF THE DAMN BOOK. We have no idea what musical instruments are capable of in this magic system. She never even cracks the case open! For like 200 more pages in the book! The other thing that kills me about this is that an instrument can be made out of anything. You don't need a fine violin to make music... You need a stick and a pot. Or a hollow tube. Or a bottle that you can blow across. Or a friggin kazoo (easy to make)! Or a horn. Or a string with a hollow gourd. Or just your hands clapping. Etc., etc.


At the end of the day, this infuriated me so much because I really loved the idea of the premise. If the magic system was different and didn't involve music I honestly would have given this 3 stars instead of 1. The character development and plot were fine, and lots of the dialog was good. I liked the two princes, and I liked a lot of the friends that Alannys meets along the way. But I just couldn't get into the story because of the way that Alannys did not explore her magic powers. She sings like eight times in the whole book, and that is a travesty.

[Jana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two and one half stars. The beginning of this tale is quite well written and sucked me in as I imagined myself in Alannys' place. There is much potential here and I wanted very badly to love it. And I liked it, most of the time, but there are too many places where I rolled my eyes and skimmed. Several times I found myself thinking "Reeeeallyyy? Seriously??" The story often bogs down in conversations. Ms. Miller writes conversations well, but too many times I felt we could get the same information in half the pages.

What I loved: I'm a musician and a music teacher, I teach k-12, and I'm a vocalist. I can confirm Alannys' job situation is sadly all too real. Those of us with administrators that support (non-marching band) fine arts are the lucky ones. The premise of art being power and a song can break the world--I mean, what musician wouldn't jump at that? Especially in Alannys' situation? Oh, yes, please, sign me up!

What I did not love/got on my nerves: I wish Alannys would decide what she's going to do and to be. One minute she's using her brain, the next she's a wimp. One minute she wants the truth, the next she wants to "hide from it as long as I can". She goes to great lengths to retrieve her violin, yet once she does, we never see it again? What’s up with that?

And she’s not the only one. In one moment, another character suddenly goes from blinding murderous rage to compliantly preaching tolerance. Boom. Just like that. Reeeeallyyy?

I am intrigued just enough to perhaps give the next one a go. Maybe.

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Music teacher Alannys is transported to another world where music is powerful magic, landing her amidst power plays and court intrigue... and SO MUCH MELODRAMA. Ugh, the melodrama. Stop it already. Between that and the endless overwrought dialogue it was impossible to take this tale seriously. Neither the plot nor the protagonist seemed to be able to make up their minds about where they were going, bogged down by the aforementioned ridiculously dramatic yet tedious dialogue and plot threads that went nowhere, such as that time Alannys went to all that trouble to return home and retrieve her precious all-important violin that was then never seen, much less played, again. I couldn't wait for the whole thing to be over.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book reads more like a melodrama rather than a novel. I actually found myself looking for marginal notations telling me when to hiss and boo.

[R J Royer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still a fun time

I really do enjoy this book. It is a good time even though it does have issues, see later. I really enjoyed our hero adjacent characters a lot more than I expected though I think that is because they are very easy to follow. Even the villan has a strong sense of who they are and what they are doing. A good cast of characters all over.

Now for the not so good. Our hero is a bit of a whiner. She starts out captured in a cell with "no way out" and returns to the same cell half way through the book but escapes on her own in a way she could have at any point earlier. I would like to think that this is because she grows as a character but she then returns to whining about being a hero. It makes me wonder why you threaten the villan with being the hero then complain about being one.

[Amie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok I'm no English major but even I know this book was very poorly written. I think it's a good story if only you get past the many grammatical errors.

[bex · Rating 4 out of 5]

More is left unanswered than I like, but it surprised me with a better ending than I thought it would manage as it neared. Satisfied enough to want more. Beyond that, it was very good, although one known aspect of talent was ignored too long in a critical situation. 4*

Unfortunately this is one of the books where Amazon refused to sync my notes and highlights properly. :-(

[JWinter · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is A LOT of drama! It starts to overpower the plot at times.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is a great book to read of the story line it tell about music is power to heart and mind, just being passion into the story itself

[Teresa M. Drake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Riveting!

Very good story line! Couldn't stop reading this book! Read along to see what will happen with the Lady Alannys of Gale and the Crown Prince Dorramon.

[Suzan Retzkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Music Mage magic

Fascinating, fast moving, fast reading, I couldn't put it down. The characters are well written and well developed. Now rushing on to Book 2

[Destinee Skaggs]

loved the main character. throughout the book she was nothing but courageous, smart, and powerful.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started this book because I had run out of any other. I didn't expect much and was plesently surprised. The characters had depth and the story line was compeling. Fun the read.