The Time of the Transference

Spellsinger #6

by Alan Dean Foster

There's no place like home...

It was a pretty good life for a spellsinger from L.A. He'd battled demons, fought deadly Plated Folk, even met a socialist dragon and survived. Now Jon-Tom was quite happy to settle into domestic bliss with the fiery Talea, study magic, and practice spellsinging on his duar. But the magic instrument is broken when Jon-Tom protects the wizard Clothahump from thieves and he must set out across the Glittergeist Sea to find the one person who can fix it. With the irrepressible Mudge the Otter as a travelling companion, only the unexpected can happen. But cannibal muskrats, ogres, and a fierce pirate king parrot must seem ordinary indeed when Jon-Tom finds a way back to Earth - and he must choose which world is home.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Humor, Science Fiction, High Fantasy, Magic

283 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 1986

About the author

Bestselling science fiction writer Alan Dean Foster was born in New York City in 1946, but raised mainly in California. He received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA in 1968, and a M.F.A. in 1969. Foster lives in Arizona with his wife, but he enjoys traveling because it gives him opportunities to meet new people and explore new places and cultures. This interest is carried over to his writing, but with a twist: the new places encountered in his books are likely to be on another planet, and the people may belong to an alien race.

Foster began his career as an author when a letter he sent to Arkham Collection was purchased by the editor and published in the magazine in 1968. His first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, introduced the Humanx Commonwealth, a galactic alliance between humans and an insectlike race called Thranx. Several other novels, including the Icerigger trilogy, are also set in the world of the Commonwealth. The Tar-Aiym Krang also marked the first appearance of Flinx, a young man with paranormal abilities, who reappears in other books, including Orphan Star, For Love of Mother-Not, and Flinx in Flux.

Foster has also written The Damned series and the Spellsinger series, which includes The Hour of the Gate, The Moment of the Magician, The Paths of the Perambulator, and Son of Spellsinger, among others. Other books include novelizations of science fiction movies and television shows such as Star Trek, The Black Hole, Starman, Star Wars, and the Alien movies. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a bestselling novel based on the Star Wars movies, received the Galaxy Award in 1979. The book Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990. His novel Our Lady of the Machine won him the UPC Award (Spain) in 1993. He also won the Ignotus Award (Spain) in 1994 and the Stannik Award (Russia) in 2000.

Reviews

[Amie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Time of the Transference by Alan Dean Foster continues his imaginative series with plenty of creativity and adventure, but it does stumble a bit with a few plot holes and abrupt jumps that leave some fundamentals unexplained. Despite these hiccups, I still really enjoyed it, and the series as a whole remains cool and engaging. Fans of Foster’s world-building and quirky ideas will find plenty to love, even if this installment feels a little uneven.

[Meggies · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jon-Tom ist am Boden zerstört. Seine geliebte Duar, ein gitarrenähnliches Musikinstrument, mit der er Banngesang betreiben kann, ist kaputt. Laut dem Hexer Clodsahamp gibt es nur einen, der sie reparieren kann. Doch dieser wohnt weiter entfernt hinter dem Glittergeist-Meer. Also macht sich Jon-Tom auf den Weg, natürlich wieder begleitet von seinem treuen Freund Mudge.
Unterwegs warten wieder etliche Abenteuer. Aber Jon-Tom und auch Mudge finden etwas, dass ihre Zukunft für immer verändern wird.

Der sechste Teil fängt sehr traurig an, denn Jon-Tom zerstört versehentlich seine Duar, die er dringend zum Bannsingen benötigt. Klar ist dann schon, das nur einer die Fähigkeit besitzt, sie zu reparieren und dieser natürlich sehr weit weg wohnt.
Jon-Tom geht schweren Herzens, ist er doch frisch verheiratet mit seiner Talea. Diese ist nicht gerade begeistert, dass Jon-Tom geht, doch sie weiß, dass er gehen muss, weil er seine Duar zum Zaubern braucht.
Der Weg ist weit und Jon-Tom weiß, dass die ein oder andere Gefahr auf ihn und Mudge lauert.

Und es kommt, wie es endlich mal kommen muss. Jon-Tom findet einen Zugang zu seiner Welt und steht nun vor einer großen Entscheidung: entweder geht er zu seiner geliebten Talea zurück oder er beginnt in seiner Welt wieder mit seinem alten Leben.

