Songs from the Seashell Archives, Volume 1

Argonia #1-2 omnibus

by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

In the enchanted relm of Argonia, Maggie Brown was a hearthwitch, good at whipping up banquets and starting up fires. But her magic was not much good for tracking down her faery step-sister who'd run away with a gypsy. So she set out with Ching, the talking cat, and Colin Songsmith, a travelling minstrel, to bring back the beautiful Amberwine in Song of Sorcery.

In The Unicorn Creed, the king has made her a princess, and therefore a good catch for the local noble bachelors. Only problem is, she doesn't want to get married. She wants to be with Moonshine, whose Unicorn Creed, as he understands it, forbids him to consort with anyone except a chaste maiden. It's rather a touchy situation, and so Princess Maggie abandons her crown and with Moonshine, she and Colin set out to see if they can find a loophole in Moonshine's creed.

Of course, in the process they have to try to save the land of Argonia again, this time from a were-man, a revolutionary nymph, a town's worth of zombies, an ice worm and an evil wizard.

Contains:
Song of sorcery --
The unicorn creed --

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Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Collections, Adult, Fiction, Unicorns

552 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1987

About the author

Elizabeth Ann Scarborough was born March 23, 1947, and lives in the Puget Sound area of Washington. Elizabeth won a Nebula Award in 1989 for her novel The Healer's War, and has written more than a dozen other novels. She has collaborated with Anne McCaffrey, best-known for creating the Dragonriders of Pern, to produce the Petaybee Series and the Acorna Series.

Reviews

[Ashley Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have the copy that includes volume 1 and 2.
I love the story, though the writing leaves a lot to be desired. It is very clunky and there are so. many. spelling mistakes! So many that I often wondered if they were intentional or not (in fantasy writing, you can never be quite sure!). By "clunky" I mean that often times, entirely different things would be happening from one paragraph to the other, with no explanation of how it happened! For example (a loose example, since I can't remember the exact point in the story), at one point, in the paragraph before, the characters were in different places, then in the next paragraph, they were suddenly together, with dialogue that indicated nothing out of place had happened! It was confusing.
However, I still enjoyed it thoroughly. But I preferred Volume 2.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a quick review. A million years ago when I was twelve I clearly recall checking this book out of the library solely due to the cover illustration. Then I read it and was hooked. Loved it!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used to re-read this volume whenever I was sick when I was in middle school and high school. This isn't for everyone, but is a very fun re-interpretation of fairy tale and fantasy tropes.