So we were hanging out at our local bookstore a couple weeks ago and the cover on this book jumped out at me as a little different and the back looked interesting so I decided to give it a chance.
Here are the basics: Sing the Four Quarters is the first of a quartet of books by Tanya Huff, originally published in 1994. The book is a fantasy novel which follows some of the more established tropes of the genre, with the main distinguishing factor being the magicians are musicians. This being said, it is a well written book that moves at a good pace with decently flushed out and developed characters. On the downside, the world building is not that robust and so aspects of the world (i.e. it is always winter and every country feels roughly like roughly the same place with different clothes) can get stuck in your craw if you notice them.
On the whole, the book is worth the read – especially as a airport read – but don’t expect anything deep. The same cannot be said of the remaining books in the series which are plodding, uninteresting, and somewhat recursive. They go downhill fast.