Band 6 als (erstmaligen) Abschluss der Bannsänger-Reihe konnte mich nicht so sehr überzeugen. Es folgt ein Abenteuer nach dem anderen, es gibt fast keine Ruhepause. Aus allen Abenteuern kommen unsere Freunde, die sich um den Waschbären Vorsicht und die Otterdame Weegee erweitert, mit Leichtigkeit heraus. Dann auch noch der zufällige Fund des Verbindungsweges zu Jon-Toms Welt.

Es kommt mir fast so vor, als wäre dem Autor die Idee ausgegangen und er hat verzweifelt nach einem vorläufigen Abschluss der Reihe gesucht.

Ohne große Anstrengung kommen die Freunde aus den Gefahren heraus. Dies hat mich zugegebenermaßen sehr gestört, da hier weniger mehr gewesen wäre. Weniger Entführungen, Festhaltungen, Gefangennahmen oder Verfolgungen, dafür eine ausgereiftere Flucht, Befreiung oder Rettung.

Frischen Wind haben der Waschbär Vorsicht und das quirlige, aber sehr kluge Ottermädchen Weegee in die Geschichte gebracht. Die Beziehung zwischen Mudge und Weegee ist herzerfrischend und lebhaft, wie es bei Frischverliebten eben so ist.

Jon-Tom muss gegen Ende des Buches so einige Entscheidungen treffen. Manche kann ich nachvollziehen, andere wiederum nicht.

Der Schreibstil ist gewohnt flüssig und so kommt man auch gut durch die Geschichte durch, doch durch die unzähligen Gefahren wird das Lesevergnügen geschmälert.

Dieser Teil wird als letzter Teil der Bannsänger-Reihe angesehen, obwohl noch zwei weitere Bände folgen. Hier geht es jedoch um eine andere Hauptfigur, während Jon-Tom nur noch eine Nebenrolle spielt.

Fazit:
Ein vorläufiger Abschluss der Bannsänger-Reihe.

[Chrissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as a gift, having not read the rest of the Spellsinger series. Despite this, the story of Jon-Tom and his companion Mudge as they journey to repair the instrument that allows Jon-Tom to access and manipulate magic in this world of sentient animals separate (although loosely connected) to the world-as-we-know-it and former home of Jon-Tom himself was much easier to follow and understand than this sentence. The picaresque hike-with-adventure plot provided a good glimpse of the world although as types of adventures (pirates! cannibals!) began to repeat themselves, the world started to feel a little same-old/same-old.

The companion characters were my favorite part, particularly the raccoon. His equanimity--here we are, guess here is where we'll be--matched my reading.

By the end of the book, however, I was starting to agree with Mudge, who found the continual escapes and misadventures hard to believe in. There was very little in this book regarding Jon-Tom's desire to return to the world of his birth and, as a result, I found the ending didn't fit the rest of the story. Jon-Tom's casual abandonment of Talea, after a lengthy series of adventures in which he seldom thought of her, was infuriating. The resolution to this part of the story just made me grit my teeth. This book also featured little competence on Jon-Tom's part and a good dose of luck. On the whole, he was not a character to inspire me to pick up other books in this series, although his companions were, by and large, entertaining and the world itself was interesting and worth another look.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

8/19/18 - 6/10

Book 6 is yet another adventure story with a slightly more complex plot (albeit based on some heavy handed plot detailing) and more overbearing and unrealistic relationships. This one was a bit more interesting than the past couple and it ended well.

Some passages I liked:
Location: 237
“Anyone is capable of anything,” Clothahump informed him sternly. “There is nothing that can be imagined that cannot be done given enough time, devotion, intelligence, and blind luck.”

Location: 969
I never drink to excess, mate. Me body don’t know the meani’ of the word. I just drink till I’m full. Then I piss it out and start over. So I never reach excess, wot?

Location: 2,537
This was a different kind of magic, ancient and simple, as alien to Jon-Tom as Republican economic policy.

[Danie Ware · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must be thirty years since I read this series, and they've stood the test of time remarkably well (which not every book does). They've definitely been a comfort-read, for which I make no apologies, and it's been interesting to see, with twenty-twenty hindsight, how much effect they had on Ecko, with some of the concepts and ideas reverberating down the intervening time.

If you've never read them, and you like your adventure fantasy, these are quests-with-difference, riffing on the trope, with a wonderful cast of characters and a great sense of humour, plus some great tunes thrown in. What's not to like?

[Peter Curd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the last of the original Spellsinger books and actually I enjoyed it quite a lot. Some of the story didn't make much sense, and the entire ending is just mad but I came out of it with a positive feeling. The onward marching plot from the first few books is now well and truly replaced with "books in a bottle" where a fresh calamity is created and resolved within one book. This was one of the more believable plots, although some of the sub plots make very little sense - in typical style for the Spellsinger series.

There continues to be a seemingly never ending cast of new characters and species to introduce but for once I wasn't entire put off by any of the characters.

As a finale of a series it's disappointing but considering two more books were published I assume Foster felt the same way and perhaps his second chance at a finale will be better.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

The characters are familiar friends now, and the stories are a not unpleasant diversion but the saga kind of just continues as before? I guess i'm compelled to finish the whole series waiting for that big finish but not sure that it is coming, Still I would have to say, This is a good read.

[Dumitru · Rating 5 out of 5]

A

[Anne Patkau · Rating 4 out of 5]

A.D. Foster is an easy read fave. Cannibals, flying horse, love, pirates. To fix magic duar, man and Mudge cross ocean, jungle, accidentally mundane world.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

/

[Bill Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jon-Tom the Spellsinger has an unfortunate accident and breaks his instrument. So he sets off to the only magician who could repair it - another adventure across the world. Entertaining reading!

[Nai Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom vs the real world. Gotta love it and gotta hate it. Just take it for what it is and enjoy the silly little thing.

[David Sarkies · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jon-Tom discovers his home
4 February 2012

Well, this is the last of the Spellsinger books that I have read, though another two have been released since, however I am highly doubtful that I will ever read them. It turns out that Jon-Tom did settle down with Talea, though she is portrayed as the loyal, subservient wife who stays at home for years while Jon-Tom is out travelling the world. It is unclear why this is the case since she joined him on his original adventure and one would think that she would continue to travel with him.

In this story Jon-Tom's instrument breaks and he must get it repaired. It appears that the Duar is the only instrument that will allow Jon-Tom to use his magic. However, as one would expect with most fantasy novels, a simple trip to a repair shop never ends up being a simple trip (and I doubt anybody would bother reading an entire novel about a trip to a repair shop – hey, that's actually a pretty good idea for a short story) and he ends up being caught up in another adventure.

Jon-Tom manages to return to Earth, but the problem is that he brings a lot of others back with him, so while he is 'home' he has serious problems that he must clean up, and it is suggested that some of these characters end up positioning themselves to continue with their nefarious deeds. This can lead to an interesting story, particularly since I like the concept of the evil outsider coming to Earth and bringing ideas that are foreign to the Earthlings, and playing on their ignorance.

There is also the idea as the fantasy quest being the coming of age and the discovery of ones own character. This is an important aspect I believe as it is an idea that sits behind a lot of the fantasy novels of today. While Tolkein is a story of a quest, it is not so much a coming of age story but rather of how a little person is capable of great feats. Many of the other stories (this included) has the young boy set out on a quest, and in the course of the quest comes to understand himself, and returns an adult. This is also similar with those stories where the protagonist is taken from Earth as a boy to return a man. This is not really the case here, though while Jon-Tom does come of age, he also comes to understand the concept of home. While throughout the stories he believes that his home is in Los Angeles, it is only when he does return that he realises that Earth is no longer home (particularly since he goes from being a big fish back to being a little fish).

It is an interesting idea, the concept of home. In many cases we believe home is where he have grown up and spent most of our time, but we can also feel like we are alien even in our home town. Sometimes our true home is not our home town. I always remember the saying of Christ about how 'a prophet is without honour in his home town'. It may be home in a way, but in our home town we are also put into a mould from which we are unable to escape. Many of us fear change and prefer the status quo, and if it means that a small person must remain a small person then so be it. Sometimes we do need to break out of that small town mentality, and sometimes it will require us to literally fly away (as happened with Jon-Tom) so that we may finally come to our own (rather than remain in that mould that others insist that we remain).

[Remy G · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sixth Spellsinger story by Alan Dean Foster opens with thieves invading the turtle wizard Clothahump’s tree, with these bandits dealt with, albeit at the expense of Jon-Tom’s duar, key to his spellsinging abilities, being broken. Thus, Jon-Tom fetches the otter Mudge for another quest to Strelakat Mews, in the jungle south of the city of Chejiji, well across the ocean. Whilst on the journey, Clothahump suggests Jon-Tom stop by the shop of Izfan ab-Akmanjiandor, nicknamed Dizzy Izzy, in Yarrowl, where Jon-Tom finds a less powerful instrument aiding his spellsinging, a suar.

On the sea, pirates attack the ship Jon-Tom and Mudge take, with the latter meeting a female otter named Weegee who is rescued. A parrot captain named Captain Kamaulk leads the pirates, with Jon-Tom and his companions ultimately deciding to hike to Chejiji by foot, and taking refuge in a cave where they find signs of Jon-Tom’s home world of Earth. The comrades eventually find themselves in Earth, namely Las Vegas, where they hope to rescue Kamaulk from becoming a meal. A pegasus named Teyva, who is ironically afraid of flight, plays a minor role in the story.

The novel concludes with a meeting with the repairman who can fix Jon-Tom’s duar, Couvier Coulb, an epilogue occurring a few years afterward. Overall, this is another good entry of the Spellsinger series, sure to appeal to audiences such as the furry fandom given its endearing animal characters, along with its occasional sense of humor and continuity nods to prior entries. Not all contemporary audiences, however, will get the references to classic rock music, but regardless, those who enjoyed the book’s predecessors will most likely enjoy the sixth entry, which stands out even today.

[Lance Schonberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Domestic bliss? Happily ever after? Not likely for poor Jon-Tom.

New friends and old enemies and trying to get the duar fixed. Oh, and a passageway back home that looks like it might be permanent, but let’s get business taken care of first, no?

This was the last of the Spellsinger books for a long time and seemed like it would be the last one until I ran across Son of Spellsinger while working at the (now long-closed) World’s Biggest Bookstore in 1993. I had (and still do) this one as part of the three-in-one SF Book Club edition, Spellsinger's Scherzo. For most of the intervening years, it looked to be the last book and considering the neatly wrapped up happily ever after ending for all of the majors, that seemed fine.

And, of course, there were plenty of rereads in my teen years.

You could stop with the series here and be satisfied. Don’t, but you could.

[Ensiform · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of the human in the magic animal world. The humor was well-placed, the characters good. But this time the females were domestic – Talea didn’t go with Jon-Tom on his adventure, Weegee tries to “Tame” Mudge – but the worst was that Jon-Tom left for years and Talea kept house for him, waiting alone. That’s stupid, and not at all like her original character. Enjoyable anyway, though I hate it when authors try to impose their own insecurities and fantasies on their characters.

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

As another spellsinger adventure this works. However, as a way of concluding the series it doesn't do so well. Talea acts very out of character and doesn't appear much. The choice of which world Jon-Tom wants to live in isn't very dramatic as he can go back and forth with relative ease. I find the main conflict itself to be somewhat stupid, as breaking the duar means there isn't much spellsinging in this book.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as a teenager.

Back then I read sci-fi and fantasy almost exclusively, and this author (ADF) was one of my favorites; in particular, his Spellsinger series.

Don't know if I would like this book the same if I re-read it as an adult, but in my memory it was an entertaining read.

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the characters, and their world and hope I get the chance to read the story again and/or to read more within the series.

My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.

[Jami · Rating 3 out of 5]

read this series in high school. I'm sure I liked it much more then than I would now.

[Velvetink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Donated to Smith Family charity March 2015

[Emilyr753 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice new twist in this one was a brief return to JonTom's world. It contained a satisfying ending to the series.

[Keil Hunsaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely enjoyed this one and the ending seemed to pretty much wrap things up. That is until Son of Spellsinger. or whatever it is called

[Ngutierrez31 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly enjoyable as always. I read these books without haste so that I may really enjoy my imagination.

[Arito Sato · Rating 5 out of 5]

日本語版

困りものの魔法楽器
http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/A...

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always find these books fun. The characters are good and I like the music references mixed in with magic. And I always try to work out how the song chosen will backfire.

[Dave Peticolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The final book in some series or another.

[Chicktrisch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not really draw my interest.

[Dodekuv · Rating 3 out of 5]

Time to put this book set to rest, not going to read the other two, Books one and two and five worth reading. Imo skip the rest :)

[Peter Coad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fun romp by a master of fantasy